Only a couple weeks after the escape of these determined young buffalo, the winter hunting season began and the buffalo of Yellowstone were beset with hunters chasing them from place to place trying to fill the state issued hunting tags.
During a very stressful time for the buffalo herd in the harsh winter and deep snows where forage is hard to come by, the buffalo run to escape the hunters and the wildlife "management" officials who haze them with helicopters and snowmobiles. The buffalo would not have chosen an insane place to dwell during the long winter season like the heart of Yellowstone Park. They would have followed their instincts and gone to lower prairie grounds where the food supplies were plentiful.Yet, to this very day, they are forced to abide within imaginary fences and made to comply with an illogical and man made system that each year leads many buffalo to their deaths.
This is the way of life for our sacred buffalo. In beginning this story though, let us all back up and take time to learn about them and why they are sacred to the Native people. As is our tradition, listening to the oral history from a trusted Elder is how we learn our history and deepen our respect for our culture and the legacy of those who have come before. I am honored to share this story as told by Scott Frazier, Santee/Crow, as told to him by his Grandfather.
"This is a segment of a large story that happens just after the flood dried up and is probably as old as the new testament of the Christian Bible. My Santee Grandfather told me the story but it is only a part of a much bigger piece that takes many years to tell.
The idea of the buffalo is older than all present day religions. Through out the world many people adhere to a religion of man to man. This is a religion of buffalo to man to buffalo. It is a religion of giving ones self for the betterment of the people who take care of the buffalo.
In the beginning of our relationship to the sacred life of the buffalo, the people lived inside the earth. It was a time when all things holy were on a sacred path and man was not the leader of the journey; the Creator and First Maker were in charge. In this time as told to me by elders long ago, man was a servant to the sacred and we lived inside the earth because the surface was flooded. Man fed the holy buffalo a food that only man could gather with his hands and it was like clouds.
The first one to come out of the earth and journey to the surface is called First One because he wanted to be more than a servant; he wanted to be holy. Today many related to First One still wish to be holy and struggle with sacred challenges of the ego, control, and power which were set from this time.
First One went to the surface and saw the beauty that was staged there for him to see. There were those living on the surface that would test the holy ones journey to become sacred. The ones that were on the surface would have fun and games with the human because they enjoyed watching things fail and struggle. When First One went to the surface they knew he was coming and put the best things for him to view. He saw no hardships or struggles. They made sure a trap for others would work. The stage was set.
Once First One saw the surface he knew automatically that he would get others to exodus to the surface for a better life where they would be in control. He believed he was seeing paradise and did not know his destiny would unfold into our today. Once that First One and others went to the surface the trap was sprung.
At this time we part from the First One's story and go to the buffalo. When the buffalo missed their first meal because no one brought them their food, they began to ask where First One and the others were. When they found out the First One and others went to the surface they went to look out to see how they people were doing and saw the people suffering without food and shelter. The buffalo felt sad for the poor human beings and they returned to council the other buffalos about what they should do. They had hard choices to discuss. One choice was to stay in the earth and starve because they needed the human to feed them or secondly, they could go out of the earth with no way to return to their old life.
They decided that they would go outside to the surface of earth because the people would always remember the buffalo as holy. They would feed the people themselves. There would be no starvation. They would provide all that the humans needed because the human would remember the buffalo as holy. So they came out of the earth for the people.
Many people ask me, "So why do we pray for the buffalo?" The story talks about changing ones' life for others, knowing what is a holy challenge, and finding truth in your purpose.
We pray for the buffalo because they are holy. They hold the universe together."
(Scott Frazier, Ehnamani, Santee/Crow)
(Prayers for the buffalo. left to right: Robert Pierce, Scott Frazier, Dr. Henrietta Mann)
The road was lined with tourists who snapped pictures and videos of the buffalo gathered in a large meadow and we made our way through the lines of cars to begin our journey to be with the sacred ones. Marsha Frazier held Dr. Henrietta Mann's arm as they aided each other on the walk up the rocky slope to where the prayers would begin. John Potter carried the drum; my husband, Bear, and I walked behind and felt the day's mood change with each step closer to the buffalo.
(Marsha Frazier, left, walks with Dr. Henrietta Mann up to the place where the prayers will take place.)Scott led us to a small hill near the herd and we all found our place upon the Earth to sit. As I settled into my place on the rocky slope, I remembered another Grandmother telling me long ago that, "The ground is where all things began and it is where all things will return at the end of their circle. When you sit upon the ground you connect to the very beginning and the very end....like the circle in the web the spider makes." Connection with the Earth and the quiet began to settle around us even though in the distance, traffic noise and tourists went about their way without noticing us at first.
