U.S. Marine Lomar Wandering Medicine, center, is flanked by uncles Isadore White Wolf, left, and Hugh Club Foot as the men dance across an Iraqi flag during a Cheyenne Victory Dance celebration in Lame Deer Wednesday afternoon. Wandering Medicine was being honored by his friends, family and veterans for his service in Iraq and carries a coup stick during the dance. His uncles carry flags that used to fly on Saddam’s limousines.

Lomar Wandering Medicine is greeted by friends and family at the end of his victory dance celebration at the Kenneth Bear Tusk Memorial Pow Wow Grounds near Lame Deer Wednesday afternoon. The red paint signifies Wandering Medicine’s new Indian name, given to a warrior in the tribe by a tribal elder.

Wandering Medicine is shown in his Abrams tank, which was the third armored vehicle to cross the Euphrates River into Baghdad during the recent Iraq war.

An Iraqi palace flag hangs on the center pole at the powwow grounds as Lomar Wandering Medicine tells the story of his first kill in the battle for Baghdad to tribal drummers. Wandering Medicine was driving the third tank to cross the Euphrates River into the city and found the flag at one of Saddam’s Palaces. His father Mark, second from right, and grandfather Perry Little Coyote, right, listen to the story.

In the past few months, a Northern Cheyenne man became a warrior in Iraq. On Wednesday his friends and family celebrated his safe return and his ascendancy to warrior status near Lame Deer.

For the first time since soldiers returned from World War II, the Cheyenne Victory Dance Celebration was held in honor of Lance Cpl. Lomar Wandering Medicine, 21.

Wandering Medicine is a tank driver in Delta Company, 1st Tank Battalion, 5th Marine Expeditionary Force. The ceremony included a naming ritual, and Wandering Medicine also practiced counting coup on Iraqi flags that he took from one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces.

Wandering Medicine, whose birth name was Cheyenne River, received a new name to go along with his warrior status. In a ceremony performed by Charles Littleoldman, Wandering Medicine was renamed Powerful Wolf. Also recognized in the ceremony were the "War Mothers" who have lost their sons and daughters to combat.

Wandering Medicine's parents, Mark and Ilo, organized the event that kicked off the yearly Northern Cheyenne Powwow. About 50 people attended the event at the Kenneth Bear Tusk Memorial Powwow Grounds. More than a dozen military veterans participated in the ceremony.

The Marine tradition runs deep in Wandering Medicine's family. His father, uncle and cousin all served in the Corps. His father and uncle are Vietnam veterans.

Mark Wandering Medicine said the ceremony was the proper way for his son to be welcomed back and given one of the highest honors recognized by the tribe, unlike the way he returned from Vietnam.

"We never received this kind of victory celebration," Mark Wandering Medicine said. "We weren't really seen as heroes."

Lomar Wandering Medicine was a star basketball player for the Lame Deer Morning Stars, graduating in 2000. He joined the Marine Corps in June 2002. He said the tank he was driving was the third to cross the Euphrates River into Baghdad.

Wandering Medicine followed the tradition of the victorious warriors who preceded him by retelling his first war story in public during the ceremony. He told of the first of four Iraqis he killed in combat. An Iraqi soldier jumped in front of his tank with a rocket-propelled grenade, and Wandering Medicine ran over him.

The victory dance allowed the Cheyenne the rare chance to display their eagle feathers. In a full military dress uniform, Wandering Medicine carried a coup stick with an eagle feather as he marched on the Iraqi flag in the ceremony.

Joseph Littlebird, Wandering Medicine's cousin and a former Marine, said they were glad the soldier returned from Iraq safely.

"We prayed for him and all the service men in Iraq," Littlebird said. "God answered our prayers."

Wandering Medicine returned home just a month ago. Today he will travel back to California to rejoin his unit.