Joseph Medicine Crow Center dedicated

Holding embroidered red baseball caps, hundreds of members of the USC community gathered in front of the Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow Center for International and Public Affairs to celebrate the building’s renaming and namesake Monday afternoon. 

Medicine Crow was the first member of the Apsáalooke (Crow) tribe to earn a master’s degree, which he received from USC in 1939 in anthropology. He would later receive an honorary doctoral degree from the University in 2003. Medicine Crow was also named the Crow tribe’s last war chief for his service in the United States Army’s 103rd Infantry Division in World War II and then worked as a tribal historian for the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation. In 2009, former President Barack Obama honored Medicine Crow with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian medal of honor, for his military service and contributions to Native American history. 

“By honoring the great scholar warrior Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, we affirm that, like him, we will fight on for creativity and compassion. We will fight on for justice and dignity. We will fight on for excellence and empowerment,” said Office of Religious Life Dean Varun Soni at the dedication. 

The dedication began with a traditional colors presentation by the Indigenous Warrior Flag Group of Central California, led by Frank Gonzalez, the group’s president. The presentation was followed by speeches from Soni and Board of Trustees chair Rick Caruso, who praised President Carol Folt for her “courage and determination” in renaming the building. 

The renaming came after years of student protests against the building’s former name, the Von KleinSmid Center, after former University president and known eugenicist Rufus von KleinSmid. Hours before Folt’s inauguration in September 2019, a vandalized bust of von KleinSmid was found with a piece of cloth reading “RENAME VKC” in red lettering and a cardboard sign with the word “NAZI” covering the statue. 

“During [my] inauguration, I saw students protesting in front of this building, so of course, I wanted to know why, and I wanted to learn about it,” said Folt at the dedication. 

Folt then brought forward a motion to the Board of Trustees’ executive committee to remove von KleinSmid’s name from the building and worked with them to create the Center for International and Public Affairs Naming Committee, composed of students, staff, faculty and alumni. The committee considered about 200 names, gathered from a survey sent to the University community. 

“We’re just blown away by his story,” said Paula Cannon, co-chair of the naming committee, in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “We found it incredible that most of us hadn’t heard of him, and then we thought, everyone needs to have heard of him. This just seemed like a perfect opportunity to put a name on this building of somebody who was just a really good man.” 

In addition to the renaming of the building, Folt also announced the creation of the Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow Scholarship, a new scholarship program for Native American students that will launch in Fall 2022. 

Following Folt’s speech, Medicine Crow’s son, Ronald Medicine Crow, shared stories about his father and two songs, one sung in his father’s honor and one that belonged to his father himself.  

“It just is overwhelming. We’re so blessed and honored and humbled for all that’s taking place today in Dad’s memory,” he said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “I’m just his spokesman today … He told me a lot of stories and so forth about tribal history and everything else that takes place in the Crow way of life.” 

Ronald said he hopes students feel “inspired” when they walk into the building.

“I hope they’ll be inspired to do their best and to excel in their studies and get their degrees and go on with their lives and be highly successful,” he said. 

Native American Student Assembly co-founder Maracea Chase, who also spoke at the dedication, said the renaming is “amazing.” 

“The renaming of this building not only exemplifies the amazing accomplishments and character of Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, but it also serves as a basis for recognition and representation of our Native American students, staff, faculty and alumni,” said Chase at the dedication. “For when there is recognition and representation, there is understanding.” 

Chase also said the building will serve as “a space for Native American students to thrive and grow in an environment that celebrates who we are as a collective.” 

“This building is the foundation that will inspire and comfort students, knowing there is a place for them to excel and achieve beyond their wildest imaginations,” Chase said. “From here, we shall embody the confidence to grow, thrive, to succeed, to fail, to live, to exist fully and wholeheartedly as we are.” 

Chase said speaking at the dedication was “an incredible honor.” 

“It truly does mean a lot for the Native American community here at USC but also all around Los Angeles, just knowing that there is representation here and that there is a home for our students and for our children to go out and pursue a higher education, which is what we’ve been trying to do over the past few decades,” she said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. 

The program then featured a presentation of a custom-made rudis from the Trojan Battalion ROTC, a bound copy of Medicine Crow’s original thesis and a live painting of the event to Medicine Crow’s family, as well as a reading by Medicine Crow’s granddaughter. The dedication concluded with a formal unveiling of the building’s new name, which included the release of cardinal and gold streamers and the unrolling of a large printed banner, accompanied by the Trojan Marching Band. 

Folt said she hopes to continue uplifting the voices and names of people who, like Medicine Crow, are relatively unknown currently, and that she’s “really glad” that the dedication wasn’t done while the University operated remotely during the coronavirus pandemic

“We can’t diminish who von KleinSmid was. We can’t pretend. We don’t hide him. But we have something much more to celebrate, and I think that’s this,” said Folt in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “We worked hard to get here. We had to do a lot of other things at the same time, but this is the right thing, so in some ways, it’s good to be able to be a part of the right thing with the people that care about it.” 

Jonathan Park contributed to this report.