"I don't know how many years it's been that I've joined Mr. and Mrs. Frazier in prayer and ceremony, with and for the Buffalo. It is always an honor. It's what we are built for. Time and space fold in upon themselves in the presence of the Sacred. As we settled ourselves among the sage and bunchgrass, just apart from, yet so much a part of, the herd, we easily became centered in prayer with our elders.
The hand-drum came out and we sang a song that was given to us in a fasting time, at a place not far away in distance but so far away in time. The buffalo listened, swayed, rolled on the earth in time, and joined us in song.
To know that some of this herd may take that song with them to their end fills me with a mixture of hope and sadness. But it was a good day, a blessed day, and perhaps they will, in turn, pass our song on to their young and make it their own.
For now, though, time is endless as we become the song together - the Fraziers and I, Dr. Mann, Bluejay, Bear and Buffalo. May our songs join our heartbeats together in time and become the song of life - renewed, restored - to oneness. Migwetch, ni bo wah"
(John Potter, Lac du Flambeau, Anishinabe inini )
Time never stops and is always moving us forward and through the changes of seasons. Time stands as an unforgiving taskmaster that regulates the passage through eternal tides. One breath at a time and one second at a time adds together to a life well lived or one filled with sadness at missed opportunities to make the world a better place. On this September day there was peace, prayers, songs and the drum joining together with the buffalo and humans in a meadow where time seemed to stand still. The winds calmed, there was no falling snow or rain, the birds called to each other, buffalo slept peacefully or dusted themselves in the soft dirt and simply lived at peace as a family unit.
As Scott began his prayers with the pipe and in praying with and for the buffalo, a door opened that linked our past, present and our future. As Dr. Mann began her prayers in her language and sang her song for the buffalo and for the People, I felt a profound joy at having that precious voice lifting all these things for the buffalo. When John began to play the drum and the song was lifted, again my heart was filled to overflowing. There was so much to be grateful for and so many good prayers being lifted between this family gathered with the buffalo. Time seemed to join what our ancestors had done to the present moment where we were gathered and be carrying forward that hope for the next generations to come to also carry our ways forward into time.
To understand more about what the buffalo mean to our People and in particular, for the Cheyenne, I share this story from Dr. Henrietta Mann in hopes that by knowing our past, we can move these traditions forward to our collective future in a good way.
"The So'taa'eo'o, a group of Cheyennes, are the buffalo people who brought us our sacred buffalo cap and its accompanying ceremony, the Sun Dance or "New Life Lodge." Members of our spiritual community are "the buffalo people." As a buffalo person I am related to the most holy four legged buffalo people who have sustained us over time. Historically, they suffered the same fate the natural, ordinary people of this land did and they, too, were driven nearly to extinction.
Today is no different for the buffalo people and it saddens me deeply that some of them will not live to see another springtime. I was pleased to have joined a pilgrimage and to see them in all their ethereal beauty. What could I do? I could only add my thoughts, my voice, my prayer, and my song to the others and speak to them of my great love and respect for them. I shed tears over the fact that they continue to bless us with their lives. I am blessed.
The buffalo stand as a symbol of endurance and compassion and they continue to represent both physical and spiritual food for the people. They provide that unbreakable lifeline with the sacred past, a lifeline that continues to exist today and stretches far into tomorrow. It is a heart line connection that brings happiness and goodness to all their relations. I greeted them in joy, just as I know my great-grandmother White Buffalo Woman did more than a century ago. The buffalo people taught her, just as she has taught and touched the generations since. For this I thank her. For this I thank the buffalo.
I send my prayers out to the Above Spirit, to the Earth, and to the four sacred directions of the universe for their continued protection and safety. Hahoo! "
( Dr. Henrietta Mann, Cheyenne )
As we completed our prayers, we all sat there with the buffalo herd in silence. The buffalo had been making their low, gentle calls back and forth to each other during the entire time we had been praying and singing for and with them. Yet at the end of the prayers, we all, as one family, sat in peace and silence together. Slowly the real world began to slip back into the moment and the sounds of bustling tourists and cars crept back into the present. And then, as is most often the case with our Native relatives, the laughter began. Gentle teasing and loving laughter went back and forth between us all and we slowly began our journey back to the parking area.
(The laughing and sharing begins! Clockwise- John Potter, Scott Frazier, Dr. Mann, Robert Pierce)
Many tourists asked questions of us upon our return, some took pictures and others seemed connected to the moment as they stared in silence at the buffalo and then towards all of us. We can only pray that some of these visitors were blessed with a new care and respect for the buffalo and will carry that back with them to wherever their everyday lives are lived.
"I was blessed to participate in the prayers for the buffalo in Yellowstone Park and to share that day with such wonderful prayer people like Henrietta Mann. I have shared days like that one with my husband, Scott Frazier and his brother John Potter for probably 20 years. We have made the journey to commune with our Buffalo family before their hard challenge of the winter, year after year. We have been joined by many individuals that heard the call to pray and to assist.
