The reported birth of a rare white buffalo calf in Yellowstone National Park is being seen as fulfilling a Lakota prophecy that portends better times and as a warning that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals.
Park officials say they haven’t seen the calf yet and can’t confirm its birth, but a number of photos and video have been posted on social media and a number of Native American leaders say they’ve seen the white calf.
Some of those who’ve seen the calf say it’s a true white-fured bison and not an albino lacking pigment. Albinos have red eyes and off-colored hooves and nose while this calf has black eyes, a black nose and black hooves.
Chief Arvol Looking Horse – spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate and the 19th keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe and Bundle – says a naming ceremony has been held for the calf, but he declines to reveal the name.
The Buffalo Field Campaign, a bison advocacy group, is holding a ceremony celebrating the calf’s birth at its headquarters in West Yellowstone later this month on Wednesday the 26th.
Lakota legend says about 2,000 years ago – when nothing was good, food was running out and bison were disappearing – White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared, presented a bowl pipe and a bundle to a tribal member.
She taught them how to pray and said that the pipe could be used to bring buffalo to the area for food.
As she left, she turned into a white buffalo calf and said “some day when the times are hard again, I shall return and stand upon the earth as a white buffalo calf, black nose, black eyes, black hooves.”
Looking Horse says for the Lakota, the birth of such a calf is akin to the second coming of Jesus Christ. A similar white buffalo calf was born in Wisconsin in 1994 and was named Miracle