Henry Roe Cloud

Henry Roe Cloud
Henry Roe Cloud in 1931
Native name	Wo-Na-Xi-Lay-Hunka (Wonah'ilayhunka)
Born	(1884-12-28)December 28, 1884 Winnebago Reservation
Died	February 9, 1950(1950-02-09) (aged 65) Siletz, Oregon
Nationality	American
Education	Genoa Indian School, Santee Mission School, Mount Hermon Preparatory School
Alma mater	Yale College, BA, psychology and philosophy, 1910; MA, anthropology, 1914, studied sociology at Oberlin College 1910-1911; Bachelor of Divinity degree, Auburn Theological Seminary; ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1913; Doctorate of divinity, Emporia College, 1932.
Occupation	Educator, college administrator, Office of Indian Affairs administrator, Presbyterian minister
Organization	Haskell Institute, Brookings Institution, Office of Indian Affairs
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Bender, a Minnesota Ojibwa (part Chippewa), m. June 12, 1916. Subsequently, they had
Children	Four daughters, Elizabeth Marion (b. 1917), Anne Woisha (b. 1918), Lillian Alberta (b. 1920), and Ramona Clark (b. 1922) and a son with Elizabeth Bender; son Jay Hunter
Parent(s)	Father, Na-Xi-Lay-Hunk-Kay or Nah'ilayhunkay (d. 1896); mother, "Hard-To-See", (d. 1897)
Awards	Indian Achievement Award, 1935

Henry Roe Cloud (December 28, 1884 – February 9, 1950) was a Ho-Chunk Native American, enrolled in the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, who served as an educator, college administrator, U.S. federal government official (in the Office of Indian Affairs), Presbyterian minister, and reformer.

Henry Roe Cloud was born December 28, 1884, a member of the Bird Clan, on the Winnebago Reservation in northeastern Nebraska and was orphaned when his parents died in 1896 and 1897. After his education in a series of government schools, his intellectual ambition, academic performance, and personal qualities brought him in 1901 to the private Mount Hermon Preparatory School (now Northfield Mount Hermon School) in Massachusetts. He financed his education through the school's work-study program and was introduced to the social circles of America's ruling elite. He graduated a salutatorian in 1906 and the school served as his conduit into the Ivy League.

Cloud was the first full-blood Native American to attend Yale University. He graduated with a bachelor of arts (B.A.) in psychology and philosophy from Yale College in 1910 and earned a master of arts (M.A.) degree in anthropology from Yale University in 1914. He was a campus celebrity due to the force of his personality and speaking skills, and in an era when rhetoric was an art, he was especially accomplished, attracting large audiences on campus and in national venues. One measure of his prestige as an undergraduate was being tapped for the Yale senior society, Elihu.

While an undergraduate, Cloud attended a lecture by the missionary, Mary Wickham Roe, a member of a prominent Yankee family involved in evangelical Christian mission work. He established a close relationship with her and her husband, Reverend Dr. Walter C. Roe. The couple adopted him, and he took their surname as his middle name.

From 1910-1911 he studied sociology at Oberlin College. He attended Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, where he earned a bachelor of divinity degree and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1913. He returned to school and received a doctorate of divinity from Emporia College, Kansas in 1932.