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We the Lakota people have a prophecy about the white buffalo calf, and how
that prophesy originated was that we have a sacred bundle, a sacred peace
pipe, that was brought to us about 2,000 years ago by what we know as the
White Buffalo Calf Woman.
The story goes that she appeared to two warriors at that time. These two
warriors were out hunting buffalo, hunting for food in the sacred Black
Hills of South Dakota, and they saw a big body coming toward them. And they
saw that it was a white buffalo calf. As it came closer to them, it turned
into a beautiful young Indian girl.
At that time one of the warriors thought bad in his mind, and so the young
girl told him to step forward. And when he did step forward, a black cloud
came over his body, and when the black cloud disappeared, the warrior who had
bad thoughts was left with no flesh or blood on his bones. The other warrior
kneeled and began to pray. And when he prayed, the white buffalo calf who
was now an Indian girl told him to go back to his people and warn them that
in four days she was going to bring a sacred bundle.
So the warrior did as he was told. He went back to his people and he gathered
all the elders and all the leaders and all the people in a circle and told
them what she had instructed him to do. And sure enough, just as she said
she would, on the fourth day she came. They say a cloud came down from the
sky, and off of the cloud stepped the white buffalo calf. As it rolled onto
the earth, the calf stood up and became this beautiful young woman who was
carrying the sacred bundle in her hand.
And as she entered into the circle of the nation, she sang a sacred song
and took the sacred bundle to the people who were there to take of her. She
spent four days among our people and taught them about the sacred bundle, the
meaning of it. And she taught them seven sacred ceremonies: one of them was
the sweat lodge, or the purification ceremony. One of them was the naming
ceremony, child naming. The third was the healing ceremony. The fourth one
was the making of relatives or the adoption ceremony. The fifth one was the
marriage ceremony. The sixth one was the vision quest. And the seventh was
the sundance ceremony, the people's ceremony for all of the nation.
She brought us these seven sacred ceremonies and taught our people the songs
and the traditional ways. And she instructed our people that as long as we
performed these ceremonies we would always remain caretakers and guardians
of sacred land. She told us that as long as we took care of it and respected
it that our people would never die and would always live.
When she was done teaching all our people, she left the way she came. She
went out of the circle, and as she was leaving she turned and told our people
that she would return one day for the sacred bundle. And she left the sacred
bundle, which we still have to this very day. And the sacred bundle is known
as the White Buffalo Calf Pipe because it was brought by the White Buffalo
Calf Woman. It is kept in a sacred place on the Cheyenne Indian reservation
in South Dakota. it's kept by a man who is known as the keeper of the White
Buffalo Calf Pipe, and his name is Arvol Looking Horse.
And when she promised to return again, she made some prophesies at that time
....One of those prophesies was that the birth of a white buffalo calf would
be a sign that it would be near the time when she would return again to
purify the world. What she meant by that was that she would bring back
harmony again and balance, spiritually.