Ravi D. Goel collection on Henry Roe Cloud

Henry Roe Cloud's exact date of birth is in dispute, with some researchers (and Cloud himself) stating that he was most likely born in the winter of 1884, while other researchers state December 28, 1886. He was born in Winnebago, Nebraska. He was the son of Winnebago Indian parents, who died when he was around age 13. Cloud was mainly educated in government Indian schools before attending Mount Hermon School, a private boarding school in Massachusetts. In 1906, he was accepted into Yale College, the first Native American student that openly identified as such to do so. He completed his bachelor of arts in psychology and philosophy in 1910. While at Yale, Cloud met the missionaries Walter Clark and Mary Wickham Roe. They would go on to adopt him and Cloud took Roe as his middle name.

Cloud received his bachelor of divinity degree from Auburn Theological Seminary in New York and was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1913. Afterwards, he completed his master of arts in anthropology at Yale University in 1914. He then founded the Roe Indian Institute in Wichita, Kansas, which combined the then-standard vocational education with study of the Bible and other Christian precepts. In 1928, Cloud co-authored the Meriam Report, which stated that government policy towards Native Americans was ineffective. As a result, multiple reforms were made. In 1931, he began a series of positions within the Office of Indian Affairs, including becoming superintendent of the Haskell Institute in 1933 and assistant supervisor of Indian education-at-large in 1936. Cloud spent the rest of his life advocating for modern education for Indian youth. Cloud was married to Elizabeth Georgian Bender from 1916 until his death. They had four children.