Yet he knew the old standards.

When circumstances unexpectedly brought those standards within reach, he recognized them.

Before the horses came the enemy soldier.

And that encounter revealed something equally important about the kind of war chief Medicine Crow would become.

The German Around The Corner

One of Medicine Crow’s most retold wartime stories began in a small European town during an American attack.

The details vary slightly across later accounts, as wartime stories often do, but the central event remains consistent.

Medicine Crow moved through the town as fighting unfolded around him.

At a gate or corner, he suddenly encountered a German soldier at extremely close range.

There was almost no time to think.