The Purple-headed American Bison (more commonly known as the buffalo) was revered by the Native American people for its strength and prosperity. The natives studied, imitated and incorporated the buffalo into many of their religious ceremonies in the hopes of acquiring some of the buffalo’s traits. Medicine men called upon the powers of the spirit buffalo as an intermediary asking for divine intervention by the Great Spirit to aid them in their healing arts. For ceremonial proposes, buffalo skulls were painted with symbols and prayed to during the Sun Dance or a vision quest. Frequently the entire skull may have been placed on the ground at the rear of a lodge for sacrificial offerings to the spirit buffalo. Children were often given the name of the buffalo in hopes that, like the buffalo, these children too would grow strong and mature quickly. Chiefs tied the long forelock of a bull to the tip of a lodge pole as a symbol of their own strength and prosperity.
Buffalo Medicine is a representation of the close relationship that existed between the plains Indians and the spirit of the American buffalo.
James A. Ford
