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Sam Honors 2Lt Micah Highwalking
at Cheyenne Pow-Wow

Hope you are having a happy 4^th of July; we are here in Hardin. Just put out my flag this morning and having a quite day at home. Do have a new flag this year. My old one was becoming pretty faded, after 20 years, wonder why. Actually, my new flag was given to me yesterday. Interesting story goes with it. I got a call from a first sergeant I know in the Montana Army National Guard up in Billings. He wanted to know if I still had a uniform and did it fit? I said, “Yes, why?” He said or rather asked, “Well, we have a favor to ask of you, if you are available this Saturday.” It seems that a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe over in Lame Deer had just graduated from West Point and the tribe was having a ceremony to honor her. Her name is Micah Highwalking and she is the first member of her tribe to graduate from West Point and we think she is the first female from Montana to graduate from there. The tribe wanted an officer from the Army to attend the ceremony and the closest Army units are Montana Army National Guard and they didn’t have anybody really close to Lame Deer and this first sergeant remembered me and that I lived in Hardin, only 60 miles away. The tribal organizer for this event was in his office so the first sergeant put him on the line. So that is how I ended up in Lame Deer yesterday, in my dress blues with full sized medals and saber. I have to admit my Field Artillery dress blues look pretty good, good enough that nobody notices the old man in them. I figure God must have been looking out for me, in that Friday the temperatures were in the 90s and today it is 80, but yesterday the high was a comfortable 73. I bought my dress blues with air-conditioning in mind, if I would have had to wear it Friday or today, I die from heat stroke. Anyway it was a pleasant and interesting day; I had never been to a Cheyenne ceremony before. It was held at the outdoor arena in Lame Deer in conjunction with a Pow-Wow. There were several hundred Cheyenne there and I sort of stood out. I now have a real appreciation for how Custer felt when he was surrounded by the ancestors of these very people. Fortunately, I had a much different reception. They had several tribal members who are military veterans there forming a color guard so they had flags and rifles. They held a flag raising ceremony but instead of playing the National Anthem as we white eyes know it they played war drums and sang a chant. I was asked to give a small message in honor of the newly minted Second Lieutenant Micah Highwalking and to read a proclamation from their tribal president. A few of the local tribal chiefs and elected officials gave speeches, some of which I did not understand, I know a few words of Crow but no Cheyenne. Speaking Crow does not go over well when talking to Cheyenne, particularly since they are long time enemies. 2LT Highwalking was in her dress blues, with an interesting twist. Instead of wearing black shoes, she wore deer skin moccasins and had a beaded beret with a feather hanging from it. I figure it was a warranted cultural modification to the uniform. We danced around the arena twice, more of a slow shuffle to the beat of the war drums. At the end of the ceremony they had a “Give a Way.” This is a unique custom among the Cheyenne; they do this for funerals, births, marriages and other special occasions such as this. At a “Give a Way” the immediate family gives gifts of blankets, baskets of food and other such items to special members of the tribe. They call out a name and the recipient comes forward to receive the gift and goes down a receiving line shaking hands with the family. I was rather surprised to hear my name called out and I was given a Pendleton Indian Blanket and a US Flag. Oh, the blanket is draped over the shoulders of the recipient like you see in the old pictures of Indians. I wish I would have had a picture taken of me in my dress blues wearing my saber and with an Indian Blanket draped around me. It must have been a sight. Anyway that is how I got my new flag.