Welcoming weawakaw 31 May 2007 — Seattle, Washington Amma was welcomed to Seattle—and to the U.S., for that matter—by a true American: Phil Lane Jr., CEO of the United Indians of All-Tribes Foundation and Hereditary Chief of the White Swan Dakota and Chickasaw First Nations. Wearing the traditional headdress and other regalia of a Native American tribal chief, Mr. Lane welcomed Amma and everyone attending the program at the Fisher Pavilion in downtown Seattle with a traditional prayer-song. "I would like to give a heartfelt welcome to our beloved mother, sister, grandmother," he said. "In my language, we say ‘weawakaw'—a holy woman upon this Mother Earth."

Mr. Lane provided his own accompaniment for his prayer-song, beating a traditional skin-covered drum with a mallet. The prayer, "The Song of the Sacred Buffalo Calf Woman," mixed his tribal language with English, and involved prostrating to six directions for auspiciousness. In his reciting of "The Song of the Sacred Buffalo Calf Woman," Phil Lane Jr. said that a prophecy was coming to fruition. Here is the story:

According to the legend, about 2,000 years ago, two warriors were out hunting buffalo in the sacred Black Hills of what today is known as that state of South Dakota. Suddenly they saw a white buffalo calf approaching them in the distance. As the calf came closer, it transformed into a beautiful young Native American girl. At that time, one of the warriors had lustful thoughts and he was instantly destroyed by a mystical force. Seeing this, the second warrior fell to his knees in prayer. When he did this, the Sacred Buffalo Calf Woman told him to return to his people and tell them that in four days she would come to them bearing "a sacred bundle," which contained a peace pipe1.

The warrior did as instructed. According the legend, four days later a cloud came down from the sky and from it sprang forth the white buffalo calf. As before, the calf soon transformed into the young girl.

It is told that the Sacred Buffalo Calf spent the next four days among the tribe, teaching them about the sacred bundle and its meaning. As part of this, she taught seven sacred ceremonies. One of them was the sweat lodge, or the purification ceremony. One of them was the child-naming ceremony. The third was the healing ceremony. The fourth one was the making of relatives, or the adoption ceremony. The fifth was the marriage ceremony. The sixth was the vision quest. And the seventh was the Sundance ceremony.

The Sacred Buffalo Calf Woman taught the tribe the songs and traditional ways and told them that as long as they performed these ceremonies that they would remain caretakers and guardians of the land. She said that as long as they took care of the traditional ways and respected them that their people would never die.

When the girl was done teaching, she left the way she came. She went out of the circle, and as she was leaving she turned and told the people that she would return one day in the future for the sacred bundle, at which time she would purify the world and restore spiritual harmony and balance. The sacred peace pipe is still preserved to this very day in Green Grass on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

The Sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman also made some prophecies regarding her the return. One of those prophesies was that near that time a white buffalo calf would take birth. On August 20th 1994, in fact a white buffalo did take birth on the Heider Farm in Janesville, Wisconsin. The birth of the buffalo was of course a powerful source of hope for Native American people, who have been hammered with hardship after hardship since the "discovery" of America by Europeans.

There are many versions of the above story, but all of them include the same basic elements: the calf, the girl, and the return of both marking the end of disharmony between man and nature.

In reference to the legend, Joseph Chasing Horse, a traditional leader of tribe of the Lakota Nation,has said, "It was told that next time there is chaos and disparity, she would return again. She said she would return as a White Buffalo Calf. Some believe she already has. … We are praying that mankind does wake up and think about the future, for we haven't just inherited this earth from our ancestors, but we are borrowing it from our unborn children."

—Tulasi

¹ A peace pipe is ceremonial tobacco-smoking pipe used by many Native American tribes, traditionally used as token of peace.