Chiron Communications

Chiron Communiqué

Author's Occasional Newsletter

from Steven McFadden

Vol. 7 No. 7—

© July, 2002

First White Buffalo Bull
Joins Growing Herd of Hope

With the birth of the 11th white buffalo on July 1, 2002, a small herd of the mythic bison is emerging on the ancient continent known as Turtle Island (North America).

Four of those white buffalo – including the newest one who is the first white male – roam the range at Spirit Mountain Ranch, which is located at the base of the western-most of the Sacred Four Corners: the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Jim and Dena Riley, owners of Spirit Mountain Ranch and caretakers of the buffalo, have named the new calf "Arizona Spirit." "The people here have been wonderful," the Rileys said, "just great neighbors and supporters. We wanted to acknowledge that with the name of this first white buffalo bull."

For people familiar with the ancient lore of North America, the emergence of the white buffaloes is regarded as an important and hope-bearing sign in a world wracked with severe military, economic, environmental and social turmoil. The white buffaloes are regarded as a crucial wake-up call to human beings from the realms of nature and Spirit, and an urgent prompt for the coming together in peace of different faiths and ethnic groups before they destroy themselves out of greed, hate and blindness.

Lore of the White Buffalo
The hope associated with the white buffaloes stems primarily from Lakota teachings about the appearance in the Americas nineteen generations ago of a great soul, a female spiritual teacher named Pte San Wi (White Buffalo Calf Woman). She gave the people important teachings about life, and caring for the earth which sustains them.

When it came time for this Spirit Woman to depart she promised – as so many spiritual teachers have done throughout history – to return when the people were in a time of desperate need. She said the sign of her imminent return would be the birth of a white buffalo calf.

According to Lakota oral tradition, which has been maintained with meticulous care, the female white buffalo is a sacred symbol for all races and spiritual traditions to come together in peace, balance, and harmony in defense of something they have in common: the need for an honored earth that provides human beings with the essentials of existence — clean food, water and air.

Some contemporary tradition keepers say that the buffaloes also signal a profound spiritual shift on the earth, and serve as physical acknowledgement that prayers are being heard.

After the birth of the first White Buffalo in Janesville, WI, in 1994, keepers of the tradition acknowledged that this was indeed the sign that they had been waiting for.

One Lakota Chief, Joseph Chasing Horse, said at the time, "We have been waiting for her return. It is the signal of things to come…Human beings have been systematically destroying the earth and its ecosystems, which in turn threatens humanity. We live in a time of war, famine and great suffering throughout the world, all because of vengeance, selfishness and greed. Because of these things, our children are suffering.

"We need to learn to tolerate one another’s differences. We must take this sign and walk towards that spiritual unity. If we do not turn from the evil ways, destruction will surely follow. That is the message we must heed in order to heal the earth…

"We haven’t just inherited this earth from our ancestors, but we are borrowing it from our unborn children."

Since the birth of that first white buffalo in 1994, ten more have been born, all females. Arizona Spirit is the first white bull, and thus may symbolically carry a message of importance to the men of the world.

Arizona Spirit
In a telephone interview earlier this month, Spirit Mountain rancher Jim Riley said "We still have a hard time believe that we got another white buffalo, a fourth white buffalo for this herd, and that this time it’s a bull. We have wanted a white bull ever since this all started. This birth makes it possible that we could develop a large herd of white buffalo."

"The day that the white bull was born was bright, cool and breezy," he said, "just what buffalo require to give birth without undue stress. July 1 was a perfect day, very special for all of us. We closed up the shop, locked the gate, and let the Mother, Miracle Moon, have peace to give birth.

While the first white buffalo of this era, Miracle, was born in Wisconsin in 1994, the first white buffalo born into the Riley’s herd arrived on April 30, 1997 in Colony, WY, and was named Miracle Moon. As Miracle Moon got older, the Rileys decided to breed her with a buffalo bull named Willy Wonka. Miracle Moon became pregnant and gave birth to a white buffalo calf named Rainbow Spirit on June 8, 2000.

Then on July 18, 2001 Miracle Moon gave birth to a second white calf. The Rileys named the new calf Peace Pilgrim in honor of the late Mildred Norman. Starting in the 1950s Mildred Norman assumed the name Peace Pilgrim, and took a vow: "I shall remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the ways of peace." She walked the highways of America for 28 years, covering over 25,000 miles, praying for peace with each step. The simple philosophy of Peace Pilgrim touched thousands of people: "This is the way of peace: overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love."

Miracle Moon - The female white buffalo who has given birth to three other white buffaloes. (Photo by Dena Riley)

Arizona Spirit is the third white calf to emerge from the union of Willy Wonka and Miracle Moon.

The Rileys took care to separate Willy from the pregnant females as their time of delivery drew near this summer. They had observed that right after the birth of Miracle Moon, their first white buffalo, one of the males of the herd came charging over and used his horns to flip the new white calf 15 feet high in the air. Until all the afterbirth is cleaned off a newborn, they do not smell like a buffalo, and thus may seem to represent a threat. But after a day or two, when a calf has been cleaned by its mother, they have the familiar buffalo smell, and bulls will not harm, but instead welcome and protect the calves.

