Native Americans celebrate birth of ‘prophetic’ white buffalo

Native Americans have celebrated the birth of a “prophetic” white buffalo but also warned of the message it brings.

The rare white buffalo holds religious and spiritual significance in Lakota prophecy, where it is heralded as something akin to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

The small white buffalo was spotted by a family in the Lamar valley as they were driving through the Yellowstone National Park.

Erin Braaten was driving through with three of her children when, stuck in traffic caused by the slow-moving herd, she noticed a young calf across a river.

After realising it was not a coyote as initially thought, she was left stunned by the sight.

“There were so many different thoughts and emotions,” Ms Braaten told the BBC.

“It was so amazing. I thought I’d have a better chance of capturing Bigfoot than a white bison calf.”

Sacred event

The birth of a white buffalo is a sacred event for the Lakota people and other Native Americans. Lakota legend says about 2,000 years ago — when nothing was good, food was running out and bison were disappearing — a white buffalo calf woman appeared.

She 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.

The recent birth of the calf follows a severe winter in 2023 that 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.

But according to members of the American Indian tribe, 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.

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.

“And someday, 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.