Blog, Buffalo, Wellness & Spirtuality | May 18, 2012
We had a particularly powerful workshop last October with Rose De Dan of Wild Reiki and Shamanic Healing. According to Rose and other shamans who look at life from an alternative frame, Windwalker the cougar, near the end of his days, had hung onto life to be here through the last retreat of the year. People had flown in from around the country to see him one last time. Rose made him the focus of the workshop with ceremonies honoring him and his courage and beauty of spirit. Paralyzed in his hind legs, he lay regally and greeted each participant with warmth and dignity, purring his way through the entire visit. People in turn helped him into his wheelchair, groomed him, lay with him in the grass. At the end of the weekend Rose and Debbie, her assistant, came to say goodbye, realizing they would not see him again in this world. Windwalker, who had been unable to walk for weeks, struggled to his feet. Step by difficult step he managed to unsteadily but purposefully make his way over to meet them. Tears streaming, Rose and Debbie said goodbye. Windwalker passed away peacefully in Jean’s arms a few weeks later.
The entire weekend had such moments of power and beauty. At the end one of the participants, a Native American pipe carrier in the Lakota Sioux tradition, handed us a check. She said “You need to have a sacred white buffalo calf on the land.” We were stunned. To have such a responsibility and honor, caring for a representative of a people’s sacred tradition is daunting. But it is a gift one cannot refuse.
She said “The white buffalo teachings are very significant to many of the tribes, teaching the correct way of interacting with each other, pulling the tribe together. She teaches the value of right relationship with the people; the land. At the time the white buffalo came to the Lakota they were in conflict and she brought unity. She left them with the Sacred Pipe as a way to communicate with the Great Spirit, teaching unity and coming back around in full circle.”
I asked her why she was giving this to Earthfire. She replied “The land here is ancient Indian ground. This is a way to honor the elders, the ancient ones who have come before us. Earthfire’s vision is of teaching people how to come back into circle through animals. It all just fit.” She dedicated her gift to Chief Buddy Redbow and Sequoia, whose teachings were all about right relations.
In a book called White Buffalo Teachings by Chief Arvol Looking Horse he wrote: “Nineteen generations ago the beautiful spirit we now refer to as White Buffalo Calf Woman brought the Sacred C’anupa (Sacred Pipe) to our People. She taught the People the Seven Sacred Rites and how to walk on Mother Earth in a sacred manner. Pte-san win-yan. As she left, she turned into a young beautiful white buffalo and then she walked over the hill and out of sight. This is where she received her name, White Buffalo Calf Woman. She gifted us with the Seven Sacred Rites that still sustain our People today. The person who smokes the sacred pipe achieves union with all Beings. By smoking this C’anupa, you will make direct personal contact with the Great Mystery. . . Following the Way of this Sacred C’anupa, you will walk in a sacred way upon the earth, for the Earth is your grandmother and your mother and she is sacred. . .”
“She told us her Spirit would return to help us one day in times of great hardship, and that we would recognize her.”
How do you find a white buffalo calf? We did the research and located a place that raised buffalo that carried white buffalo genes. We put in a request. We waited. We prepared as best we could mentally.
Five days ago we got a call. . . a little white buffalo girl had just been born! And now she is here. Every day she grows stronger. We wait with anticipation to see what she will teach.
White Buffalo Teachings by Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Pipe of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Great Sioux Nation HYT Publishing www.haveyouthought.com.
Chief Arvol Looking Horse talks about his hopes for world peace between all nations. “I encourage the Nations to pray in their own ways and to revive their own ancient traditions for love and respect, which are the foundations stones of all Indigenous cultures.” He ends the book with a prayer for All Our Relations . . . Mitakuye Oyasin.
Animal Story, Blog, Buffalo, Foxes | March 11, 2012
When Firefly the fox came to live with us Jean decided to take her around and introduce her to all her new family. He took her to Bluebell the buffalo girl who immediately accepted her into the Earthfire herd.
