Tribe celebrates birth of rare white buffalo calf in Yellowstone

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WEST YELLOWSTONE (AP) — A Native American religious ceremony Wednesday marking a rare recent event in Yellowstone National Park featured dancing, drumming, singing and a retelling of how a mysterious woman brought a message of comfort during difficult times.

Earlier this month, a white buffalo calf was born in the park’s vast, lush Lamar Valley, where hundreds of huge, lumbering bison graze in a scene reminiscent of the old American West.

For some tribes who revere the American bison (they call them “buffalo”), the appearance of the calf was both the fulfillment of a sacred prophecy and a message to take better care of the earth.

“It’s up to each and every one of you to make this happen for our children’s future. We have to come together and bring back the good energy,” Chief Arbol Looking Horse said at the ceremony a few miles west of Yellowstone in southernmost Montana.

Looking Horse is a spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate peoples of South Dakota and the 19th custodian of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe and Bundle. He describes the appearance of the White Buffalo Calf as both a blessing and a warning to the natural environment.

He announced that the calf will be called “Wakan Gri,” which means “sacred return” in Lakota.

About 500 people attended the ceremony at Buffalo Field Campaign Headquarters, between Hebgen Lake and the southern tip of the Madison Range, including representatives from the Colville Tribe of Washington state, the Lakota and Sioux tribes of Dakota, the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe of Idaho. The conservation group works with tribes to protect and respect wild buffalo.

Only a handful of people were able to see the calf shortly after its birth on June 4, and even fewer were able to get photographic evidence of its existence. The calf has not been seen since.

As weeks went by without any sightings, suspicions grew that the calf had fallen victim to predators, currents, disease or a host of other dangers to young buffalo. Whatever the case, it was an auspicious sign deeply rooted in Lakota legend and spiritual beliefs.

About 2,000 years ago, when nothing was going well, food was scarce, and the bison were disappearing, the White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared and gifted members of the tribe with a bowl pipe and a package, saying they could use the pipe to bring buffalo to the area for food.

When she left she was transformed into a white buffalo calf, and she promised that one day, when times were hard again, she would return as a white buffalo calf with a black nose, black eyes and black hooves.

“The birth of this white buffalo calf with his black nose, black eyes and black hooves is a very monumental moment in our history,” Looking Horse said.

White calves are rare but not unheard of on buffalo ranches — they’re the result of crossbreeding buffalo with cows — but white bison in the wild are even rarer, having never been seen until recently in Yellowstone, the continent’s largest wild game refuge.

The calf was born after a harsh winter in 2023 drove thousands of Yellowstone buffalo into the lowlands. More than 1,500 were killed, sent to slaughterhouses or transferred to tribes seeking to reclaim control over the animals their ancestors have coexisted with for millennia.

Jordan Creech, a guide in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, is one of the few people to have photographed a white buffalo calf.

Creech was guiding a photography tour when he spotted a female buffalo near the Lamar River near the lake near the Lamar River. The buffalo disappeared over the hills, and the group headed toward the area where the grizzly bear had been spotted, Creech said.

Creech said he later returned and saw the cow with her calf, and it was clear the calf had just been born, so it was great timing.

“And I noticed to my guests that it was oddly white, but I didn’t announce that it was a white bison, because how could I possibly be convinced that we were witnessing the first-ever documented birth of a white bison in Yellowstone?” he said.

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

Erin Braaten, who also photographed the white calf, searched for the calf for several days after its birth but was unable to find it.

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

Gruber reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming.