The Oglala Lakota are counted among the various Sioux nations. Because of prohibition and persecution of indigenous practices in America, many sacred objects and much original knowledge was lost as tribes were forcibly resettled in distant locations. Prior to being established on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota in 1878, the ancestral lineage of the Lakota can be traced back to Wisconsin along the Mississippi River in the early 1700s, followed by westward migrations due to scarcity and war. They lived as hunters and nomads until they began settling the area around the Black Hills around 1795. Their religion is based on an idea of an impersonal singularity expressed in phenomenal appearances, the Great Mystery, or the Wakantanka, which ultimately turns the chaos and disorder of the cosmos toward grace, harmony, miraculous interventions, and salvific ends. Their primary rite features a Sacred Pipe and a legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman, a narrative which is considered a historical event. Although the pipe has been used for religious purposes for several thousand years, the particular meaning associated with the legend of the Buffalo Maiden dates only from around 1785 (Steinmetz 3). The pipe regarded as the original given by the White Buffalo Woman to the tribe dates back to at least 1615 and has been handed down through a lineage determined by dream interpretation (Pickering 54). It most recently passed from Stanley Looking Horse to his son, Arvol Looking Horse, who received it when he was twelve years old (Steinmetz 15).
According to William K. Powers, copies of the original pipe were made in two types: a pipe for ceremonial occasions and another smaller pipe for pleasure smoking. The ideal pipe has two pieces, an ornamented bowl carved from brownish-red stone found only in a Minnesota quarry supposedly unknown before a primeval flood, and a wooden stem that must be detached when not in use. Both pieces are stored in a beaded bag, and the pipe may be decorated with twelve feathers. “To smoke or even touch a pipe was regarded as a sacred act and only men and women of integrity could do so. Bonds between groups, vows to Wakantanka and prophecies were validated by means of the pipe” (Powers 88). The pipe is offered either by raising it above the head with both hands, or the stem of the pipe can be offered in the direction of the invocation. Seven pinches of tobacco are offered to the four directions of the compass, the zenith and the nadir, and the Messenger of Wakantanka. The pipe is usually smoked in a circle, and each participant puffs four times then passes it to the next smoker on the left.
The White Buffalo Calf Woman also gave the tribe seven ceremonies: the sweat lodge, the vision quest, funeral rites, the sun dance, friendship vows, puberty rites, and the throwing of the ball. The sweat lodge, which is done in the nude, is intended to purify physical and spiritual life. The vision quest is supervised by a ritual specialist, who helps interpret and integrate mystical experiences through a 4-day ordeal. Funeral rites are concerned with tending to the disembodied ghosts of the deceased as they wait for the astronomical gateways to their fates. The sun dance is an annual rite in summer, when warriors celebrate for four days to grow in personal strength and service to the tribe. Friendship vows are intended to create unbreakable bonds between people. Puberty rites commemorate a girl’s first menstruation and initiation into mature womanhood. The throwing of the ball is a symbolic game representing the struggle of ignorant people to gain knowledge. It is based on a variant of the White Buffalo Calf Woman legend.
Perhaps Black Elk’s telling of the legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman is the most famous, but there are at least a dozen other variants published as early as 1883. The narrative can be divided into two acts: first, the twin hunters meet the Buffalo Maiden, and second, the Buffalo maiden visits the camp (Melody 7). According to the legend, when the tribes all spoke one language and lived together in the east, there was a great famine. Two young men go hunting, and after they travel a long distance, they survey the land from a hilltop and see a woman approaching. Some say she was wearing a white buckskin and carried a bundle on her back. Others say she was carrying a pipe in her left hand. Some say she carried the stem of the pipe in her right hand and the bowl in her left. Others say she carried sage in her left hand. In at least two versions, she is completely naked, except for her long hair which she wore like a robe. In a divergent variation, the traveling hunters eventually find a pregnant buffalo, and when they slice its womb open, they discover an old woman with white hair (Steinmetz 54)!
The first hunter desires her and dies in a cloud of confusion. The second hunter has pure thoughts and wins a blessing for the tribe. When the Hunter returned to camp and reported meeting the Goddess, the chief of the tribe sent a Messenger through the camp to declare to everyone to prepare for the coming of the Sacred One. They built a medicine teepee, and in four days, White Buffalo Woman entered and circled in the direction of the sun. She made an altar with a buffalo skull and gave the seven sacred practices. She instructed the women of their special role as guardians of the hearth, and she promised the tribe, “I shall see you again.” When she left in the direction of the setting sun, she rolled over four times, first becoming a brown buffalo, then red, then yellow, then white. This has meant the four elements, the four directions of the compass, the four seasons of the year, and also, the four colors of humanity and the four ages of Man. She is expected to return at the end of the cycle as a white buffalo calf that changes color to yellow to red then brown.
The odds of a white buffalo birth that is not an albino or cross-breed is estimated at 1 in ten-million. According to Robert B. Pickering, whenever Indians saw a white buffalo, they killed and skinned it. During a 7-day rite, a virgin maiden would be the only person allowed to touch the skin to tan it, and after that, it would be hung on a pole near the medicine man’s tipi as an offering and allowed to decay naturally. The meat was given to men of the tribe who had a dream or vision of the animal. The liver would be eaten instantly; the remaining meat would be dried in the sun to make jerky, and the intestines made into sausage. Soap was made from the fat. Bones were made into tools and beads; hair was made into thread and rope; horns became cups and spoons. The stomach could be used to carry water. The dung was burned as fuel.
Some say the Buffalo Maiden warned that several white buffalo would be born that would not live to complete the color change cycle. Arvol Looking Horse says there will be four calves, and they will not be sacrificed; at that time, humanity will either make the right choices that lead to a renewal of the Earth or die in rapid and brutal extinction. He said, “‘every medicine person or spiritual leader makes their own interpretations. Things that were written a hundred years ago may not be interpreted the same way” (Pickering 57). In the mid-1990s, Floyd Hand aka Looks For Buffalo of the Oglala Sioux predicted that many disasters including fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, tidal waves, and earthquakes accompanied by wars, resource depletion, electrical failures, and government collapse would precede the restoration of peace, love, and harmony (Pickering 68). He also claims that the Buffalo Maiden is an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Pickering 67). Virgene Tarnesse of the Shoshone tribe suggests the White Buffalo is the herald of a spiritual leader: “There is a prophecy…It pertains to the coming of the Indian messiah—not Jesus Christ, but another messiah’” (Pickering 64).
It is a recurring theme and image from many religions and traditions. For example, in ancient Egypt, according to Herodotus, a white bull is the sign that the green-skinned Osiris is born among the people. It is beheaded and eaten by priests before its carcass is thrown into the river. A similar myth occurs in ancient Greece, when a dispute for the throne is settled by the birth of white bull that changes color to red then black and confirms the legitimacy of the King. The animal is paraded through the city, slayed at the Temple of Delphi, then takes its place in the Taurus constellation. In the Book of Enoch of the Jewish Cabala, a white bull that changes color to red then black accompanies Adam and Noah, and the sacred animal is also expected in the appearance of the Messiah. In the Vedic Hindu lore, there are many references to the Wish-Fulfilling Cow of Heaven, including blue-skinned Krishna riding a white bull named Nandi, and the death of a sacred white calf by lightning strike at the end of the era. In the Parable of the Ten Bulls, a seeker captures a black bull which changes to white as he gains enlightenment, and in the end, the Buddha returns to a crowded marketplace to teach. In the Mithraic initiation rites of ancient Rome, a white bull is sacrificed in an underground vault to consecrate the Hidden Master of the Tree of Truth. Among the Rosicrucian alchemists, the adept was known as Elias Artista, who could reveal the secrets of nature and inspire the restoration of order in the world by creativity and sharing. Later, Masonic Theosophists expected a Torchbearer of Truth to work to cure irreligion and fanatic ignorance, and in 1912, amidst much intrigue, they built an esoteric society in the Hollywood Hills in anticipation of his advent sometime after 1975. A related urban legend from 1995 foretells the heroic ordeal of “the Son of White Buffalo Calf Woman,” a folk musician who does not know his true identity or prophetic destiny as a social reformer advocating reconciliation and justice until he meets Father Craft along Route 66 in Los Angeles.
