Joseph Medicine Crow, the last living war chief of the Crow Tribe of Montana and a renowned Native American historian and anthropologist, died on Sunday at a hospice in Billings, Mont. He was 102.

Terry Bullis, the funeral director at Bullis Mortuary in Hardin, Mont., confirmed the death.

Mr. Medicine Crow was the last living person to have heard direct oral testimony from people who were present before the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. His step-grandfather, White Man Runs Him, was among six Crow scouts for George Armstrong Custer.

In 2009, President Obama presented Mr. Medicine Crow with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, citing his contributions as a World War II service member and the author of seminal works on Native American history. In one wartime incident, he stole 50 Nazi SS horses from a German camp, the White House said.