MISSOURI – A sacred white buffalo has been spotted in Missouri’s Ozark Mountains, a nature reserve of around 10,000 acres. The Buffalo population is estimated at 25 animals in total. Park rangers have named him Takoda,
According to Dogwood Canyon director of wildlife Jeremy Hinkle, as published in Prevention Magazine, the blond coloured beast represents only one in 10,000,000 bison being born white.”
“The phenomenon is becoming more common due to crossbreeding with cattle as a result of attempts by ranchers to save the species from extinction after original populations plummeted to only a few hundred between 1830 and 1900,” said Hinkle.
To most North American Native populations, the new calf represents goodwill and peace for Indigenous people.
“A surprising number of ivory bison are being born in the West, confounding geneticists, delighting the rest of us, and we hope fulfilling a Native American prophecy of peace and goodwill on earth,” Callan Kane is quoted in an article for Cowgirl Magazine.
“Takoda” is 100% Bison, however, one of a reported 50 alive today in a population of an estimated 400,000 Buffalo in North America.
Native legend tells that the “White Buffalo Woman” appeared to the Lakota people around 2000 years ago. Legend says the woman shape-shifted into a white buffalo before disappearing into the setting sun, promising to return “during a time of great shift and transformation to guide Earth’s people toward peace and wisdom.”
In 1912, a white buffalo calf was killed for unknown reasons with a $5,000 reward offered for information resulting in finding the culprit. Another white buffalo calf was slaughtered in Greensville, Texas.
The calf named Lightning Medicine Cloud’s body was found skinned on Lakota Ranch grounds by owner Arby Little Soldier. The calf’s normal brown coloured mother was found dead the next day. These and other similar acts against white calves have caused many, especially on Lakota/Nakota territory, to wonder if killing a white buffalo should be called a hate crime, knowing how important the animal is in Lakota legend and life.