Blog, Buffalo | March 3, 2012
Animal Story, Blog, Buffalo | August 18, 2010
When we look for Bluebell the buffalo in the pasture, we know exactly where to find her. Out of 20 acres of freedom and grass, she is lying right up against the fencing that separates her from Ramble the grizzly bear, perhaps 12 feet away. It makes you think . . .
Buffalo are intensely social creatures with all that that implies. They are oriented and responsive to one another; they crave one another’s company and are continually together in a herd. When we say an animal is social, I wonder if we feel what that fully means. Chickens are social – ours are often found lying close to one another, or taking dust baths practically on top of one another. Apes are social, wolves and dogs are social, humans are social. We need one another. We are all made to be with one another and lapse into depression when we are alone. It is a biologically-based thing, hard-wired into our nature and theirs. It is something we have in common. The sensations a lone social animal has are very probably the same sensations we have, being animals too. An ache, a hunger, and feelings of not knowing exactly what to do with ourselves.
There is quite a variety of ways we adapt to loneliness and deal with it and so it is with buffalo.
We had the pleasure and honor of taking care of two baby buffalo that grew into fine young girls, Bluebell and Rosebud. Rosebud bonded intensely to Josie the Buffalo Goat who helped feed her excellent goat’s milk as she grew. They were always together as a unit. When Josie suddenly died, Rosebud went into a depression. She developed pneumonia and nothing we did could save her. Bluebell was herself, brokenhearted, trying to groom the still form of Rosebud; to lift her, to bring her back to life. For a long time she mourned and we worried that we might lose her too. But something interesting happened. Somehow the tragedy softened her; opened her to other possibilities. She began to look to people. She who was dominant and even mildly threatening became softer and softer. Last time I wrote about Bluebell I recounted how she would always be at the base of the yurt when we have meetings. That trend has unmistakably deepened. During a program last June she stood for half an hour while 6 women systematically groomed and plucked her winter’s fur until she was smooth and shining. She remembers that and now comes to greet all humans who visit, and allows herself (actually kind of asks) to be touched, admired, groomed. Bluebell is nine – yet she learned, and adapted and changed. She has matured with a wider acceptance of other beings. It is not just buffalo that are worthy of her attention and interaction; not just buffalo who can give.
Going back to Bluebell and Ramble the grizzly . . . twelve thousand years ago megafauna such as the giant short-faced bear, giant sloth, mammoths and other huge animals roamed the continent. More than 50 species were driven to extinction during what is called the “Pleistocene Overkill,” a combination of human hunting and climate change. There are only a few species left from that great extinction – and two of them are the grizzly bear and the bison. If one thinks about more subtle connections between living beings, as one does if one has the time or inclination or exposure, you can’t help thinking – do they recognize one another in some way? Do they share a deep loneliness? A sense of being the last of their kind from another time, remnants of a once vast community, hunted still to a miniscule number?
There is help on the horizon for Bluebell. A visitor deeply moved by her has made a commitment to help us find a baby buffalo for her when they are born in the spring (thank you Joan!) Or maybe two. Bluebell will have her herd again.
Buffalo | March 17, 2010
Nothing is simple.
Until we can finish landscaping, when we bring a wolf to the yurt for a weekly healing session we have to cross Bluebell’s territory and walking path. Because she is such a “watch” buffalo we first have to bribe and distract her. She wants nothing in her pasture that is new, uninspected and unapproved. She is quite clear about it. Humans – yes. MacDougal the Clydesdale – no choice. He is a lot bigger than she is and he lets her know it.
Foffy the mustang – Bluebell tolerates her because she’s able to dominate her and it makes her feel better after being humiliated by MacDougal. And after seven unhappy mutual years together they have reached an understanding — Bluebell tosses her head, Foffy runs. Very satisfying. But…. when there is fresh hay, Foffy sidles over to MacDougal to share his food, nickering, submitting and flirting skillfully and MacDougal cannot resist her golden female beauty. So she eats and enjoys his protection as Bluebell alternately longs, and glowers, a short distance away. All in all it is an arrangement that works.
