President Barack Obama issued a statement emphasizing the unusual range of Medicine Crow’s life: scholar, veteran, cultural historian, decorated soldier, and Crow war chief.

The presidential tribute recalled the war paint beneath his uniform and the eagle feather beneath his helmet.

It mentioned the Bronze Star, the French Légion d’honneur, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Then it placed special emphasis on the title given by Medicine Crow’s own people.

That order of recognition was appropriate.

The federal government had honored him late in life.

The Crow tradition had shaped him from the beginning.

Medicine Crow’s funeral and the public mourning around his death marked the end of a remarkable personal connection to nineteenth-century oral history.

The boy who had listened to White Man Runs Him was gone.

One more direct bridge to people who had lived through the Little Bighorn era had disappeared.