Mahpiya Ska: Difference between revisions
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:''Alternate meanings: [[White Buffalo (disambiguation)]]'' |
:''Alternate meanings: [[White Buffalo (disambiguation)]]'' |
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''Mahpiya Ska'' in the ''[[Lakota Language]]'' |
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''Ma-hi-ya-sqa'' in the ''[[Cherokee Language]]'' |
''Ma-hi-ya-sqa'' in the ''[[Cherokee Language]]'' |
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Revision as of 04:29, 13 October 2005
- Alternate meanings: White Buffalo (disambiguation)
Mahpiya Ska in the Lakota Language
Ma-hi-ya-sqa in the Cherokee Language
Ma-hi-ya-sqa or White Cloud is a sacred albino female White Buffalo residing at the National Buffalo Museum and Cultural Center located in Jamestown, North Dakota. She is currently on loan to the museum and the project caring for her is funded by the City of Jamestown North Dakota for approximately $10,000.00 per year. She has been certified a true Albino American Bison.
White Cloud, like most albino white buffalo, is almost totally deaf and has limited vision and joined the herd located at the museum in 1997. She has already given birth to several calves, although none of them are pure white. Native Americans from all over America perform sacred pilgrimages to receive her wisdom and blessings. She is allowed to roam freely within a several hundred acre expanse of the museum grounds.
The fence outside of her compound in Jamestown North Dakota is tied with hundreds of prayer and ribbon bundles from Native Americans who travel thousands of miles to offer her blessings and receive her wisdom. It is considered the most powerful of blessings for a sacred white buffalo to approach a supplicant in prayer and to breath upon them and brush against the fence leaving an offering of her hair.
It is believed in many Native Cultures in North America that the White Buffalo is given the power to bring the judgment of the Creator and the Thunder Beings to mankind. Many Native Americans will journey great distances to visit such a powerful sacred spirit animal when they have difficult choices they must make in their lives and wish the creator to provide them with judgment and guidance.
It is believed that the White Buffalo will offer the supplicant seeking guidance a choice between two or more paths to wisdom. It is also believed that the White Buffalo returns over and over again after death to bring her blessings to the Native Peoples of North America and the power and strength for Native Peoples to judge themselves.