WASHINGTON - More than a quarter century after his death, the White House will honor Woodrow Wilson Keeble, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux tribe, with a posthumous Medal of Honor for heroism in the Korean War.

Master Sgt. Keeble, who died in 1982, will be the first Sioux Indian to receive the medal.

Keeble was born in Waubay, S.D., and moved to North Dakota as a child. He was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War and received more than 30 citations, including four Purple Hearts and the Army's second-highest commendation, the Distinguished Service Cross.

Fellow soldiers, family members and others have been urging Congress for years to award the Medal of Honor to Keeble. They said the man known as "Chief" deserves the nation's highest military honor for his actions in Korea in 1951, when he saved the lives of his fellow soldiers by taking out more than a dozen of their enemies on a steep hill, even though he himself was wounded.

White House Spokesman Scott Stanzel said Friday that Keeble "distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism." President Bush will present the award to Keeble's surviving family members at the White House on March 3.

Pentagon officials had said the legal deadline had passed for the president to award the medal to Keeble unless Congress specifically authorized it. Sens. Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and John Thune, R-S.D., introduced legislation to award Keeble the medal, and it was signed by the president last year.

The four Dakotas senators say Keeble's men twice recommended him for the Medal of Honor earlier, but the paperwork was lost. He instead received the Distinguished Service Cross.

Johnson said his office was first contacted by Keeble's family in 2002. Today, the family and the people of the Dakotas "have reason to celebrate and remember his service and valor," Johnson said.

North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven said he will attend the ceremony with Keeble's family.

"Keeble's extraordinary acts of valor in World War II and Korea will finally be properly recognized with the awarding of our nation's highest decoration for heroism," Hoeven said in a statement.