Post by blackcrowheart on Feb 26, 2007 8:05:09 GMT -5
Native Americans bless, name rare white buffalo
Sunday, December 24, 2006
www.postgazette.com/pg/06358/748759-85.stm
<http://www.postgazette.com/pg/06358/748759-85.stm>
Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette photos
Chief White Panther, of the Traditional United Eastern Lenape Nation,
"smudges" Kim Ord, or Many Weasels, shortly before Ms. Ord performed a
naming ceremony for a rare white buffalo at the Woodland Zoo in
Farmington, Fayette County, yesterday. Smudging "cleanses the spirit and
aura of the body," Chief White Panther said. Ms. Ord is a member of the
Lenape Nation in Huntingdon County.
By Joe Smydo
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
With beating drums to represent the earth's heartbeat and burning white
sage to purify the crowd, Native American groups yesterday blessed and
formally named a rare white buffalo born in a Fayette County zoo.
Kim "Many Weasels" Ord, a Huntingdon County resident and member of the
Lenape Nation, revealed the male buffalo's name, Kenahkihinen, a Lenape
word meaning "watch over us," more than an hour into the ceremony at the
bottom of a windswept hill.
"It is done. I have spoken," she said at the privately owned Woodland
Zoo, near Farmington.
In some ways, the event resembled a child's christening. When Ms. Ord
announced the buffalo's name, the crowd applauded. Nearby, the youngster
frolicked in a field with a pair of adult buffalo.
"He knows this is his day, I think," said Stacy Smitley, a Dunbar
resident who described herself as part Cherokee.
<http://www.post-gazette.com/popup.asp?img=/images4/20061224smbison02_45\
0.jpg>
Kim "Many Weasels" Ord, a member of the Lenape Nation, revealed the male
buffalo's name, Kenahkihinen, a Lenape word meaning "watch over us."
Click photo for larger image.
With singing, prayers, a healing service and dance, the ceremony lasted
nearly 21/2 hours. It allowed Native American groups to come together to
celebrate a joyous occasion in their culture and to share the moment
with others.
Virginia Cherban, of Brownsville, said she liked the name "because we
all need watched over." For Tammie Morgan of Uniontown, the ceremony
offered a glimpse of the Cherokee culture she wished she had absorbed
from her late great-grandmother.
"The name was perfect," she said.
Danawa Buchanan, a Cherokee elder from Bucks County, told the crowd of
several hundred that the white buffalo was a reminder of each person's
responsibility to the "elements of creation," including wind, water,
plants and other people. Humankind, she said, has been given dominion
over the earth.
"But we have lost the understanding of what it means to have dominion,"
she said. In an interview, Ms. Buchanan said the Blackfoot and Mohawk
Nations also were represented yesterday.
Two days before Christmas, the zoo's reindeer were upstaged. Visitors
walked by them, not to mention tigers, bears and other creatures, to see
the buffalo.
Owners Sonny and Jill Herring threw open the zoo's doors, admitting
everyone without charge because of the special occasion.
"We're sort of the keepers of the light, so to speak ... I guess our
responsibility is to make it available to all people," said Mr. Herring,
who's operated the zoo for 14 years, including four in the current
location near Fort Necessity National Battlefield and the Nemacolin
Woodlands Resort and Spa.
Mr. Herring said he's had offers to buy the buffalo. At least one offer,
he said without elaborating, was for more than it cost to build the zoo.
But he's not selling.
"We respect the importance of it to the Native Americans," he said.
The white buffalo's significance is rooted in Sioux culture. "Many moons
ago," according to an account provided yesterday, two Sioux scouts
encountered a beautiful woman dressed in white.
One had impure thoughts about the woman and died on the spot. The other
returned to his village and prepared a medicine lodge, where the woman
taught the villagers "how to pray and about the connectedness of all
things."
