White buffalo

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A white buffalo at the Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park and Safari in Ashland, Nebraska. This animal is not a true white buffalo, being
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1/16 Charolais cattle. It is expected that its coat will darken as it matures. Blonde bison 2.jpg
A white buffalo at the Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park and Safari in Ashland, Nebraska. This animal is not a true white buffalo, being 116 Charolais cattle. It is expected that its coat will darken as it matures.

A white buffalo or white bison is an American bison possessing white fur, and is considered sacred or spiritually significant in several Native American religions; therefore, such buffalo are often visited for prayer and other religious rituals. The coats of buffalo are almost always brown and their skin a dark brown or black; however, white buffalo can result from one of several physical conditions:

Contents

Spiritual significance

The white buffalo is a sacred sign in Lakota and other Plains Indians religions. Chief Arvol Looking Horse is the current keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe.

The story of the pipe is that,

"Nineteen generations ago the beautiful spirit we now refer to as White Buffalo Calf Woman brought the Sacred C’anupa (Sacred Pipe) to our People. She taught the People the Seven Sacred Rites and how to walk on Mother Earth in a sacred manner. Pte-san win-yan. As she left, she turned into a young beautiful white buffalo and then she walked over the hill and out of sight. This is where she received her name, White Buffalo Calf Woman. She gifted us with the Seven Sacred Rites that still sustain our People today. The person who smokes the sacred pipe achieves union with all Beings. By smoking this C’anupa, you will make direct personal contact with the Great Mystery. . . Following the Way of this Sacred C’anupa, you will walk in a sacred way upon the earth, for the Earth is your grandmother and your mother and she is sacred. . .″

Chief Arvol Looking Horse

[1]

The story is also a prophecy. White Buffalo Calf Woman told the people that she would return in the form of a white buffalo calf and that it would be both a blessing and a warning. When the white animal shows its sacred color there will be great changes upon the earth. The births in the early 1990s and 2000s of white buffalo calves were seen by indigenous Americans to be worrying portents. Arvol and many others interpret those changes to mean the current ecological crises taking place. If humanity continues to live without harmony with the earth it will be cursed, but if spiritual unity and harmony with the earth is achieved humanity will be blessed. [2] [3]

Individual white buffalo

Big Medicine on display at the Montana Historical Society museum (2005) Big-Medicine.jpg
Big Medicine on display at the Montana Historical Society museum (2005)
The flag of Wyoming Flag of Wyoming.svg
The flag of Wyoming

See also

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References

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Further reading