We immediately feed Bluebell after MacDougal but he always takes the first helping no matter where we put it. Bluebell has to wait until we put another pile far enough away so that MacDougal feels it is not worth his time and energy to chase her away. He does sometimes, however, think her hay must be better and then there is a rapid switching of positions, MacDougal striding forcefully; Foffy following “meekly” behind, Bluebell snorting and making a wide circle back to where MacDougal was just eating.
But, should a wild coyote run across the pasture, that hapless creature would have 1,000 pounds of furry brown fury thundering after it. And a wolf on a leash? A suspicious character. Buffalo fodder. So we have to put her elsewhere with lots of hay.
However she has become much sweeter and more tractable since we lost her companion-buffalo, Rosebud. She is very lonely and has adopted humans as her herd, though we don’t come around often enough to really fill her needs.
We can count on it … any time we go to the yurt, within moments we hear crunch crunch crunch. Winding her way through the snow, she looks up the steps longingly at us. Bluebell then promptly lies down in the middle of the path so that we have to dig a passage in the snow to go around her. It breaks our heart so to see her looking up the steps — though we are happy she hasn’t decided to climb them and try to enter the door to join us. There wouldn’t be much left of the yurt. Interestingly, the other place we often find her is by the bear enclosures. Perhaps she likes the company of other big brown furry creatures. We are hoping to buy a baby from a buffalo farm if possible this year ( we are not allowed to accept orphans from the wild). We’ll keep you posted…
Animal Story, Buffalo, Earthfire Stories, Other Animals | December 15, 2009
Recently at Earthfire’s Digital Storytelling Workshop, we were asked to create videos of animal interactions that touched us. Josie, the Buffalo Goat, immediately came to mind. To me, she epitomizes the whole feeling of Earthfire. Brought to the Sanctuary to provide nutritional milk to orphaned buffalo calves, a relationship blossomed that amazed and delighted me. Often, after greeting me in the morning asking for morsels of food, she would be seen out in the field, leaning against her favorite adopted buffalo, Rosebud. What a wonderful example of interspecies love and devotion. Josie will remain in my heart always as greeter, mother and friend. -Linda Miller
Buffalo, Wellness & Spirtuality | November 20, 2009
Blue Bell, the Buffalo Girl, teaches Jill Runnion a powerful lesson in animal personalities.
Buffalo | November 18, 2009
One of the delights of living with animals is the perspective it gives you as to other forms of life. In this case it is Rosebud and Bluebell, the Buffalo Girls, with their massive prehistoric heads, huge bodies and tiny delicate feet on which they dance and bounce like lightweight ballerinas. Insatiably curious, they investigate thoroughly and with intelligence any new occurrence in their 20-acre domain. They were actively involved in the building of Wendy’s Garden, overseeing all construction efforts. No guest visits without the Buffalo Girls somehow sensing their arrival and coming from wherever they are to investigate, sniff, approve and greet. No overnight guest can take an evening walk along the fence line without, out of nowhere, finding themselves accompanied by two large brown shapes and a goat, all three keeping exact pace on the other side of the fence (well, perhaps Josie, the Buffalo Goat does arrive a bit behind the Girls — but she arrives none the less and participates fully).
Ever alert and watchful, they defend their area and their herd of humans, horses, donkeys, German Shepherd and a goat. The other day friends were taking a walk along the pasture when they spotted something small running across the field, perhaps a fox or a coyote. Suddenly they saw two large dark shapes absolutely streaking after the unfortunate creature with astonishing speed and agility. It ran for its life. They chased it clear out of the pasture and stopped short at the fence line. They knew their territory exactly and no strangers were allowed. Our friends came back a bit awed by what they had seen. The Girls are usually slow, placid, lumbering creatures. Here was quite another perspective. Wild animals continually dumbfound us with their depths, intelligence, and abilities, and their capacity to reach us on a primordial level. There is something inexplicably satisfying and comforting, feeling watched over by such fiercely protective, instinctual matriarchs. The female principle in potent form.
Nomad Lives by Jennifer Sauer
