boers. he had a long military career, he fought in desert storm and was in kosovo, he went to iraq, but his recruiter was his mother. she was a soldier. and he said when i first met him he said yeah, it was fun. here i am, i get recruited by my mother, end up in the same barracks she was in, in the same unit, and then i go through basic training, it was so damn tough but i kept saying if my mother could have done it can do it too. so, he went off to iraq on several tours, and he was a combat photographer. thanks to him we have all of these wonderful pictures of this pow-wow you're going to hear about. if you go outside there is a little exhibit area because our other honoree, sergeant debra

mooney, 45th infantry, was in iraq in combat zone and came up with the idea of having a pow-wow for the soldiers. her battalion was 80% indian. in a combat zone she organized this pow-wow and they had to make their own gear and they got friends at home to send stuff in. chuck saw a flyer and said well, i have four-day leave coming. instead i'll go to that pow-wow. he said there he was in this truck heading to this pow-wow and the truck came under attack. he is dodging bullets, doing this all to go to a pow-wow, i must be nuts. the fellows made the gear, the drum is out there. they took an oil drum, got the 45th insignias carved in it. they used a canvas from a cot.

and she said we weren't supposed to take any equipment and wreck it. we had to use material that was destroyed. she said that canvas on that cot was destroyed after we cut the hole to make the drum cover. here they are. i have a recording, i don't know if they are up there. good. he'll turn it on. if you want to hear what that drum sounded like. we even have audio from that pow-wow. can you put up the sound a little bit. so that's that canvas covered drum. [ chanting ] this was 18 war zone. they weren't supposed to be in

large groups because the enemy would see that and throw rockets at them. they pulled it off and no one got hurt. one of their soldiers had been killed so the parents sent the shawl with the soldier's name on it so they had an honor dance for that soldier at that pow-wow. a lot of non-indians got in the act and started dancing or trying to dance. they made the food, indian tacos, it was a wonderful two-day event they had. one day of games and one day of dancing and singing. and of course, it isn't all fun

and festivities. here's brett munstrom, he was a sioux but never lived on the reservation. his father was career army and he went off to afghanistan and got killed. when he died, the people back home at pine ridge said couldn't they bring him back to the reservation and so the marines brought him, and so their vehicle came up to the reservation line, and they put his casket then on and the entire community, taken to kyle, south dakota, they had this huge parade of his family, his friends, relatives, bringing his body back and they put him then in the gymnasium and he was there two days, marines had an honor guard.

so he did not have an indian name so before they buried him they gave him an indian name, the name lone eagle and they gave him eagle feather to be buried with and his uncle said he has to have an indian name because when he goes to neat great spirit, the great spirit has to know he is an indian and he won't know that unless he has an indian name. of course the military still grows and indian women are part of them now. i'll close with micah ray high walking, as she is a northern cheyenne, the first northern cheyenne to go to west point and when i called her and chatted with her, she had a ceremony so i said what do you think of this, being at west point? she said you know, it's creepy because i'm in the same barracks

that john was an i eat in the same mess all that general custer ate in and he tried to wipe our people out and here i am following in his foot steps. i'm not concerned, i'm a warrior and i'm here she said because i feel i'm representing all indian people and we've left that chapter behind us and we're looking to the future so she graduated from west point last year, she's now a second lieutenant but i got her to pose in front of this tomb of custer at west point. so if you want all of these stories there are more in the book. you can get it through the national geo2k3wr56ic society or go on amazon.com and probably get it real cheap. i don't think there are any for sale here. thank you very much. let's get on with the rest of our program. [ applause ]

>> thank you, herman. i was going to put a picture up here real quick. >> our next speaker, mr. joe medicine crow as herman indicated is a direct link to the 19th century, his ancestors were there and they fought in the great battle against custer, and 100 years later who would have thought that we would see the insignia of custer's division with indian war bonnet

on top of it. that over 100 years later, hundreds of american indians to this day serve in the seventh calvary division. hopefully there's other marines in the audience and i know there is at least one because i saw my father here and he fought in vietn vietnam, and when he was an officer there and when they saw the seventh calvary division come by the irony would not be lost on the warriors that fought against custer, that this is his patch today. when marines see this patch, they say this is for the horse you don't ride, the line you don't cross, and the yellow speaks for itself. so a little, you know, intramilitary rivalry there. but how ironic that today we see

this image with indian war bonnet. our next speaker, mr. joe medicine crow, very well known a national treasure, he's a national hero, especially throughout indian country. we all honor his service any time there is a native veteran ceremony. mr. medicine crow is a person that we honor and we mention. he saw the worst of the worst at the end of the fighting in europe. he was there in 1944 and '45, he was fighting along the border of france and germany. he suffered through the cold winter, 1944, and 1945. and he saw the last desperate acts of a desperate army and he was facing those determined german warriors. he will you about the four deeds he performed in europe during

the last days of the war. mr. medicine crow. [ applause ] >> it is good that you have come. in my language we say -- you have come to exactly the right place and the right time. the first maker had created my country, the crow country, at

one time put it together just right and placed it exactly in the right place and brought his favorite red children, my people. gave it to them. and according to a tribal histori historian, the white man is coming. he's a strange man, said he. he has light skin, blue eyes, red hair, yellow hair, sometimes no hair at all. already here, he said. and in the eastern part of our

