Exploring a Miracle
Do you ever think about tumbling into another era as a time traveler?
That’s the journey Abigail, the character in my new book, takes in Abigail and Sego’s Magical Train Ride to solve a mystery and complete her assignment for the 6th bicentennial assignment. She tumbled from her life in 1976 to the 1860s, when the Transcontinental Railroad was being built. She will meet a miracle White Buffalo named Sego. Abigail and Sego became fast friends.
How many white bison are born a year?
The National Bison Association estimates that only one to two white bison are born yearly. According to Chief Looking Horse, a white buffalo has been alive in North America almost every year since 1994, when a calf named Miracle was born on a farm in Wisconsin.
A Miracle Arrives
The birth of this calf is both a blessing and a warning. We must do more, said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota, the Nakota Oyate in South Dakota, and the 19th keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe and Bundle
The sacred calf’s birth comes after a severe winter in 2023, which 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.
A White Buffalo Calf Woman
Lakota legend says that food ran out about 2,000 years ago, when nothing was good, and bison disappeared. A 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 bring buffalo to the area for food. As she left, she turned into a white buffalo calf.
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.
He said a similar white buffalo calf was born in Wisconsin in 1994 and named Miracle.
Troy Heinert, the executive director of the South Dakota-based InterTribal Buffalo Council, said the calf in the photos looks like a true white buffalo because it has a black nose, black hooves, and dark eyes.
That calf seems to have those traits from pictures, 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.
Other tribes also revere white buffalo.
Heinert said many tribes have stories about the importance of the white buffalo. All stories go back to them being very sacred.
Heinert and several members of the Buffalo Field Campaign say they’ve never heard of a white buffalo being born in Yellowstone, which has wild herds. Park officials had not seen the buffalo yet and could not confirm its birth in the park, and they have no record of a white buffalo being born in the park previously.
Jim Matheson, executive director of the National Bison Association, could not quantify how rare the calf is.
To my knowledge, no one has ever tracked the occurrence of white buffalo being born throughout history. How can we decide how often it occurs?
In addition to herds of the animals on public lands or overseen by conservation groups, about 80 tribes across the U.S. have more than 20,000 bison, which has been growing in recent years.
In Yellowstone and the surrounding area, large numbers of bison are killed or removed almost every winter under an agreement between federal and Montana agencies that has limited the size of the park’s herds to about 5,000 animals. Yellowstone officials proposed a slightly larger population of up to 6,000 bison last week, with a final decision expected next month.
However, ranchers in Montana have long opposed increasing the number of Yellowstone herds or transferring the animals to tribes. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte has said he would not support any management plan with a population target greater than 3,000 Yellowstone bison.
Heinert sees the calf’s birth as a reminder that we must live well and treat others respectfully.
I hope that the calf is safe and will live its best life in Yellowstone National Park, where it was designed to be, Heinert said.
According to park officials, a rare white buffalo calf in Yellowstone National Park has not been seen since its birth on June 4.