There is no consensus on which buffalo fulfill the oracle. There is evidence of cross-breeds or albinos born in 1831, 1833, and 1933, and their skins were highly prized and inspiring but not contenders for the prophecy. The first of the predicted four buffalo was born in 1994 on the 24-acre Heider Ranch near Janesville, Wisconsin; the hobby farmers were offered as much as a million dollars for the animal, but they refused. Their property became a site of spiritual pilgrimage as “Miracle” changed colors from white to yellow to red then brown. The Dalai Lama visited and founded a Tibetan Buddhist center nearby. “Miracle” died of natural causes in 2004, and against all odds, two more white buffalo were born on the same farm from different genetic lineage. “Fulfillment” was born in 1999, but died accidentally on her fourth day when she was caught and strangled in a fence. “Miracle’s Second Chance” was born in 2006 during a lightning storm and died three months later when it was struck by lightning. Neither animal lived long enough to change colors. In 1996, “Medicine Wheel” was born at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. It changed colors to brown, then in its fourth year, it escaped from the ranch and was shot dead by tribal police after a rampage through a residential area. Nearly a half-dozen other animals were born and claimed as white buffalo, but they were albinos and cross-breeds and did not fulfill the conditions of the prophecy.
Then, in May 2011, a third White Buffalo appeared after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan predicted in connection to the Future Buddha and during the unique astronomical conditions given for the tenth and final incarnation of Vishnu, the Kalki avatar. “Lightning Medicine Cloud” was born during a thunderstorm in Texas to a Lakota rancher who claimed ancestry to Sitting Bull. The animal was brown when it died in mysterious circumstances a year later amidst rumors that it had been shot, skinned, and gutted. The owner, Arby Little Soldier, went out-of-town on April 25, 2012; he entrusted the animal into the protection of a friend, who last saw the animal alive two days later. Little Soldier returned home on the 29th and found the carcass on the 30th, though he made no mention of it in phone calls to associates on the first and second of May. On the third, he reported the animal dead to law enforcement, who had to dig up the animal for examination. Little Soldier claimed his spiritual advisor, an ex-con with a lengthy criminal record, had advised him not to touch the buffalo prior to its first birthday and directed him to bury “Lightning Medicine Cloud” quickly. According to the county sheriff, Little Soldier did not consent to an autopsy, delayed in providing requested paperwork, provided inconsistent testimony that implicated his neighbors in a conspiracy, fabricated evidence, and could not account for money donated to a scholarship fund. After several other deaths on the ranch, investigators concluded the animal died of a bacterial infection that could have been prevented by vaccination. Little Soldier’s ancestry claims were disputed by recognized kin of Sitting Bull, and after press conferences full of inflated rhetoric, Little Soldier stopped talking to the media.
This was followed in June 2012 by the birth of “Yellow Medicine Dancing Boy” in Connecticut; he darkened to brown as expected. Another White Buffalo was born in Colorado in June 2013 after disastrous wildfires; he was named “Smokey” and it is too early to tell whether he will change colors. Nevertheless, it seems that all four of the animals predicted in the prophecy have appeared under the sun. While most people focus on the inspiring story of renewal, which is encouraging in times of many troubles, the warning of peril cannot be overlooked. Since the birth of the first white buffalo “Miracle” in 1994, there have been many Earth Changes and social catastrophes. Perhaps the quick succession of a white buffalo at every summer solstice for the last three years is a clear omen of the danger of our planetary situation and the urgent need for redemptive action for humanity to survive in the coming years. The problems of the energy crisis, financial exploitation, government corruption, cataclysmic weather events, and food shortages have motivated millions around the globe to protest and demand reforms. It is not too late to renew our relationships with each other, espouse a just and ethical lifestyle, and restore harmony in our dependence on the Earth and the Spirit which is the origin of all Life. The White Buffalo is a portent inviting us to both an honest conversation on values and also a serious consideration of how to evolve our institutions to foster a more beautiful world for ourselves and the next seven generations. This can be a good time, if we know what to do with it.
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