Tatanka

I had never seen tatanka (Lakota for buffalo or, more correctly, bison) before, and I got to see them in the Black Hills' Custer State Park wildlife loop – lots of them, with a male buffalo making pretty impressive noise as the ladies and calves grazed, scratched themselves against pine trees, or fed from their mothers -- along the sides of the road or right in the middle of it. They were slightly more shabby close up than one sees in pictures, but they were big, with powerful muscles all the same. A bit like animal versions of big, furry football players.

 

This is the adult male bison; all the others in the photos are female or calves.

 

 
They were right by the cars and in the road!

 

 

In Lakota tradition, buffalo are sacred and are considered by medicine men to be our brothers. In the past, all parts of the buffalo were used in respect for its sacrifice to keep people alive. Now, there are not many buffalo to hunt, so I’m not sure what happens.

In the mythology of the Lakota people, the White Buffalo Calf Woman figures prominently. She comes in the form of a white buffalo calf (which normally do not exist in nature) and brought the pipe to the people. She is said to return to the people in times of need. I was told that a few years ago there were several white calves born on reservations throughout the country, one nearby, either on Pine Ridge or Rosebud (another Lakota, though not Oglala Lakota, reservation just East of Pine Ridge). When they were tested for their age, their hooves tested as being several hundred years old. I like this story, even alongside my skepticism.

Here is a stained glass image of White Buffalo Calf Woman by Angela Babby, which I saw at the Red Cloud School in Pine Ridge: