Ma-hi-ya-sqa

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For other meanings, see: White Buffalo (disambiguation). Compare: Mahpiya Ska in the Lakota Language and Ma-hi-ya-sqa in the Cherokee Language.

Ma-hi-ya-sqa or White Cloud is an albino female buffalo residing at the National Buffalo Museum and Cultural Center located in Jamestown, North Dakota. She is currently on loan to the museum and the project caring for her is funded by the City of Jamestown North Dakota for approximately $10,000 per year. She has been certified a true Albino American Bison.

White Cloud, like most albino buffalo, is almost totally deaf and has limited vision and joined the herd located at the museum in 1997. She has already given birth to several calves, although none of them are pure white. Native Americans from all over America perform sacred pilgrimages to receive her wisdom and blessings. She is allowed to roam freely within a several hundred acre expanse of the museum grounds.

The fence outside of her compound in Jamestown is tied with hundreds of prayer and ribbon bundles from Native Americans who travel thousands of miles to offer her blessings and receive her wisdom. It is considered the most powerful of blessings for a sacred white buffalo to approach a supplicant in prayer and to breath upon them and brush against the fence leaving an offering of her hair.

Native cultures in North America believe that the White buffalo is given the power to bring the judgement of the Creator and the Thunder beings to mankind. When Native Americans face difficult choices and wish the creator to provide them with judgment and guidance, they may journey great distances to visit what they consider a powerful and sacred spirit animal.

Supplicants believe that the White Buffalo will offer seekers a choice between two or more paths to wisdom. It is believed that the White Buffalo repeatedly returns after death to bring her blessings to all peoples of the world.