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Buffalo ceremony lots of bull

3 min read

This past Saturday, I took my 10-year-old son to the Woodland Zoo in Farmington. It was a cold, rainy day but the weather couldn’t stop our excitement of wanting to see the “blessing ceremony” of the wonderful gift of the white buffalo. We read in the paper that members of the Lakota nation led by headman and sun dance chief David Swallow were traveling all the way from South Dakota for what seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime event. But as my son and I sat in the bone-chilling cold awaiting to witness and be a part of this wonderful experience, I soon realized that Mr. Swallow was using the opportunity to vent his political and anti-government thoughts.

Mr. Swallow described the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation were he lives as a “prisoner of war camp” -as he also did in a writing of his from the June 3, 2003 edition of the Wambli Ho News. As he spoke, he informed us that the Lakota nation never officially signed a treaty with the United States government. He talked of our “nation’s leader who tells lies to the people” and went on to say that the United States government tested vaccines and medicines on people at Pine Ridge before being given to the public.

I’m sure that most of the people who were at the Woodland Zoo on Saturday were surprised or even shocked by Mr. Swallow’s comments as many got up and walked out before I did. After going through the zoo to see the white buffalo, Kenahkihinen, my son and I started our ride home, discussing our day and I attempted to explain some of Mr. Swallow’s comments as best I could.

I know that our world is not perfect and some actions in our past history are shameful, but as a nation and world we have moved on; correcting wrongs and learning by them. Once home, it only took me a few minutes on the Internet to produce more of Mr. Swallow’s anti-government views that he lives in the “United States prisoner of war camp number 344” and is “to the War Department of the White House known as U22981.”

I will never again take my son blindly to any gathering without more research.

I guess I trusted the Herald-Standard, who presented this as an American Indian traditional “blessing ceremony.” Even the Sunday morning headline in the paper read “Ceremony honors unique white buffalo.” I read the article and wondered if the reporter was at the same place I’d been, as the message that I heard from Mr. Swallow was much different.

Mary Beth Rechichar

Grindstone

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