White buffalo

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Alternate meanings: White Buffalo (disambiguation)

American buffalo (technically bison) are normally brown in color. Rarely, white buffalo are born. White Buffalo are considered to be sacred signs in several Native American religions, and thus have great spiritual importance in those cultures, and are visited for prayer and other religious ceremonies.

White buffalo can result from one of several physical conditions:

They may be leucistic, with white fur but blue eyes, instead of the pink seen in albinos.
They may have a rare genetic condition which causes a buffalo to be born white, but to become brown within a year or two as it matures.
They may be albinos, in which case they will remain unpigmented throughout their lives, and may also have hearing and vision problems.
They may be beefalo, a bison-cattle crossbreed, and thus have inherited the white coloration from their cattle ancestry.

1 Individual white buffalo
2 In popular culture
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Individual white buffalo

In 1833, a white bison was killed by the Cheyenne. The skin of this bison is hanging on the wall of Bent's Old Fort in Colorado. The Cheyenne killed this white bison during the Leonid Meteor Shower (The Night the Stars Fell) and scribed a peace and trade treaty on its skin. This event was documented by historian Josiah Gregg and other travelers on the Santa Fe Trail.

On October 7, 1876, a Scottish buffalo hunter named J. Wright Mooar killed a white buffalo in the Deep Creek drainage near Snyder, Texas. He retained the hide his entire life, despite reports that Teddy Roosevelt offered him $5000 for the hide. White Buffalo Park is presently located near the site of the shooting, and an adjacent ranch is the current resting place of the hide.

A bison named Big Medicine (1933-1959) was born in the wild on the National Bison Range on Montana's Flathead Indian Reservation, and is now displayed at the Montana Historical Society.[1]

A white buffalo was recorded at the U.S. Army Arctic Testing Center, Fort Greely, Alaska. There is a copyrighted photograph of it in Seeing the White Buffalo by Robert Pickering. This buffalo was part of a herd that had been relocated from Montana.

A female named Miracle (not to be confused with Miracle Moon), was born at the family farm of Dave, Valerie, and Corey Heider near Janesville, Wisconsin on August 20, 1994. Her fur fully transitioned to brown as she matured, and she gave birth to four calves of her own before dying of natural causes on September 19, 2004. Sioux tribal members had continually visited their farm since the birth of Miracle. Additionally, a calf born at the Heider farm died aged 4 days in 1996. A third white calf was born in August 2006 which died after being struck by lightning in November of the same year.

Spirit Mountain Ranch in Flagstaff, Arizona has successfully bred three generations of white buffalo starting from a single white female, most with brown fathers. Their herd includes eleven white animals as of May 15, 2008:
- Miracle Moon (female, born April 30, 1997), calf of Big Momma (brown),
- Rainbow Spirit (female, born June 8, 2000, calf of Miracle Moon)
- Mandela Peace Pilgrim (female, born July 18, 2001, calf of Miracle Moon)
- Arizona Spirit (male, born July 1, 2002, calf of Miracle Moon)
- Sunrise Spirit (female, born May 22, 2004, calf of Mandela Peace Pilgrim)
- Spirit Thunder (male, born May 27, 2004, calf of Rainbow Spirit)
- Chief Hiawatha (male, born May 16, 2005, calf of Miracle Moon)
- Our Lucky Star (male, born June 10, 2006, calf of Big Momma)
- White Spirit (male, born June 10, 2007, calf of Sunrise Spirit)
- Happy Spirit (born May 4, 2008, calf of Miracle Moon)
- Precious Grace (born May 15, 2008, calf of Big Momma)

NOTE: On June 4, 2006, Miracle Moon gave birth to Little Dream Walker, a snow white baby (albino), sired by Arizona Spirit. This was the first white to white breeding. He passed away on June 6, 2006, due to albinism. NOTE: Miracle Moon (the first white of this line) has been DNA tested, and is shown to be 100% buffalo, or bison.

Mahpiya Ska ("White Cloud") (Cherokee:ᎤᏁᎬ ᎤᎶᎩᎸ) is an albino white buffalo born July 10, 1996. She has resided since 1997 at the National Buffalo Museum and Cultural Center in Jamestown, North Dakota. Mahpiya Ska has been certified by the National Bison Association as an albino white bison; she is deaf and has impaired vision. She has had four brown calves. On August 31, 2007, she gave birth to a white calf. The calf has yet to be tested, but it is believed to be albino.

Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo in Tupelo, Mississippi, owns a white buffalo bull named Tukota.

A male white buffalo named Spirit of Peace was born on April 17, 2005, on the Blatz Bison Ranch in Fort St. John, British Columbia. Spirit of Peace died on June 1 of the same year, probably as a result of his premature birth.

Buffalo Crossing in Shelbyville, KY owns a female white buffalo named Medicine Heart, born June 3, 2005.

A male named Blizzard was born in March 2006 on the farm of an anonymous rancher, who arranged to have the calf transported to Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Manitoba in recognition of his spiritual significance to aboriginal people.

A third white buffalo was born on the Heider farm (see "Miracle" above) on August 25, 2006. The male calf was named Miracle's Second Chance and was unrelated to Miracle. The Heiders planned to breed the male with the descendants of Miracle, but during a thunderstorm late November 26, 2006, five buffalo on the Heider farm were killed in a lightning strike, including Miracle's Second Chance.

Kenahkihinén (Kĕ-Nah‛-Ki-Nĕn, from the Lenape language meaning 'Watch Over Us'), a male white buffalo calf, was born November 12, 2006, at Woodland Zoo in Farmington, Pennsylvania.

In the last week of May, 2008, a white calf was born to a normal brown 2 year old at the National Buffalo Museum, Jamestown ND, so there are now 3 white buffalo there

[edit] In popular culture

Singer/songwriter Jacob Smith - "The White Buffalo" [2]
The birth of a white buffalo is featured in the Season 3 X-Files episode, "The Blessing Way".
A white buffalo is featured in the flag of Wyoming
Ted Nugent wrote a hit song called "Great White Buffalo"
Cusco wrote "White Buffalo" for their album Apurimac III
The White Buffalo is a 1977 film starring Charles Bronson.

[edit] See also

White Buffalo Calf Woman

[edit] References

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