Lakota, others celebrate rare white bison at Conn. farm, name him Yellow Medicine Dancing Boy

Source: AP-Washington Post

By Associated Press

GOSHEN, Conn. — Dozens of Native Americans wore the traditional garb of their ancestors, sang songs and beat drums on a western Connecticut farm Saturday in celebration of the birth of one of the world’s rarest animals — a white bison.

The miracle calf was officially named Yellow Medicine Dancing Boy at the elaborate ceremony at the Mohawk Bison farm in Goshen in the state’s northwestern hills. It was born June 16 at the farm of fourth-generation farmer Peter Fay.

Many Native Americans consider white bison a symbol of hope and unity; some consider their births sacred events. Experts say white bison are as rare as one in 10 million.

Yellow Medicine Dancing Boy is not an albino, and Fay said DNA testing confirmed the animal’s bloodlines are pure and there was no intermingling with cattle.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/lakota-tribe-members-among-hundreds-who-gathered-at-conn-farm-to-name-rare-white-bison/2012/07/28/gJQAyuRdGX_story.html

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Another joy of the white buffalo to First Americans was murdered just a few months ago.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/sacred-white-buffalo-killed-texas-reward-offered-ranch-153236351.html

Sacred white buffalo killed in Texas; reward offered by ranch for killer
By Dylan Stableford | Tue, May 8, 2012

A North Texas ranch is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest in the killing of its sacred white buffalo.

The rare white buffalo, a male calf named Lightning Medicine Cloud, was found slaughtered and skinned on April 30 on Lakota Ranch near Greenville, Texas, just shy of its first birthday. Its mother died the next day.

The ranch's owner, Arby Little Soldier, said he thinks the mother was poisoned. Little Soldier, the great-great-great grandson of Sitting Bull, was away on a trip when the white buffalo was killed.

"Someone who probably knew we were out of town killed him and stripped the meat," Little Soldier told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I think it was a professional hit on the mom."

FULL story at link.