#white buffalo calf woman

[generationexorcist]

Reported Birth of Rare White Buffalo Calf in Yellowstone Park Fulfills Lakota Prophecy

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

The birth of the sacred calf comes as after a severe winter in 2023 drove thousands of Yellowstone buffalo, also known as bison, to lower elevations. More than 1,500 were killed, sent to slaughter or transferred to tribes seeking to reclaim stewardship over an animal their ancestors lived alongside for millennia...

Time

White Buffalo Calf Woman: The Lakota Goddess of Peace and Healing

[thegenxorcist]

White Buffalo Calf Woman

White Buffalo Calf Woman is a revered figure in Lakota culture, known as a sacred goddess of peace, healing, and transformation with a profound mythological and spiritual significance.

Her teachings are deeply embedded in Lakota tradition and include the bestowal of the Sacred Pipe, symbolizing unity and communication with the divine. She is also associated with the Vision Quest, where individuals embark on a spiritual journey to seek guidance and understanding. The story of White Buffalo Calf Woman serves as a reminder of the importance of respecting nature and maintaining harmony within oneself and the community. Her presence is a representation of hope, renewal, and the enduring spirit of the Lakota people...

White Buffalo Calf Woman: The Lakota Goddess of Peace and Healing

Reported Birth of Rare White Buffalo Calf in Yellowstone Park Fulfills Lakota Prophecy

[comparativetarot]

Queen of Pentacles. Art by Lisa Hunt, from the Animals Divine Tarot.

White Buffalo Calf Woman

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"....SHE DISAPPERAED, AND THE PEOPLE SAW ONLY A WHITE BUFFALO COW..."

PIC INFO: Spotlight on the White Buffalo Woman, the mythological figure of Lakota Indian legend in which she presents her people with the Sacred Calf Pipe giving them the means to pray to the Great Spirit, artwork by Eric Carle (1929-2021), from the children's book "Dragons Dragons and Other Creatures that Never Were" (1988).

". . . A beautiful maiden dressed in sage. . . unwrapped the pipe and taught the songs and prayers of five great ceremonies. . . She disappeared, and the people saw only a white buffalo cow trotting over the prairie."

-- "White Buffalo Woman" by JOHN BIERHORST (b. 1936)

Source: www.fairyroom.ru/?p=56315 & World History.

[shamandrummer]

Pass the Pipe

You've probably heard the expression "pass the peace pipe." It might have been when two parties struck a compromise after previously being at an impasse. The phrase comes from early American settlers and soldiers who noticed Indigenous peoples smoking ceremonial pipes during treaty signings. They misunderstood this to mean pipe smoking symbolized peacemaking in Native American culture and hence the word "peace pipe" and phrases like "pass the peace pipe" came about.

But, like many conventional American ideas about the history and culture of Indigenous peoples, the term peace pipe is a misnomer, says Gabrielle Drapeau, an interpretive park ranger at Minnesota's Pipestone National Monument and an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Tribal enrollment requirements preserve the unique character and traditions of each tribe. The tribes establish membership criteria based on shared customs, traditions, language and tribal blood.

Many Native Americans smoke pipes -- and not just in recognition of peace, but in ceremony and prayer as well as a way to connect with God. "So, don't use the term peace pipe," Drapeau says. "It's just pipe."

But these were -- and are still -- not just pipes. These artifacts, the tradition of pipe smoking and the ceremonies during which they are smoked hold far more significance for American Indian peoples across North America than the misnomer conveys.

A Short History of the Ceremonial Pipe

There is no singular word for these ceremonial pipes that spans all Native American cultures. The broad term often given to them is calumet, from the French word chalumet, which means reed or flute. Various tribes have their own unique names in their own languages. For example, the Lakota sacred pipe is called a chanunpa.

Ceremonial pipes have been a part of several Native American cultures for at least 5,000 years and are still used for ceremony and prayer. "I grew up this way. It's the only way I know how to pray," Drapeau says. "To me, it is like a physical representation of your connection to God."

The legends of how tribe elders first received pipes differ, too. According to Lakota legend, the first pipe was brought to Earth 19 generations ago by a divine messenger known as White Buffalo Calf Woman (known in the Lakota language as Pte-san Win-yan). The pipe was given to the people who would not forget -- the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nations. The Buffalo Calf Woman came to the tribes when there was a great famine and instructed them about living in balance with nature. She gifted the people with a sacred bundle containing the White Buffalo Calf Pipe, which still exists to this day and is kept by Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Other members of the tribes are also pipe carriers: stewards entrusted with the care of particular ceremonial and personal pipes.

[spaceysoupy]

Happy birthday to the white buffalo calf in Yellowstone <3

[cognitivejustice]

Many tribes consider a white bison birth to be a sacred omen that signifies change. The herd this calf was born into has also become an important cultural symbol - it's the last wild buffalo herd in North America.