Some have been Native and some have not. For me, not being able to be an enrolled Native American, I have answered to the calls of my Native ancestors, Indian and non-Indian. I have prayed for the well being of my relatives the Buffalo and for them to tell us what they want us to know for the People. In my heart they have shown me what we as the People are and do to one another. They have let me look through the mirror of our existence as the People. They have taught me about how we treat one another and how we should treat one another.
I call out to all of the People, no matter what their lineages are. I call out for prayers, compassion and action. The Buffalo have been forced to evolve into different families with varied lineages because of the choices of others or because of the love of the Creator. They are teaching us about choices and new beginnings. Let us all come together without competition or distraction in our prayers for the Buffalo for they are showing us who we are. Aho!" ( Marsha Frazier, Cherokee )
Many days passed before the joy of that day settled deeply into my heart and I could move forward to thinking on the realities of the present situation of the buffalo on our People. The senseless slaughter of 60 million buffalo brought the herds to the point of extinction. There was no reverence held for the sacred, life-giving buffalo. These creatures were nothing more than money in pockets and an insane "sport" to people who shot them for no purpose other than target practice. There was no honor and no thanks given for the taken life and the buffalo were left to rot beneath the sun.
Likewise, the Native people across Turtle Island were treated similarly and millions of them were simply exterminated. There was no honor and there was no value placed upon the human beings. The remaining Native people were forced out of the way of "progress" and forced onto isolated reservations to live within a confined area. This totally unnatural way of living and the treatment by those who did not or could not understand us reminded me of our treatment of the buffalo.
Scott Frazier once told me that in 1906 there were only 20 wild buffalo living in what is now called Yellowstone Park. At this time, several little orphaned buffalo calves were fed on milk by dairy cows that were brought in from commercial ranches. The dairy cows carried the brucellosis virus and "gifted" it to the buffalo calves in Yellowstone. This little known fact seems eerily similar to the small pox infected blankets being sent into the Piquot nation and others of our People.
The Native people had their children stolen from their arms and their young ones were forced off to boarding schools. Here, the young ones had their hair cut, were forced to wear different clothing, eat different food, speak a foreign language, adopt new stories as their own, walk and live within the confines of square houses and were forced into a new religion. These things were forced upon the People because the outsiders believed they "knew better and what was RIGHT versus what was WRONG." Their decisions were based entirely upon their own interpretations of how all things should be connected and what the balance in the world should be without care that the balance within the Native people had remained healthy for hundreds of years prior to their arrival to Turtle Island.
In similar fashion, "wildlife management experts," in conjunction with political leadership and pressure from the landowners and cattle industry near Yellowstone, have tried to "control" the wild buffalo herd. Many buffalo calves have been stolen away from their mothers at a point in time where they are yet to learn the ways of survival for their first winter season. These young buffalo calves are removed from their relations who speak their language and stripped of the teachings that they learn from their Elders within the herd. They have ear tags punched into their ears to mark them with foreign names. The young buffalo that feasted on the wild prairie grasses are forced to eat commercial hay that is dumped into their square homes. They are tested and prodded, experimented on by scientific research officials, and gradually forget their history and they no longer know they are wild buffalo.
Our people were herded into square houses in confined areas with imaginary fences, were forced to eat strange foods, forbidden to honor our ceremonies and culture and learn a new way that others decided was "right." Our Native people have had their languages banned from use, their food supplies altered, and their stories and ceremonies outlawed The buffalo, just as the Native people, have had their entire natural way of being altered by outside forces.
"It is easy feel connected in a good way when you are in the middle of ceremony and prayer with the buffalo right near you. The challenge comes when you walk away and go back to the lives you lead away from them. Each day we must remember to keep them close and in our prayers. We must hold on to what our ancestors taught us and do our best to walk a good path. We must never forget that the buffalo are our relations and they are sacred."
( Robert "Bear" Pierce, Pikuni Blackfoot )
I have had the honor of walking beside and learning from Scott Frazier over the past few years. There have been times that I thought I understood all that the buffalo mean to us. Each time I arrive at that point, I learn new aspects to this relationship that reaffirms that I still have so very much to learn. What has happened to the buffalo and continues to be the state of being for the herd is reflected back onto the People. When we learn to treat the sacred buffalo in the way that they should be, our People too, may see new and better times in their lives. We are connected; the buffalo and the People, and we must never forget to care for one another.
"The way we as a human race might aid our future generations best, is to teach them to honor the sacred. We must look at the horrors we have created and then seek Creators' direction before moving forward. Look to the buffalo and see what our future holds. Our human treatment of our fellows, the wild ones and our care given to Earth, will determine our future. There is no part of creation more important than another. The big bear is as important as the tiny spider that makes her web. The buffalo are watching. Are you hearing the message?"
(Shelley Bluejay Pierce, Lakota/Cree )
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