According to legend, the birth of a white bison calf brought the earth to a crossroads.
For the Lakota, the calf’s birth earlier this month is a sacred symbol of fulfillment of prophecy, but it’s also a warning that “a spiritual awakening is needed,” said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, a Lakota spiritual leader. Dakota and Nakota Oyate of South Dakota led the celebration and ceremonies marking the calf’s birth in Yellowstone on Wednesday.
The calf, unveiled at the celebration, was named Wakan Gli, which means “come holy and return holy.”
According to Lakota legend, the White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared to two scouts sitting on a hill 3,000 years ago, Chief Looking Horse said. She carried a buffalo robe in her arms and used her supernatural powers to turn one scout who had impure thoughts into bones. The other scout, who she said was “in good spirit,” was told to return to his people and tell them she brought a sacred gift, Chief Looking Horse said.
The next day, Chief Looking Horse said, the woman was seen walking toward the center of the camp carrying a bundle containing a sacred pipe. She said that the divine woman taught people how to pray, and that in time she would “know more about these sacred pipes.”
As she left, she went up the hill to the west, stopped, rolled over, stood up, and turned into a young black buffalo. She rolled over a second time and became a red young buffalo. The third time she turned yellow. Then she rolled over a fourth time and stopped near the top of the hill as a white buffalo calf with black eyes, black hooves, and a black nose.
Chief Looking Horse, who is also the 19th custodian of the sacred white buffalo calf woman and artifact known as the Pipe and Bundle, said the woman told the people, “Do not do this any more.” He explained that the prophecy warned that when the white buffalo stands on the ground again, many white animals will be born all over the world. “Because Mother Earth is sick and has a fever, she will speak to these white animals for peace and harmony.”
“That is what this pipe, the sacred pipe, was all about: peace and harmony,” he said.
Chief Looking Horse recalled the horror following the birth of a white bison calf in Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1994, noting that it occurred as the world was waking up to global warming. In 1993, indigenous spiritual leaders met at the United Nations to warn about climate change at the Cry of the Earth conference.
And with the birth of a white bison calf in Yellowstone, we are at a crossroads, Chief Looking Horse said, adding that his grandmother told him on her deathbed that she would be the last sacred bearer “if people don't get it right.”
“We can either face global disaster, disease and false leaders, or we can unite globally,” he said.
The American bison, or buffalo as they have been called by Native Americans for hundreds of years, is a very important and sacred animal to many Native Americans. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, tens of millions of buffalo once roamed North America, but mass slaughter in the 1800s reduced their numbers to a few hundred by 1889.
The indiscriminate and systematic killing of bison was motivated by racist ideology and a careless regard for the natural world. According to the Buffalo Fields Campaign, an organization that works to “stop the harassment and slaughter of America's last wild bison,” European settlers “viewed the survival of the bison as a means of perpetuating the Native American way of life. They saw the bison as incompatible with their dream of a Great Plains cattle culture.”
The near-complete extinction of the bison was a devastating blow to Native Americans who had relied on the animals for everything from clothing, food, shelter, tools, and ceremonies for thousands of years.
Jim Matheson, executive director of the National Bison Association, said the calf, with its black eyes, black hooves and black nose, looks like a rare white buffalo that lacks the pink tones of the albino animal.
“This is the first time I’ve heard of a white buffalo being born, at least in Yellowstone,” Mr. Matheson said in an interview. The birth was “very exciting,” he said, because it came from a “closed herd.” This means that the herd only breeds with each other and does not mix with cattle. This can introduce genetic mutations that increase the likelihood of a white calf being born.
Chief Looking Horse said he was moved to tears when a calf was born in the wild in Yellowstone.
“It’s all overwhelming,” he said, adding that according to prophecy, he believes now is the time for people around the world to unite and become better stewards of the Earth.
“We live in a time when everything is about money,” said Captain Looking Horse.
“You have to think about your children,” he said. “Mother Earth is not a resource, she is the source of life.”