We often speak of Religious intolerance. I wonder if this will get as much press as the(terrible) desecration of Synagogues or burning of black churches. When will we understand when any religion is denied equal protection under the law; all are at risk?
Where is the FBI for this Hate Crime?
Rare White Buffalo
Shot To Death
By Jodi Rave jrave@journalstar.com
Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star
3-27-00
PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION - 'Medicine Wheel,' a rare white buffalo born May 9, 1996, was shot to death Sunday.
When Joe Merrival was called to the scene of a buffalo shooting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation recently, he stared in disbelief -- not far away lay his sacred buffalo, its throat slit, its hide tattered.
Medicine Wheel had been the first white buffalo born on Indian lands in more than a century.
"I just felt, "Oh no, it's the white buffalo,'" Merrival said Thursday. "I tried to control myself. My mind went blank actually. I didn't want to say anything wrong, so I just said, "It's the white buffalo.'" Born May 9, 1996, the white calf was immediately viewed as a symbol of hope, rebirth and unity for numerous Great Plains tribes.
"For us, this would be something like coming to see Jesus lying in the manger," Floyd Hand Looks For Buffalo said shortly after Medicine Wheel's birth.
Today, the calf's death comes amid turmoil and chaos on Pine Ridge, where internal and external pressures have rocked its 20,000 Oglala Lakota for much of the past year.
Throughout last summer, demonstrators marched on nearby Whiteclay, Neb., protesting beer sales and a spate of unsolved Indian murders. And for the past 68 days, another group has occupied the tribal administration building.
The buffalo's death is a sign that life for American Indian people will get worse before it gets better, said Looks for Buffalo, a spokesman for the takeover group Grassroots Oyate.
According to a tribal police report, Pine Ridge's symbol of hope and unity died just after 8 p.m. Sunday, when police officer Alex Morgan spotted the animal running down a road near the Red Cloud community.
Morgan and tribal member Leon Poor Bear pursued the animal, which ran into a yard.
"We tried to chase it back down the road, but it would put down his head and charge us," Morgan wrote in his report. "I told Leon to shoot the buffalo for the safety of the community." When Merrival found the buffalo's body later that night, it appeared someone had started to butcher it, he said: its throat was slit and its hide scarred from being dragged down a gravel road.
The rare animal's significance is rooted in Lakota oral history, which tells the story of a holy woman visiting one of their villages. She taught them their seven sacred ceremonies and their four great virtues: courage, wisdom, generosity and fortitude. Before she left, she told the people not to worry, that she would return one day, and that a sign of her arrival would be a white buffalo calf.
A version of the prophecy predicts the calf will be born white but will change in color -- to black, to yellow, to red and back to white -- as it matures, Merrival said. Medicine Wheel was in the black phase.
When Medicine Wheel was born, doubt existed whether the animal was 100 percent bison. Tests from Storemont Laboratory in Woodland, Calif., however, proved it to be pure.
Now that the animal is dead, Merrival will use its hair and bones "for spiritual purposes," sharing the parts with as many people as he can. After that, "I'll put it back into the pasture to where it was born."
Jodi Rave Lee can be reached at 473-7240 or jrave@journalstar.com.
Warmly, Eileen
Moderator - Athena List medicinegarden.com
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Sacred white buffalo shot at Pine Ridge, Calf, named 'Medicine Wheel,' was seen as sign of renewal
Chet Brokaw - Associated Press link
3-27-00
A buffalo considered sacred by American Indians was shot and killed after it somehow got out of its pasture on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota.
A law officer said the buffalo had to be killed Sunday night because it posed a threat to public safety.
The buffalo's owner said Friday he believes the shooting was not justified.
"I had kids pet and feed this buffalo. It didn't have a mean streak in it," said Poker Joe Merrival.
Medicine Wheel was born as a white calf in May 1996 on Merrival's buffalo ranch a mile north of Pine Ridge village. The buffalo, which later turned brown, was seen as a symbol of rebirth for the Lakota Sioux and other Indian tribes as foretold in an ancient prophecy.
"It means that the Indian nation is going to rise one more time to fight for what God has given them," said Floyd Hand, a Lakota interpreter and spiritual leader.
Lakota legend tells of a holy woman who appeared and gave the Sioux the sacred pipe and their seven sacred rites. As she left, she became a white buffalo calf, and also changed to red, brown and black. She said she would return someday.
Tribal police could not be reached for comment Friday, but a police report supplied by Merrival indicates an officer ordered a passing motorist with a rifle to shoot the buffalo after it was discovered on a road shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday.
Officer Alec Morgan wrote that he saw the buffalo in the road, and two cars narrowly missed the animal. The buffalo was "scared and in a panic," and it charged some vehicles, he said.
The police report indicates that the buffalo was not butchered once it was discovered it was the sacred buffalo.
Merrival said the people chasing the buffalo must have riled it up, because Medicine Wheel normally was calm.
"This buffalo was my pet. The white buffalo, I pampered him," he said.
Merrival said it made no sense to shoot the buffalo just because it was on the road. "There's horses and cows all over this reservation on the road, but they don't shoot no horses and cows."
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