A Crow warrior had entered an enemy position in Europe and taken enemy horses during World War II.

What had sounded like an impossible requirement in the modern age had suddenly become real.

The act also had immediate military value.

Horses used by German troops were transportation.

Removing them denied the enemy resources.

Medicine Crow was not merely performing a private ritual while ignoring his military duty.

The old deed and the modern mission aligned.

That alignment is what makes the story endure.

It is tempting to tell it as a historical coincidence: ancient tradition meets modern war.

But Medicine Crow did not experience Crow culture as ancient in the sense of dead or frozen.