Some believed treaty relationships created obligations that existed alongside, rather than underneath, American citizenship.

Some defended a homeland they understood as Native long before it became American.

These motives could coexist.

A man did not need to approve of every federal policy in order to fight Nazi Germany.

He did not need to forget reservation dispossession in order to defend his family from a global threat.

He did not need to stop being Apsáalooke in order to wear an American uniform.

Medicine Crow embodied this layered loyalty unusually clearly.

His own family history reached into conflicts between Native nations and the U.S.

Army.

White Man Runs Him had served as a Crow scout during a U.S. campaign against Lakota and Northern Cheyenne forces.