A statue depicting White Buffalo Calf Woman, holding a sacred pipe atop a white buffalo. (Photo courtesy of Brian Bull)
Small crowds are gathering at a buffalo ranch in Wisconsin. They’re hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare white buffalo. This is the second white buffalo to draw crowds from around the world to the ranch, and as Brian Bull reports, the white buffalo holds special significance to some Native Americans:
Transcript
Small crowds are gathering at a buffalo ranch in Wisconsin. They’re hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare white buffalo. This is the second white buffalo to draw crowds from around the world to the ranch, and as Brian Bull reports, the white buffalo holds special significance to some Native Americans:
Nearly twenty people huddle behind a metal fence, standing tip-toed and pointing cameras towards a hilltop. Rancher Dave Heider drives his Bobcat tractor nearby, dumping hay into pens, as his buffalo herd comes down to eat. Among the lumbering shaggy brown bodies, is a speck of white that excites the crowd.
“There he is, here he is, he’s coming.”
The petite, snow-white calf stays close to his mother. Heider shuts the pen, fielding questions from onlookers, some of them remembering the first white buffalo known as Miracle.
“Is this the same family as Miracle? ‘No Relation.’ What’s the new one’s name? ‘Miracle’s Second Chance.'”
“Miracle’s Second Chance” is luring visitors from as far away as Mexico, Canada, and South America, as well as the immediate region. A biker even sports a white buffalo tattoo on his enormous bicep.
Carrie Singer is an Ojibwe Indian living in Milwaukee. Like others, she’s waited several hours in the rainy weather to glimpse the white buffalo calf.
“I believe it signifies peace and renewal, new beginnings for all our people. These are hard times, times of war, and this is something to have people gravitate towards, that new life, that new beginning.”
Buffalo are traditionally important animals to the Plains and upper Midwestern tribes. They were a vital source for food, tools, and clothing. And Lakota legend speaks of White Buffalo Calf Woman. They say she appeared with the first sacred pipe, to bring spirituality and prosperity to Indian nations.
That spiritual association is what drew Jimmy Kewakundo of Ontario, Canada, to the Heider’s ranch. Kewakundo is of Ojibwe, Potawotami, and Odawa descent. He and several other native people came to sing and honor the calf.
“I’ve brought my bundle and sacred pipe to do a ceremony with my brothers here. It teaches us how to live and to remember the old ways, and the importance of white buffalo calf woman.”
That Miracle’s Second Chance is a different gender than that of the legendary Lakota icon doesn’t phase Kewakundo and friends. And the Heiders say crowds and publicity are good, but nowhere near the levels seen for Miracle when she was born in 1994. Inside their bison-meat gift-shop, Valerie Heider stands near Miracle, who is now stuffed and on display. Heider says she has no guesses yet as to what it means to have several white buffalos born on their ranch.
“The Natives are telling us how blessed we are, and they’re also telling us we are in balance now because we have a male and a female.”
For many, the sheer novelty of a white buffalo is enough to stir people’s interest.
Dave Carter is executive director of the National Bison Association. He says the odds of a white buffalo being born are at least one in two-hundred thousand, though some estimates are as high as one in six-billion. Either way, Carter says it’s an incredible event.
“Particularly with a ranch where it had a fairly closed herd and these are non-related animals. Of course for the Native American folks, this is something that gets into a spiritual level, and so it has some additional significance when it gets to the Native American community.”
Back at the ranch, Indian spiritual leader Jimmy Kewakundo greets Dave Heider and shakes his hand.
“My name’s Jimmy, I come from Ontario, Canada. I want to say thank you for what you’ve done so far, working with Miracle, on behalf of the Ojibwe nation I want to say thank you for everything that you’ve done.”
Heider says more than 500,000 people came by back when Miracle was alive. He adds at times, it’s hard putting up with all the crowds and traffic, but moments like this put it all in perspective.
“It makes you feel good that you’re making some people happy. Valerie and I looked at it when Miracle was born, everybody said ‘why don’t you sell her?’ The money was there, we had many offers. We both felt as though we were giving something back that was given to us. By law and ownership Miracle belonged to us, but she belonged to everybody.”
The Heiders say they’ll eventually put the new white bison with some of Miracle’s daughters and granddaughters, to form a new herd. For now, they’ll weather the crowds with the same reverence, patience, and wit as they have before.
For the Environment Report, I’m Brian Bull.