The complete story requires all of those qualities.

This is why Medicine Crow’s legacy fits uneasily inside the modern language of “badass history,” even though his life contains episodes that attract exactly that kind of attention.

Calling him fearless or legendary can be flattering, but it can also flatten the moral intelligence of his life.

Medicine Crow was interesting not because he behaved like a character in an action film.

He was interesting because he carried a deep cultural framework into situations where the easy choice and the honorable choice were not always the same.

The War Chief Who Shared A Cigarette With His Prisoner

The image of Medicine Crow sitting with the German soldier he had just overpowered deserves to remain beside the image of him riding away with horses.

The two scenes tell the story together.

In one, he fulfilled a traditional deed through force.

In the other, he recognized the humanity of the person beneath him.