Willy is now back grazing contentedly with the rest of the herd.

Valley of White Buffaloes
Several months ago a Lakota elder named Wallace Black Elk stopped by Spirit Mountain Ranch to bless it, the caretakers, and the herd. He enjoyed his visit, then drove down to Flagstaff to check into a hotel for the night. But he could not sleep. He kept having a vision over and over.

The next day he made an unplanned return trip to ranch so he could tell the Rileys about his vision. Grandfather Black Elk told them he had seen in vision — repeatedly — that the valley where the ranch is located (Kendrick’s Park) would one day be filled with a large herd of buffalo, most of them white. He told the Rileys that according to his vision the very next white buffalo born on their ranch would be a bull. So it came to pass.

Likewise, several Dineh (Navajo) people have visited the ranch, which lies close to their reservation, and reported that they have had similar perceptions.

White buffalo are exceedingly rare – an average of only one in every 10 million buffaloes born. Because this is such a rare occurrence all of the Riley’s white buffaloes have been DNA tested twice and proved to be not albino or part cow, but 100% pure North American bison. That four white buffalo have been born into one small herd is beyond phenomenal. Should that nucleus expand into a whole herd of white buffaloes, it would signal to many people that despite all the obvious indications of great trouble in the world, great hope and great possibilities are also afoot.

"I feel the White Buffaloes have been put here for a reason or reasons," Jim Riley says. "I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe one reason is to help bring back the great buffalo herds which once roamed America and fed the people." At the start of the 20th Century there were just a few hundred buffalo left owing to the US government’s intentional program to eradicate the millions of buffalo which once roamed free, and thereby starve the Native people who depended upon them for sustenance. But now at the start of the 21st Century there has been a quiet resurgence in the buffalo population and they number an estimated half million. "In a few years," Jim Riley says, "that population could swell to a million, and then the population would really explode. That would be great for the country."

Could the Kendrick Park area just north of Flagstaff someday become a sanctuary for buffalo? Jim and Dena both hold a vision of that possibility. They say they received the vision the first time they ever laid eyes on Spirit Mountain Ranch — October 1, 2001.

The Dineh Nation now holds the grazing rights on the land that lies between the ranch and Spirit Mountain (San Francisco Peaks). So it is possible that something could be worked out someday, and that the dramatically beautiful valley at the foot of Spirit Mountain will be filled with a thriving herd of white buffalo.

Healing Feminine Presence
Rancher Jim Riley has another observation about the white buffaloes. "I feel the buffalo are definitely here to heal. I see that more and more. There is definitely some kind of healing power associated with them. A Dineh lady returned here to visit just a week ago, and brought her whole family with her. She told us that she had been in horrible pain for 25 years, from the moment she woke up each day until she fell asleep. But when she first came to visit the white buffaloes something happened. She has had no pain ever since. She came back to the ranch to express her gratitude.

‘When we were located up in Wyoming after Miracle Moon had been born, a man came to visit in a wheelchair. He was a quadriplegic. Then he called us 12 days later, to tell us he was up and walking. I hear these kinds of stories all the time. Those white buffaloes have healing powers."

"The more white buffaloes born, we feel, the faster we human beings are going to see peace – and get away from the greed, jealousy, prejudice, hatred, and the bad drugs that turn people into liars, thieves and cheats.

The Rileys have accumulated over 30 hours of video footage of the buffaloes. They feel that sooner or later the right person will come along to help them edit and convert that footage into a high-quality video documentary so people around the nation and the world can learn the inspiring story of the white buffaloes.

Visitors from All Over
Visitors stop at Spirit Mountain Ranch to visit every day. Many visitors have no idea about the rich history of the white buffaloes or the lore that applies to our era, but stop anyway because the ranch sits on the main road from Flagstaff, Arizona to the Grand Canyon. They are just driving by on their way to one of the natural wonders of the world, see the sign, and stop out of general curiosity. But no matter whether they are steeped in the lore of the white buffalo, or just learning for the first time, almost all visitors are deeply touched. Some weep, some marvel, almost all smile warmly.

The Rileys charge no admission to visitors, but do have a bucket set out for donations. The donation have allowed them to get by, paying the mortgage on the ranch, and buying more of the heavy fencing materials.

Right now they are facing some substantial financial challenges, for the ranch’s septic system has failed and they are struggling to come up with several thousand dollars to meet that expense.

The Rileys welcome all people to visit the emerging family of white buffaloes — Miracle Moon, Rainbow Spirit, Peace Pilgrim, and Arizona Spirit — and to learn something of the remarkable portent that they represent.
For more information visit the Spirit Mountain Ranch web site.

Review of Legend of the Rainbow Warriors

"Is the book interesting? For sure. Is it well written? And how. Does it perform a service for the world? Most assuredly. Is it something I’d recommend? Definitely."

- Diamond Fire, Summer 2002

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