Bison Requiem

A Bison Experience      11-28-17

On a family vacation camping trip out West we decided to stop and spend a night or two at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the far side of North Dakota.

Medora is the near by town. The Little Missouri River flows through the edge of the Campground. 

 After driving through the Bad Lands with dry canyons and few small trees it was like finding an Oasis as we came to the entrance of the camp ground. 

There were bigger trees and sandy areas that were actually bison wallows but we did not know that when we arrived late in the day after a long drive.  We found a site at the far end of the Campground and set up our camper.  An evening meal was prepared, and we were ready for a quiet night’s rest. The weather was pleasant, so we rested well. 

Upon arising in the morning we discovered that among the campground residents were some Bison.

We had been seeing some Plains Buffalo or Bison as we came into the park but at a distance. There are many types of Buffalo across the world.  Water Buffalo, Wood Buffalo, and the Plains Buffalo or Bison of North America. They are large animals, standing 5 to 6 feet at the front shoulders and weighing up to 2000 pounds. Once upon a time they literally covered the Western Prairies until the white Europeans hunted them almost to extinction. Native Americans had learned how to manage the Buffalo as a source of food and blankets making life possible in the winter on the Prairies.  It seems the white Europeans focused on killing of creatures across the Western lands. 

 Now we were having intimate contact with these large but peaceful creatures. At first it seemed scary and frightening. Then we walked around the camp ground, greeted our neighboring campers, and observed the resident Bison, most in their Wallows.  A wallow is a sandy, dusty hollow in a ditch or open space where the Bison would lie down and roll around. Evidently this felt good, like a back rub for a human.  The dust, dirt and sand probably provided relief to itchy skin. In any event it was an enhanced exercise routine.  They paid no attention to us as we walked past giving respectful distance. This was a rare vision of how creatures of the natural world have established a way of befriending at least some humans. This was the message that we needed on that day and today.

Then came an event that displayed the cultural difference between Native Americans and White People.

Out for a walk we noticed a commotion in the campground between us and our camper. It was focused on a group of visitors who had come into the camping area for performing a ritual.  They were white people. We noticed a girl in a wedding dress and a young man in a suit. They were evidently getting ready for a wedding. Guests gathered around.

Then we became aware of Bison moving about. They were forming a circle around the wedding party. What was this? We gradually realized that a highly sacred event was taking place. Thinking in terms of what little we knew of Native American lore of the frontier this was about to be a truly remarkable blessing. Indians of the prairie honored the Bison ( Buffalo ) as fellow creatures.

The European rooted whites responded by literally scampering away.  What a disappointment.  A Indian holy man would have known what to do. Quiet the white people. Do the blessing ceremony. Interpret to the white people what a sacred moment it would have been had it been experienced. This wedding would have been a bridging between traditions in a rare and amazing manner. 

I was a Christian holy man who could have done a ceremony but it was such a total surprise that I missed the moment.  As a Methodist Circuit Rider this was in my  tradition.

May I be forgiven by the Manitou of the Indian and the God in Jesus Christ of the Western Way. My confessional is in your presence. 

Writing about this is my way praying for taking time to listen to one another. May we all be ready for the moment when a sacred event happens and we are present in body, mind and spirit. Reading this with you is a way of completing that circle of Bison on the western prairies of North America.   May we be blessed.  

Delton