The herd is entering a new chapter of its life as stewardship of the species is increasingly being overseen by indigenous communities again and advocates push to grow bison populations.

The white calf has added spiritual significance to buffalo advocates' efforts as they test a long-standing status quo where government policies prioritise beef ranching over the beliefs of native tribes.

For the last 2,000 years the people of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakoda tribes have told the story of a woman who arrived during a time of need.

A version speaks of two scouts searching for food and buffalo in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The mysterious woman appeared and offered their tribe a bundle of sacred gifts, including a pipe carved from red rock, and instructed the people on how to live and pray.

She transformed several times before taking the form a white buffalo calf with a black nose, black eyes and black hooves. As she departed, a great number of buffalo returned to feed the people.

Dozens of other tribes have white buffalo stories, interpreting its arrival as both a blessing and a warning.

Chief Arvol Looking Horse, a spiritual leader of the Lakota Tribe, is known as the Keeper of the Sacred Bundle — the bundle and pipe left by the spirit. He likens the white calf’s return to the second coming of Christ.

Looking Horse, 70, said that before she departed, the woman told the people that she would return as a white buffalo calf “when everything is sickly and not good, and when people are with a not good mind”.

“This is spirit. It means spirit is happening,” he added.

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder and Scully, Past Lives, and the White Buffalo Calf

An extract from the next part of my Scully Family meta series.

Albert Hosteen at first compares Mulder's recovery in The Blessing Way to the Navajo tale of the Gila Monster: "When the F.B.I. man Mulder was cured by the holy people, we were reminded of the story of the Gila monster, who symbolizes the healing powers of the medicine man. In this myth, the Gila monster restores a man by taking all his parts and putting them back together. His blood is gathered by ants, his eyes and ears by sun, his mind by Talking God and Pollen Boy. Then lightning and thunder bring the man back to life."

However, Hosteen soon receives word from another (unnamed) tribe that links the birth of their legendary white buffalo calf to the day of Mulder's recovery: "Like the Navajo, these people have their own stories and myths. One of these stories tells of the white buffalo woman who came down from the heavens and taught the Indians how to lead virtuous lives and how to pray to the creator. She told the people she would return one day, then she turned into a white buffalo and ascended into the clouds, never to be seen again. But on this day, when the holy people had given the F.B.I. man a miracle, a white buffalo was born and every Native American knew, whether he believed the story or not, that this was a powerful omen and that great changes were coming." 

Canonically, this sets up exciting possibilities that aren't followed through (or, at least, not very well); but if one takes a step back, the Mulder and Calf comparison doesn't work at all:

Melissa's sacrifice is drawn directly to Scully throughout the entire episode, with Scully repeating that fact in doomed tones over and over and over.

The White Buffalo Woman is a feminine mythology, tying more neatly to the mother buffalo/Melissa's "sacrifice" and the calf/Scully's "rebirth" (as foretold in the legend.)

Not only does Melissa act as the "maternal" guide to Scully's inner voice, she is also her protector, supporter, and keeper-- in this life and the next (Beyond the Sea, The Blessing Way, A Christmas Carol, etc.)

If parallels between Mulder's "rebirth" and Melissa's "sacrifice" can be drawn, so can Scully's escape from her assassins and "rebirth" back into normal civilization alongside Melissa's death. It would also line up narratively with Albert's monologue about the buffalos: “The white buffalo calf had survived; but after a day it would no longer drink its mother’s milk. On the third day, the mother buffalo laid down in her stall and would not get up. They said the men could do nothing for her. That night, she died." Scully, too, was separated from her sister for a period of three days; and Melissa, too, died on the third.

Furthermore, there is no connection between Mulder's set of circumstances and Melissa's, narratively or mythologically.

However, we all know The X-Files is loaded with errors because of a lack of a show bible and a broken, incohesive narrative; that means, unfortunately, there is one possibility for the comparison to work-- and that is by taking The Field Where I Died's canon seriously.

TFWID posits that Mulder, Melissa Rydell, and Scully are connected soulmates, recycled together as an unholy trio in each life (kind of like the vampires in 3) and doomed to suffer tragic fates until they get it right. (On the surface, this might further prove the hypothesis that "the X-Files was always a dark show with an unhappy ending" except that Chris Carter himself said that wasn't the case-- though he might have changed his mind recently.) Massive plot holes of the episode aside, TFWID also posits each soul is reborn into a new body regardless of the sex of that body, meaning Mulder was alternately a Confederate man and a Jewish woman in previous lives.

