HELENA, Mont. — Ceremonies and celebrations are planned Wednesday near the western entrance to Yellowstone National Park to mark the recent birth of a white buffalo calf in the park, a spiritually important event for many Native American tribes.
According to witnesses, a white buffalo calf with a dark nose and eyes was born on June 4 in the park’s Lamar Valley. fulfilling a prophecy for the Lakota people, this portends better times, but also indicates that more needs to be done to protect the earth and its animals.
“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 and Nakota Oyate of South Dakota, and the 19th keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe and Bundle.
Looking Horse performed a naming ceremony for the calf and will announce its name during Wednesday’s meeting in West Yellowstone at the headquarters of Buffalo Field Campaign, an organization dedicated to protecting the park’s wild bison herds.
The birth of the calf captured the imagination of park visitors was hoping to catch a glimpse among the thousands of large adult bison and their calves that spend the summer in the Lamar Valley and nearby areas.
To the Lakota, the birth of a white buffalo calf with a dark nose, eyes and hooves resembles the second coming of Jesus Christ, Looking Horse says.
“It’s a very sacred time,” he said.
According to Lakota legend, about 2,000 years ago — when there was nothing good left, food was running out and the bison were disappearing — the White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared, gave a pipe and a bundle to a tribe member and said the pipe could be used to bring buffalo to the area for food. When she left, she turned into a white buffalo calf.
“And one day when times are hard again,” Looking Horse said as he told the legend, “I will return and stand on the earth as a white buffalo calf, black nose, black eyes, black hooves.”
The birth of the sacred calf comes after a harsh winter in 2023 drove thousands of Yellowstone buffalo, also known as American bison, to lower elevations. More than 1,500 were killed, sent to slaughter or transferred to tribes seeking to regain stewardship of an animal from their ancestors lived next to each other for millennia.
Members of several Native American tribes are expected to explain the spiritual and cultural significance of the birth of the white buffalo according to their traditions during Wednesday’s meeting.
Jordan Creech, a guide in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, was one of the few people to capture images of the white buffalo calf on June 4.
Creech was guiding a photography tour when he spotted a cow buffalo as she was about to give birth in the Lamar Valley, but then she disappeared over a hill. The group continued to a spot where grizzly bears had been spotted, Creech said.
They returned to the spot along the Lamar River where the buffalo were grazing and the cow came up the hill as they stopped their vehicle, Creech said. It was clear the calf had just been born, he said, calling it great timing.
“And I commented to my guests that it was strangely white, but I didn’t announce that it was a white bison because, you know, why would I just assume that I had just witnessed the very first birth of a white bison in written history? Yellowstone?” he said.
Yellowstone park officials have no record of a white bison being born in the park, and park officials could not confirm this month’s birth.
There are no reports of the calf being seen again. Erin Braaten, who also took photos of the white calf, looked for it in the days after its birth but couldn’t find it.
“The point is, we all know it was born and it’s a miracle for us,” Looking Horse said.