American Bison

Bison bison (Linnaeus)

Tȟatȟáŋka (Lakȟóta)

The Lakota are famous as a warrior tribe, with many famous warrior men; and yet “White Buffalo Woman is the dominant figure of their most important legend.” As Lakota medicine man Crow Dog puts it, “‘This holy woman brought the sacred buffalo calf pipe to the Sioux. There could be no Indians without it. Before she came, people didn't know how to live. They knew nothing. The Buffalo Woman put her sacred mind into their minds.’” And though she first came to the Lakota as a human woman, “White Buffalo Woman was also a buffalo—the Indians' brother, who gave its flesh so that the people might live” (Looking Horse & Giese, "WHITE BUFFALO CALF WOMAN Brings The First Pipe; As told by John Fire Lame Deer, in 1967").