And the Jewish woman reincarnation is the stickler... because that was the last past life Mulder had (to my knowledge) before his current one. Meaning, Mulder soul could very well be the White Buffalo Woman at some point in his past, reborn in this life, again, to bring about the justice and better ending he'd failed to accomplish in the preceding ones. It would do away with the feminine-only bent to the mythology, at the very least; and it would tie into Chris Carter's overall vision for the show-- fate vs. freewill, with fate winning out again and again in Mulder and Scully's lives.

However, that would negate the more interesting and accurate interpretation of the White Buffalo Woman mythology: that Scully, not Mulder, was the woman fated to save the world.

That interpretation would also make sense because Scully often experienced visitations from the dead or dying in the series, including Albert Hosteen's apparition in Amor Fati... which was right after the revelation that shook her to the core: finding the key to everything in Africa. And if that be the case, then the files and the Conspiracy and being a part of Mulder's quest was Scully's fated journey; and that Mulder had made repeated mistakes that destroyed his life in each of the past ones. That Scully was here, now, to "keep him honest, make him a whole person" and safeguard him from danger (and himself) while saving the world.

Furthermore, this interpretation of canon (which I argue is the only factual one) would also negate the late-in-the-game comparison between William and buffalos in Season 9 since:

The White Buffalo Woman was prophesied to be reborn with agency-- to be a leader herself, not a vessel for the next "Messiah"

It would mean Scully's son was a natural product of her and Mulder's dedication to each other, a bonus to saving the world and setting her partner's life to rights

Conclusion

While Hosteen's narrative states that Mulder is the White Calf and Melissa's life was sacrificed for his, it does not fit narratively with the White Buffalo Woman legend nor the ensuing events of the episode and rest of the series.

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

[worldwithoutmiracles]

Lakota Elders see omen in Yellowstone's rare white bison birth

"An incredibly rare white bison calf has been photographed in Yellowstone National Park, exciting [Lakota] who view it as a religious sign heralding major change.

It was spotted in the Lamar Valley area, and is the first white bison to be born in the last wild herd in the US, according to modern records. (Born 4 June 2024)

Simon Moya-Smith, an Oglala Lakota writer who was also raised on the white buffalo woman's story, told the BBC that tradition says the arrival of a white calf is seen as both a 'blessing and a warning'.

Every time a white calf is seen, 'you have this prophecy of something good or something bad will happen. But we know that it's going to be great - great in the sense that it's going to be significant'."

article from the BBC here (added Lakota to the headline because just saying "Native Americans" is fine for an article from the BBC but felt kind of disrespectful for me), second article from PBS, link to one retelling of the white buffalo calf woman story

[wachinyeya]

According to the National Bison Association, there are approximately 500,000 bison in North America, and only about one in every ten million bison born is white.

Among the Lakota people, the white bison holds a special place in their spirituality and traditions. The legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman is central to their beliefs.

According to the legend, a white buffalo calf appeared to the Lakota many generations ago and transformed into a beautiful woman who taught them sacred ceremonies and imparted important spiritual knowledge. The White Buffalo Calf Woman promised to return again, signaling a time of peace and harmony.

[whencyclopedia]

White Buffalo Calf Woman

White Buffalo Calf Woman (Ptesan-Wi) is a supernatural entity of the Sioux religion, who serves as an intermediary between Wakan Tanka (Great Mystery or Great Spirit) and the people. According to Sioux lore, she appeared to the people in the distant past to teach them how to reconnect and maintain a relationship with the Great Spirit.

Continue reading...

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the Associated Press (AP):

The reported birth of a rare white buffalo in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times, according to members of the American Indian tribe who cautioned that it’s also a signal that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals.

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

The birth of the sacred calf comes as after a severe winter in 2023 drove thousands of Yellowstone buffalo, also known as bison, to lower elevations. More than 1,500 were killed, sent to slaughter or transferred to tribes seeking to reclaim stewardship over an animal their ancestors lived alongside for millennia.

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

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, 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 some day when the times are hard again,” Looking Horse said in relating the legend, “I shall return and stand upon the earth as a white buffalo calf, black nose, black eyes, black hooves.”

A similar white buffalo calf was born in Wisconsin in 1994 and was named Miracle, he said.

Troy Heinert, the executive director of the South Dakota-based InterTribal Buffalo Council, said the calf in Braaten’s photos looks like a true white buffalo because it has a black nose, black hooves and dark eyes.

“From the pictures I’ve seen, that calf seems to have those traits,” said Heinert, who is Lakota. An albino buffalo would have pink eyes.

A naming ceremony has been held for the Yellowstone calf, Looking Horse said, though he declined to reveal the name. A ceremony celebrating the calf’s birth is set for June 26 at the Buffalo Field Campaign headquarters in West Yellowstone.

