Yellowstone National Park is home to some remarkable sights, and visitors earlier this month got quite a surprise when they came across an extremely rare juvenile white buffalo. It turns out that its presence has a connection to a Lakota legend.
Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Oyate in South Dakota, spoke about the prophecy with The Associated Press. “The birth of this calf is both a blessing and warning. We must do more,” he said.
The calf was reportedly born on June 4 in the Lamar Valley portion of the park. It was captured on camera by a visitor shortly after it was born. The sighting comes after a rough winter in 2023 that drove thousands of buffalo to lower elevations. Another 1,500 were killed, sent to slaughter, or given to other tribes.
The Lakota legend details how the people were struggling with dwindling food sources and disappearing bison about 2,000 years ago when a mysterious woman appeared to two travelers. She presented them with a pipe engraved with a buffalo and a bundle of sagebrush and told them the pipe could be used to bring buffalo to the area that they can use for food. As she departed, the woman—known as Ptecincala Ska Wakan Winan, or White Buffalo Calf Woman—turned into a white buffalo calf.
According to Looking Horse, the woman promised to “return and stand upon the earth as a white buffalo calf, black nose, black eyes, black hooves” in the future “some day when the times are hard again.” Looking Horse himself is the 19th keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe and Bundle and, as an outspoken opponent of the Dakota Access Pipeline, believes the animal’s birth is a sign to protect the land and the bison population in the area.
They’ve already held a naming ceremony for the calf but are keeping the moniker private. A ceremony celebrating its birth is set for June 26 at the Buffalo Field Campaign headquarters in West Yellowstone.
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