The world in which those requirements could be performed had changed dramatically.

Yet his life proved that the tradition had not been meaningless simply because history changed around it.

This is also why the title meant more to Medicine Crow than many of the medals he later received.

American military decorations came from the government he served.

The war-chief honor came from his people.

Both mattered.

They represented different systems of recognition, and Medicine Crow spent much of his life demonstrating that he could belong fully to both without collapsing one into the other.

He could be a decorated American veteran and an Apsáalooke war chief.

He could be an academic anthropologist and a carrier of oral history.

He could honor his elders and teach at universities.