[ancestorsalive]

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐍𝐨𝐬𝐞 🌻🌻

Pretty Nose : A Fierce and Uncompromising Woman War Chief You Should Know

Pretty Nose (c. 1851 – after 1952) was an Arapaho woman, and according to her grandson, was a war chief who participated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.In some sources, Pretty Nose is called Cheyenne, although she was identified as Arapaho on the basis of her red, black and white beaded cuffs. The two tribes were allies at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and are still officially grouped together as the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

On June 25, 1876, a battalion of the 7th Cavalry, led by George Armstrong Custer, was wiped out by an overwhelming force of Lakota, Dakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho.

There are many stories that come from this most famous battle of the Indian Wars. However, the most overlooked account is of the women warriors who fought alongside their male counterparts.

Minnie Hollow Wood, Moving Robe Woman, Pretty Nose (pictured), One-Who-Walks-With-The-Stars, and Buffalo Calf Road Woman were among the more notable female fighters.

Pretty Nose fought with the Cheyenne/Arapaho detachment.

One-Who-Walks-With-The-Stars (Lakota) killed two soldiers trying to flee the fight.

Minnie Hollow Wood earned a Lakota war-bonnet for her participation, a rare honor.

Lakota Moving Robe Woman fought to avenge the death of her brother.

And Cheyenne Buffalo Calf Road Woman holds the distinction of being the warrior who knocked Custer off his horse, hastening the demise of the over-confident Lt. Colonel.

Pretty Nose's grandson, Mark Soldier Wolf, became an Arapaho tribal elder who served in the US Marine Corps during the Korean War. She witnessed his return to the Wind River Indian Reservation in 1952, at the age of 101.

[gaykarstaagforever]

To celebrate the recent fulfillment of the Ptesáŋwiŋ (White Buffalo Calf Maiden) Pipe and Bundle Lakotan prophecy, I got out the white buffalo plush 'I made' in 7th grade.

My public school district had recently decided to mandate Home Economics for both boys and girls (this was like 1996), and to make the boys not hate it, our big project was that we had to order a plushie from a catalog and sew it together ourselves.

(Seriously, it is the only junior high school class I remember, because they taught us how to write checks and cook rice. Home Ec is like the most important class there is, along with maybe Wood Shop - because while you're building crappy bookshelves, the bored semi-retired old man teacher with 8 fingers is telling you how his home equity loan works, and why it's total bullshit.)

I seriously stuffed and sewed this toy myself. I was forced to learn how to hand sew and also use a sewing machine, which is the most finicky and unintuitive and complicated and powerful and beautiful little device ever created by the human animal, and if you're good at it, the Government should send you checks. I was NOT good at it, or hand sewing, so my white buffalo was sort of a mess.

Fortunately I was blessed with a mother who made her own clothes in the 70s, and can operate a sewing machine expertly while watching a movie and her grandkids. When I showed her my white buffalo, she politely said, "...That's...nice. Want me to even it out?" And I said yes, and she proceeded to tear it apart and turn it into an actual toy.

This woman made 90% of my childhood stuffed animals, and still "fixes" all of my clothes. Sewing is as important a life skill as there is, and probably will be, for another 20,000+ years of human existence. Don't take it for granted. Those people in Vietnam and China who do it for us are worth significantly more than we pay them to do it, if you weren't already aware.

My white buffalo looks okay almost 30 years later, only because my Mother can sew, and quietly fixed the mess I made of it.

(Most of the other boys made plush footballs. I went with the probably-racist white buffalo that was a lot harder to make because it looked neat. It was also a lot more expensive than the footballs, but I remember arguing with the teacher about how I could totally do it, and I did, so that was probably an early example of me demonstrating fledgling artistic gay narcissism, and winning, after I spent more money on it than I needed to, and completing it badly, only out of spite. Another personal milestone.)

[itwasanangryinch]

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, 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 some day when the times are hard again,” Looking Horse said in relating the legend, “I shall return and stand upon the earth as a white buffalo calf, black nose, black eyes, black hooves.”

[tieflingkisser]

Rare white bison calf spotted in Yellowstone National Park could fulfill prophecy

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Mont. - A Montana photographer has a picture she definitely will not forget after snapping a photo of a rare – and, potentially, sacred – white bison calf in Yellowstone National Park.  Erin Braaten said the moment happened on June 4 in the Lamar Valley section of the national park. 

[...]

The Lakota prophecy portends better times, but it’s also a signal that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals. "The birth of this calf is both a blessing and warning. We must do more," said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and the Nakota Oyate in South Dakota, and the 19th keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe and Bundle. For the Lakota, the birth of a white buffalo calf with a black nose, eyes and hooves is akin to the second coming of Jesus Christ, Looking Horse said. 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, 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 some day when the times are hard again," Looking Horse said in relating the legend, "I shall return and stand upon the earth as a white buffalo calf, black nose, black eyes, black hooves." Other tribes also revere white buffalo.