Baby White Bison Born in Yellowstone Park Fulfills Native American Prophecy

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Mt. – The birth of a rare white bison in Yellowstone National Park could be a sign of better times to come, according to a Native American tribal prophecy.

Montana photographer Erin Braaten captured the unusual offspring by chance on June 4 in the national park’s Lamar Valley, she told FOX.

“At first glance, I thought maybe it was a coyote,” Braaten told FOX. “There were bison crossing the river and the road, so we got stuck in traffic for a few minutes. So I decided to look at the “coyote” through my camera and found out that it wasn’t “Wasn’t a coyote but a white bison.”

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The bison calf in Braaten’s photos appears to have black noses and eyes, indicating that its color is not caused by albinism, which is caused by the absence of melanin.

According to the National Park Service, a baby white buffalo named Miracle was born in 1994 on a farm in Janesville, Wisconsin. She is believed to be the first since 1933. Another was born in Avon, Minnesota, in 2012 but died two weeks later.

The bison calving season runs from mid-April to early July in many herds. According to Yellowstone National Park, approximately 80% of bison are born in April and May.

There were nearly 5,000 bison in Yellowstone in the summer of 2023, according to park biologists.

It is unclear how rare a true white bison is in North America. The National Bison Association does not track these statistics.

What is the prophecy of the white buffalo calf?

Each year, bison are transferred to Native American tribes as part of the park’s Bison Conservation Translocation Program, helping to “restore their lost culture and way of life.” Since 2019, more than 400 bison have been translocated to 26 tribes across 12 states through this program.

According to the Yellowstone Bison Management Program, many North American tribal cultures are closely related to bison. Many American tribes consider the bison to be the most sacred being on the planet.

For the Lakota people, the birth of a true white buffalo is similar to the second coming of Jesus Christ, Chief Arvol Looking Horse told the Associated Press.

A white buffalo calf is a sign that “we need to do more,” said Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate in South Dakota, and the 19th keeper of the sacred pipe and bundle of the white buffalo woman.

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The Lakota legend began more than 2,000 years ago, when bison and food were scarce. A figure known as the White Buffalo Calf Woman brought a “sacred bundle”, including the White Buffalo Calf Pipe. She taught the Lakota people the seven sacred ceremonies and said that one day, when a little white buffalo was born, it would be a sign that she would return in times of trouble.

The birth of the little white bison in Yellowstone comes after the winter of 2022-2023 produced the largest northward migration ever recorded in the park, when about 4,000 bison migrated to the state of Montana, according to the program management of Yellowstone bison.