Native American ceremony to celebrate birth of baby white buffalo in Yellowstone Park

HELEN, Mont. (AP) — Ceremonies and celebrations are planned Wednesday near the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park to mark the recent birth of a white buffalo in the park, a spiritually significant event for many Native American tribes.

A small white buffalo with a dark nose and eyes was born June 4 in the park’s Lamar Valley, according to witnesses, fulfilling a prophecy for the Lakota people that portends better times but also signals that something must be done more to protect the earth and its animals.

“The birth of this calf is both a blessing and a warning. We must do more,” said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate in South Dakota, and 19th Keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Wife’s Sacred Pipe and Bundle.

Looking Horse held a naming ceremony for the calf and will announce its name at Wednesday’s rally in West Yellowstone, at the headquarters of the Buffalo Field Campaign, an organization that works to protect the park’s wild bison herds.

The calf’s birth captured the imagination of park visitors who hoped to catch a glimpse of it among the thousands of burly adult bison and their calves that summer in and around the Lamar Valley.

For the Lakota, the birth of a white buffalo with dark noses, eyes and hooves is akin to the second coming of Jesus Christ, Looking Horse said.

“It’s a very sacred moment,” he said.

Lakota legend has it that about 2,000 years ago – when nothing was going well, food was running out and the bison were disappearing – a female white buffalo calf appeared, presented a pipe and a packet to a tribesman and said the pipe could be used to bring buffalo to the area for food. As she left, she transformed into a little white buffalo.

“And one day, when times are hard again,” said Looking Horse in recounting the legend, “I will return and stand on the earth like a white buffalo calf, black-nosed, black-eyed, black-hoofed .”

The birth of the sacred calf comes as a harsh winter in 2023 has pushed thousands of Yellowstone buffalo, also known as American bison, to lower elevations. More than 1,500 people have been killed, sent to slaughter or transferred to tribes seeking to reclaim management of an animal their ancestors lived with for millennia.

Members of several Native American tribes are expected to explain the spiritual and cultural significance of the birth of the white buffalo according to their traditions at Wednesday’s gathering.

Jordan Creech, who guides in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, was one of the few people to capture images of the little white buffalo on June 4.

Creech was guiding a photography tour when he spotted a buffalo cow as she was about to give birth in the Lamar Valley, but then she disappeared over a hill. The group continued to an area where grizzly bears had been seen, Creech said.

They returned to the spot along the Lamar River where the buffalo were grazing and the cow came up the hill just as they stopped their vehicle, Creech said. It was clear the little one had just been born, he said, calling the moment incredible.

“And I pointed out to my guests that it was oddly white, but I didn’t announce that it was a white bison, because, you know, why should I just assume that I just witnessed to the very first birth of a white bison in recorded history in Yellowstone?

Yellowstone park officials have no record of a white bison being born in the park before and park officials have not been able to confirm this month’s birth.

There have been no reports that the calf has been seen again. Erin Braaten, who also captured images of the white calf, searched for it in the days after its birth but was unable to find it.

“The fact is we all know he was born and it’s like a miracle to us,” Looking Horse said.