The Legend of the White Buffalo ©1998 by Hunt-Johnson
	Among the Lakota Sioux of the Great Plains, reverence is given to an ancient holy woman by the name of White Buffalo Calf Woman. She was a beautiful woman dressed in white buffalo fur. Legend tells how she appeared at a time when the Indians did not truly know how to live. She presented the people with the sacred pipe and taught them how it would lead them in the right direction. The bowl represents the buffalo and all humans, and its stem represents all things that grow upon the Earth. She taught them how to use the pipe and of the sacred mysteries of relationships it symbolized. She taught them how the pipe would help them to walk like a living prayer, and with it, all could become one - the earth, the sky, the two -leggeds, the four-leggeds, the winged ones, the trees, the grasses, and all living things. She taught them how to pray for and bring forth abundance. As she left, she rolled upon the earth and became a white buffalo calf and then disappeared over the horizon. No sooner had she disappeared than great herds of buffalo were seen all around the Indian camps. The American Buffalo is a symbol of abundance and manifestation. Part of what White Buffalo Calf Woman taught to the Lakota is that they did not have to struggle to survive if the right action was joined with the right prayer. All that would be needed would be available. Another part of the legend holds a prophecy relating to the strife that developed between the Native Americans and the white man. The prophecy held that when the White Buffalo Calf Woman came again in the form of a white buffalo, it would mark the beginning of a time of great peace among all peoples of the Earth. There has been a great stir among the Indian Nations within the last couple of years. A white buffalo was recently born on a farm in the northern Mid-West. As far as is known, it is the only white buffalo born in this century. Native Americans and white men alike have made pilgrimages to pay tribute to the return of the White Buffalo Calf Woman.
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