"Everyone Showed Their Hearts" at White Buffalo Naming Ceremony

Native News Network Staff in Native Currents. Discussion »

GREENVILLE, TEXAS - It's official. The non-albino white buffalo, born on May 12, was formally named Lightning Medicine Cloud yesterday in an American Indian naming ceremony at the Lakota Ranch.

Lightning Medicine Cloud Naming Ceremony

The event drew a crowd of 3,000 according to Arby Little Soldier, Lakota, great, great, great grandson of Sitting Bull.

“Everyone who came showed their hearts,”

Little Soldier told the Native News Network on Wednesday evening.

“It was a success.”

Little Soldier has prepared for the naming ceremony since soon after Lightning Medicine Cloud's birth last month. He said he and his family are tired. They spent much of Wednesday moving corrals around and making sure the event was successful.

The white buffalo calf was given the name Lightning Medicine Cloud because he was born during a thunderstorm on the ranch, located northeast of Dallas.

Gourd Dancers at Naming Ceremony

The 45-minute naming ceremony was performed by traditionalists, who spoke about the blessing Lightning Medicine Cloud brings. The white buffalo was honored with prayers and traditional songs during the naming ceremony.

Little Soldier and his wife live at Lakota Ranch where they raise a small herd of buffalo and raise horses. Both are from the North Dakota. Little Soldier has danced for five US presidents and his life-size portrait is hanging in the Rotunda Building, as a Native American Traditional dancer from the Ft. Berthold Indian Reservation in Newtown, North Dakota.

posted June 30, 2011 7:15 am et