A rare white bison calf was born in Yellowstone National Park, fulfilling a Native American prophecy of prosperity to come, tribal leaders said.
Montana-based photographer Erin Braaten discovered the calf shortly after it was born on June 4 in the Lamar Valley, with the snaps showing the small animal taking her first steps beside her dark-brown family.
“I look and it’s this white bison calf. And I was just totally, totally floored,” Braaten told the AP.
Chief Arvol Looking Horse – the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate tribes in South Dakota – said the calf’s birth signaled the return of a spirit of prosperity akin to the second coming of Jesus Christ.
A rare white buffalo calf has been born in Yellowstone National Park. APHorse said that a 2,000-year-old legend describes a “White Buffalo Calf Woman” who appeared before the Lakota during a time when food was running out and the bison were disappearing.
According to the story, the woman presented the tribe a bowl pipe and bundle, teaching them a prayer and telling them that the pipe would lead the buffalo to them to provide sustenance.
When the spirit left, she transformed into a white buffalo, telling the trip that when times are hard again, she “shall return and stand upon the earth as a white buffalo calf, black nose, black eyes, black hooves,” Horse said.
Horse currently serves as the 19th keeper of the pipe and bundle provided by the White Buffalo Calf Woman.
The Lakota tribe believes the birth signifies the return of the White Buffalo Calf Woman, a 2,000-year-old legend. APTroy Heinert, the executive director of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, echoed the sacred nature of a white bison, noting that the calf seen in Braaten’s photos match the descriptions he’s heard passed down in his tribe and not those of an albino buffalo, which sport pink eyes.
“From the pictures I’ve seen, that calf seems to have those traits,” Heinert said, adding that a white buffalo is revered by more tribes than just the Lakota.
Native American leaders in the region said that a ceremony will be held on June 26 at the Buffalo Field Campaign headquarters, in West Yellowstone, to celebrate the calf’s birth.
It remains unclear how many white buffalo have been born as park officials and bison experts do not track such a statistic.
The National Park Services last flashed the birth of a white buffalo calf, named Miracle, in 1994 in a Wisconsin farm, claiming it was the first birth of its kind since 1933.
With Post wires.