mother earth here. more and more are coming from across the big water. they are moving out west. they are strangers. at first they will take our buffalo, deer, antelope and the things that we -- they will take our land where we live. then eventually they will take our lives and put us in confinement, a place they will call indian reservation. then the white man, the government will continue to tell

these people, to tell us what to do, what not to do. they will take our natural resources on our land, animals, fruits of all kind. so that's the way it's going to be. my add micvice is when they com be just a few of them, we can wipe them out, but there will be just like ants, you come to an ant hill, you mess it up, more and more come up. that's the way they are going to be. so my advice is when they come,

be nice to them, treat them well. there will be just a few of them, wouldn't be able to find a way of making a living so we'll take them into our lodges, feed them, clothe them, get them our daughters as wives. their children will have the blood of the white eyes and the blood of the crow indian and they will be strong. yes, they will be strong. they will use the white man's way, white man's thinking ability, and white man's ways of

inventing things. we will use those things, also we will use our own way as the first maker had given us to learn how to live here on mother earth. so, if we follow these things diligently, with intelligence, resourcefulness, that we will eventually have created a good li life. that we will join in the white man's manifest destiny of making this part of the world known as mother earth as the most

powerful riches, everlasting civilizati civilization. ordinarily, i'm a crow indian, i kind of hop around looking for scraps to eat. but occasionally i look up to the first maker and gives me the power to give, of soaring like an eagle. right now i'm soaring and i'm asking you to join me. that's a good place up there. we need to do that. the world is getting terrible. wars here, war there is, and so

forth. but you join me and let's all soar like an eagle and make this part of mother earth the best pla place, the most richest place, a place where in peace is supreme. so now, to honor the memory of those warriors in uniform of which i was one of them, i'm going to sing an honor song. i'm going to use my own war song. when i came back from the war in germany, my tribal elders had to

listen to my telling of war deeds, a tradition with crow people. so after reciting my various actions in germany, that my people declared me as a war chief, that i had completed the four dangerous requirements, battlefield act, deeds, to become a crow war chief. yes, i didn't think about it at the time, but i did something when i was being inducted at port lewis, washington, no, utah, i think it's in utah.

but look at my record, a sergeant, by the way, look at me, motion at me, he was my old classmate, roommate at college. we got into the office and had a quick reunion. and the education, a couple of ph.d.'s at that time, now i got four. with education i can get you an officer's commission. i said jerry, jerry was his name, jerry nicholson. jerry said i thank you a lot but i must decline. i must decline.

my grandfather medicine crow went on a war path when he was . completed the four dangerous battlefield action requirements to become a crow chief. said, i'm going to follow my grandfather's footsteps. well, got into the army, forgot about that. but when i came home i had to go through this telling of the war deeds ritual. the tribal elders listened carefully, said, you have completed the four requirements for a crow warrior to become a crow chief. so they declared me a crow indian war chief.

the last one of my tribe and probably in the whole indian country. at age 96, you're looking at an old war chief. so now to honor the memory of those who didn't come back, warriors in uniform, and also to say thank you to those modern indian boys and girls in the service throughout the world, afghanistan, iraq, and other places throughout the world. so now i'm going to sing my own

song, my war song. and i'm inviting some veterans to come and stand with me. you guys stand here, too. you're pretty active. ♪

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>> thank you for the offerings. in indian country it's a tradition of the person who's giving the prayer or the song receive gifts. nowadays it's more in the form of a monetary gift. but the spirit is still the same. so once again, mr. joe medicine crow, it's just an honor to be up on the stage with him. and one more round of applause for mr. medicine crow. our next veteran is equally as much a hero as mr. medicine crow. it's mr. john emhoolah from the kiowa nation in oklahoma. he was in high school when his unit was mobilized in oklahoma. and he was shipped off to the korean war.

and it's -- in oklahoma, the famous thunderbird division where many native americans served. mr. thunderbird was in that division. he was a forward observer for an artillery unit. so he was one of the first ones in at landing of enchon, douglas macarthur's famous maneuver to outflank the north koreans. he was one of the first to land there. and then he spent the miserable winter following that up on the hills as he will tell you. freezing and watching the chinese mobilize. again, he's one of our native warriors who's seen the worst of the worst in combat. and to think he was still a teenager suffering through all that at the time. but one of the things mr. emhoolah, it was not lost on him that he was fighting for the united states but he was also fighting for the kiowa nation. and when he came back from the

war, he became a strong defender of tribal sovereignty. these treaties that tribal nations signed mean something to the tribes. they are enshrined, the agreements are enshrined in our constitution. it's mentioned twice in the original constitution. it's also mentioned in the 14th amendment to the constitution. and mr. emhoolah is one of the early pioneers in indian country who said, you know, these treaties are to be respected. after the war he went on and got his education and he fought for native american religious freedom. because when he was in korea he couldn't practice his religion the way the men in his unit could. and that always hurt him. he was facing death, yet he could not reach out to his creator. so mr. emhoolah, again another national treasure, korean war veteran. mr. emhoolah?

>> ahoo. i want to thank all of you. ahoo means thank you. so i just wanted to clarify. i really appreciate each and every one of you that come here today and yesterday. and i'm really honored to be invited to be here with you. there are a lot of veterans, american -- native americans and