He who made the medicine bundle did other ceremonies in his healing. He taught young mankind, like teachers today. He taught the young ones about going through the form of becoming a warrior, and about the concerns of the people. They would go to him for those matters.
What would happen to the skull?
JOHN: He who killed the white buffalo would offer the skull to the spirits at any of the four sacred points. The four spiritualities are sexuality, temper, craziness, and humor. Humor overrides the other three spiritualities.
He would take the skull with the flesh still on it to the sacred area and place the skull there as an offering. He would leave it out there for up to a year. Then he would return and pick up the skull. By then, it possessed spiritual prowess, and this is where the leadership of certain ceremonies such as the sun dance began. We are starving for wisdom, and this is why the skull is in the sun dance. It will help bring back the buffalo to teach us.
As always, the buffalo would return from the travels of its time from Canada to far south. They were holistic in their migrations. They made everything become greener where they passed. When they walked the earth, it was like they plowed the earth and then fertilized it. That's how the skull was used. It all turned back. It brings the earth back to life. It brings our culture back to life.
Do you know of any winter count robes or other Shoshone images of white buffalo?
JOHN: There are not many traditionalists left who know the images or what they mean. I don't know of any images, except in a frog form, around Bull Lake about eight miles away. It is the white buffalo that went into Bull Lake.
Is there any prophecy associated with the white buffalo?
VIRGENE: The white buffalo is related to the directions and the sacred blanket. In my family, who are medicine people, there is a form of prophecy that will come about. It pertains to the coming of the Indian messiah not Jesus Christ, but another messiah.
To us, the white buffalo means death. The backside of death is the sacred side and the holy side of life. It is prophesied that the red man messiah would bring life back to the dead through the songs he sings and the way he lays out his feathers on the buffalo robe. In the way he lays down the feathers and does his ceremony, he brings back life into the world, into the rocks and everything. Old man of the north direction is death.
When John conducts the sun dance I have seen it the white buffalo enters the dance area. We have seen the white buffalo spirit knock a man down who then has a vision. The white buffalo is the sacred side that comes into the sun dance. The sun dance represents the sacred and holy side of life.
When a man is knocked down, he goes into the spiritual realm and the spirit gives him guidance. He can't take too much at one time. But his awakening is there, like coming out of a dead sleep. He's healed mind, body, and soul. That's the beginning of his spiritual awakening.
The understanding of the white buffalo is that it comes every year and covers the land, and that is death. It is like God weeding his garden. He takes out the old people and the sick. Laying the white robe is the snow that covers the earth. The sacred blanket slowly disappears and brings back life. That's why these ceremonies are in the winter and not the summer.
Do the Shoshone people think that the calf born in Wisconsin two years ago is important? Do you think it is important?
JOHN: Yes, it is important. We as humans have to see something. Being born white, the spiritual world sent it. The old medicine has gone on, passed on. This one is in our generation. It means that the White Buffalo Woman exists.
These humans that give offerings are desecrating themselves. The spirit has been given; it's already here. It is important to all tribes, to all red nations.
Miracle's half sister was born with white legs. She is important, she is very strong, she too is telling us that things are coming back.
Does it make any difference that Miracle's color has changed from white to black to red to blonde?
JOHN: Yes. They knew that it would change color. It means that all colors of people are going to go back to their cultures because of the changes taking place in the white buffalo calf. All nations should go back to the reality of their own cultures. This calf is important for everyone, not just Indian people.
VIRGENE: The four colors in the sun dance lodge are like four segments of a pie. They are the four quarters, the four stages of life, and the four races of human beings. John's aunt and uncle danced over the four colors within the lodge, and it represents going from beginning to end through four seasons, and the cycle from young to old, and the return of the four colors of mankind back to their cultures and their religions. When the white buffalo changed its colors, it symbolized these changes.
An elder of the Oglala Sioux, Floyd Hand grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. His Indian name is Looks For Buffalo. Floyd Hand had a premonition of the birth of the white buffalo on the day that Miracle was born. He also had a vision that Miracle's sire would die, and he traveled to Janesville, Wisconsin, to tell the Heiders. A few days later, the sire did indeed die.
I had read some newspaper articles that had quoted Floyd Hand, and I knew that he had an extraordinary perspective on religion and spirituality. A Native American who has also embraced Catholicism and the Episcopalian faith, he sees connections between religious traditions that others would not. In some ways, his view of the world is very Lakota, and at the same time, it transcends cultural boundaries. My interview with Floyd Hand was a remarkable discussion of spirituality and the meaning of the white buffalo.
I know that the white buffalo and all buffalo are important to the Lakota. Are you a member of any society for which the white buffalo is particularly important?
No, but all the Lakota have a responsibility. My grandfather killed a white buffalo in the early 1800s. His name was Kills White Buffalo. White Buffalo Woman came to the Sioux nation, and we have a responsibility for teaching and passing on the seven rituals. The Oglala don't want modernization. The Oglala maintain the traditions.
When did you first know that the white buffalo calf was going to be born?
I knew on the day it was bornI am a medicine man.
Did you know where it was going to be born?
No, I didn't know where she was going to be born.
Do you remember when you first heard about the white buffalo?
I didn't hear about it; I was taught. The white buffalo is the image of the blessed Virgin Mary. In 1968, she first showed her image on the wall at my grandmother's house. I told my high school teacher at Red Cloud School about it. He was a priest and he told me that no Indian people ever see these holy people.
In 1988, twenty years later, I lived in Minneapolis. The same image appeared on my bedroom wall. This time, I could make out clearly that she had on a chiffon dress with rainbow colors. She had a beautiful face and dark, piercing eyes. In Indian language Lakota she said, "Tell them I am coming." She said it three times.
What was her message?
Her first message was that all four nations have violated their responsibilities. "Therefore, I have returned to give you the message from God, just as old legend says. The power of the woman has returned and will lead the nations. It will begin from the east in the yellow nation."
The second message was that evil will destroy evil. A great famine will occur between 1997 and 1999. There will be many deserts on this earth. The government will be in turmoil. People in power will lose their positions and a new government will be formed.