When she left, she turned into a buffalo calf. Today, the birth of a
buffalo calf signals her return. Ms. Buchanan said the white buffalo is
born at times when humanity is at a crossroads.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
www.postgazette.com/pg/06358/748759-85.stm
<http://www.postgazette.com/pg/06358/748759-85.stm>
Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette photos
Chief White Panther, of the Traditional United Eastern Lenape Nation,
"smudges" Kim Ord, or Many Weasels, shortly before Ms. Ord performed a
naming ceremony for a rare white buffalo at the Woodland Zoo in
Farmington, Fayette County, yesterday. Smudging "cleanses the spirit and
aura of the body," Chief White Panther said. Ms. Ord is a member of the
Lenape Nation in Huntingdon County.
By Joe Smydo
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
With beating drums to represent the earth's heartbeat and burning white
sage to purify the crowd, Native American groups yesterday blessed and
formally named a rare white buffalo born in a Fayette County zoo.
Kim "Many Weasels" Ord, a Huntingdon County resident and member of the
Lenape Nation, revealed the male buffalo's name, Kenahkihinen, a Lenape
word meaning "watch over us," more than an hour into the ceremony at the
bottom of a windswept hill.
"It is done. I have spoken," she said at the privately owned Woodland
Zoo, near Farmington.
In some ways, the event resembled a child's christening. When Ms. Ord
announced the buffalo's name, the crowd applauded. Nearby, the youngster
frolicked in a field with a pair of adult buffalo.
"He knows this is his day, I think," said Stacy Smitley, a Dunbar
resident who described herself as part Cherokee.
<http://www.post-gazette.com/popup.asp?img=/images4/20061224smbison02_45\
0.jpg>
Kim "Many Weasels" Ord, a member of the Lenape Nation, revealed the male
buffalo's name, Kenahkihinen, a Lenape word meaning "watch over us."
Click photo for larger image.
With singing, prayers, a healing service and dance, the ceremony lasted
nearly 21/2 hours. It allowed Native American groups to come together to
celebrate a joyous occasion in their culture and to share the moment
with others.
Virginia Cherban, of Brownsville, said she liked the name "because we
all need watched over." For Tammie Morgan of Uniontown, the ceremony
offered a glimpse of the Cherokee culture she wished she had absorbed
from her late great-grandmother.
"The name was perfect," she said.
Danawa Buchanan, a Cherokee elder from Bucks County, told the crowd of
several hundred that the white buffalo was a reminder of each person's
responsibility to the "elements of creation," including wind, water,
plants and other people. Humankind, she said, has been given dominion
over the earth.
"But we have lost the understanding of what it means to have dominion,"
she said. In an interview, Ms. Buchanan said the Blackfoot and Mohawk
Nations also were represented yesterday.
Two days before Christmas, the zoo's reindeer were upstaged. Visitors
walked by them, not to mention tigers, bears and other creatures, to see
the buffalo.
Owners Sonny and Jill Herring threw open the zoo's doors, admitting
everyone without charge because of the special occasion.
"We're sort of the keepers of the light, so to speak ... I guess our
responsibility is to make it available to all people," said Mr. Herring,
who's operated the zoo for 14 years, including four in the current
location near Fort Necessity National Battlefield and the Nemacolin
Woodlands Resort and Spa.
Mr. Herring said he's had offers to buy the buffalo. At least one offer,
he said without elaborating, was for more than it cost to build the zoo.
But he's not selling.
"We respect the importance of it to the Native Americans," he said.
The white buffalo's significance is rooted in Sioux culture. "Many moons
ago," according to an account provided yesterday, two Sioux scouts
encountered a beautiful woman dressed in white.
One had impure thoughts about the woman and died on the spot. The other
returned to his village and prepared a medicine lodge, where the woman
taught the villagers "how to pray and about the connectedness of all
things."
When she left, she turned into a buffalo calf. Today, the birth of a
buffalo calf signals her return. Ms. Buchanan said the white buffalo is
born at times when humanity is at a crossroads.