BUFFALO-WOMAN

A Lakota myth narrates of a young man who went around searching for food during the winter season, when his people suffered for hardship and hunger. With the aid of an old woman (wakanka) and an old man (wazi), the young man is addressed toward a cave, into which he finds a young woman. She takes the boy as her husband and leads him into the cave, where the buffalo live. They were dancing and taught him the way the buffalo worshipped the sun and obtained from it what they wished. Returned with his people, the boy taught them the way to vow the celebration of a dance in front of the sun, the Sun Dance ceremony, with the purpose of obtaining the animals for food. The buffalo-woman shall lead her husband’s people where they can find and hunt buffalo in abundance (Walker 1917: p. 212-14).

 

Painted buffalo skull showing cosmological symbols, employed during the Lakota Sun Dance (Crazy Horse Memorial Visitor Center, South Dakota)

 

A recurring element in this tales is the mediating role of the woman between humans and animals: in numerous tales, of the woman kidnapped by a fierce and threatening buffalo, of the buffalo-woman who marries a human husband, of the personification of the buffalo-spirit who manifests herself to human society creating an exchange and reciprocal benefit between men and animals, the relationship between the buffalo and femininity is always shown as the most prominent aspect. The exemplary figure, in this regard, is surely Ptehincalasanwin, the White Buffalo Calf Woman, who was sent by the buffalo people to give the Sacred Pipe and the instructions to conduct the sacred ceremonies to the Lakota. She manifests herself both as a beautiful young woman and as a buffalo cow, representing the deep connection linking the buffalo to the female condition (LaPointe 1976: 24-26). Walker’s Lakota informants declared explicitly that the buffalo helped the women to have many children and protected the young women (Walker 1980: 67, 124). The strip of red paint that the women put on the parting of their hair was called the “buffalo sign”. It seems that the reproductive power incarnated in the buffalo, which guaranteed the reproduction of the animals, was channelled on the human world thanks to the mediation of the woman and of her generative capacity.

 

Portray of a young Mandan woman. The red painted hair parting was called “buffalo sign”. Painted by George Catlin around 1832 (Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.)

 

The figure of the White Buffalo Woman makes explicit the substantial unity underlying both humans and animals, since both were originated in the subterranean world, in the womb of the Earth, the “mother” or “grandmother” of all living creatures. By virtue of this association with fertility and growth, the buffalo was thus strictly related to the female world. It should not be overlooked that the buffalo cow’s gestation is of ninth and a half months, very similar to that of the woman, and the parturition period is between late spring and the end of June (Roe 1970, vol.1: 94), the season in which the main ceremonies were held, among them the Sun Dance, the ritual which was taught by the buffalo to humans (Comba 2012).
Among the Arapaho the title of White Buffalo Woman is addressed to the leader of the female Buffalo Society. This association was engaged with the performance of rituals having the purpose to ensure success in the hunt and for this end she employed a special whistle, whose sound should bring the buffalo near the village. The Mandan practiced some winter ceremonies connected with the White Buffalo Society and were performed in the period of shortest days (winter solstice). Such rites were based on the vision in which the dreamer obtained a message from the buffalo, in which the arrival of two buffalo-children was anticipated: they were a gift from the animals to the humans. One of them should run away, while the other remained in the village and was raised by the people. The Society was composed exclusively by women who were past menopause and the dance which they performed represented the return of the buffalo, since these women were regarded as having particular powers concerning the gardening and hunting.

 

Karl Bodmer’s illustration of a Mandan women dance. The dancers belonged to the White Buffalo Society. In the centre, the leader of the Society is wrapped in a white buffalo robe   (from: Reise in das innere Nord-America in den Jahren 1832 bis 1834 by Maximilian Prinz von Wied, Coblenz, 1841)