Lakota Ceremony Planned for White Buffalo Born on Connecticut Farm

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents. Discussion »

GOSHEN, CONNECTICUT – Peter Fay, who began breeding bison on his dairy farm in Goshen has the good fortune of having a white buffalo calf born there on June16.

Naming Ceremony on July 28

Experts indicate one white buffalo is born out of every 10,000 births. White buffalos are considered sacred animals by American Indian traditionalists.

He released the information just last week on the advice of American Indian friends who said he would get a lot of publicity from the rare calf, he has given the temporary name, Tantaka Ska. CNN carried the story this past Saturday.

Fay is the fourth generation dairy farmer to live at the farm in Goshen, which is two hours from New York City by car. Fay also owns a construction company.

“When I was coming up this was a dairy farm. I decided to grow bison about four years ago,”

Fay told the Native News Network.

“Some friends of mine who are American Indian asked me if I had ever had a white calf born. I told them I had not. Then he told me the significance of within Native American culture.”

After the birth of the white calf, he called his friends back, who then called friends of theirs at the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Four elders from the Oglala Sioux Tribe will perform a naming ceremony on July 28 at the farm. Fay was told by that he can expect a crowd between 1,000 to 2,000 people to attend the naming ceremony.

Currently there are some two dozen buffalo as part of Fay's herd. He breeds them to sell for their meat, but said he will never let his special white buffalo be sold for such purposes.

updated 12:57 pm edt; posted July 3, 2012 10:59 am edt