A rare white bison calf has been born in Yellowstone National Park, fulfilling a Native American prophecy of future prosperity, tribal leaders say.
Montana photographer Erin Braaten discovered the newborn calf in Lamar Valley on June 4. Photos show the tiny animal taking its first steps alongside its dark brown family.
“I looked and saw it was a white bison calf. I was just amazed,” Braaten told The Associated Press.
Chief Arbol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate tribes of South Dakota, said the birth of the calf was a sign of the return of a spirit of prosperity similar to the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Horse said a 2,000-year-old legend tells of a “white buffalo calf woman” who appeared to the Lakota at a time when food supplies were running out and bison were disappearing.
According to the story, the woman gave the tribe a bowl pipe and a bundle, taught them a prayer, and told them that the pipe would lead the buffalo to them and provide them with food.
After her spirit left, she transformed into a white buffalo and told the traveler that if times were hard again, she would “return and stand on the earth as a white buffalo calf with a black nose, black eyes and black hooves,” Horse said.
Horse is currently the 19th custodian of the pipe and bundle given to him by White Buffalo Calf Woman.
Troy Heinert, executive director of the Inter-Tribal Buffalo Council, echoed the sacredness of the white bison, noting that the calf in Braaten’s photo matches tribal descriptions and is not that of an albino buffalo with pink eyes.
“From the pictures I’ve seen, the calf appears to have those characteristics,” Heinert said, adding that the white buffalo is revered by the Lakota as well as other tribes.
Native American leaders in the area said a ceremony celebrating the calf’s birth will be held June 26 at Buffalo Field Campaign Headquarters in West Yellowstone.
It’s unclear how many white buffalo were born, because park officials and bison experts don’t keep such statistics.
The National Park Service last publicly announced the birth of a white buffalo calf, “Miracle,” in 1994 on a Wisconsin farm, claiming it was the first birth since 1933.
With post wire.
