White buffalo calf a rarity

JANESVILLE, Wis. – For more than a decade, hundreds of thousands of Native Americans trekked to Dave Heider’s farm to visit Miracle, a rare white buffalo they viewed as a prophecy of peace on Earth.

When Miracle died two years ago and the visitors stopped coming, Heider, 57, and his wife began planning to retire and move away. Then, in August, Heider discovered a newborn white calf nuzzling its mother in a pasture.

“When I told my wife, Valerie, she said, ‘Here we go again,’ ” said Heider, whose phone hasn’t stopped ringing since a neighbor reported the birth to a local newspaper.

But while Native Americans hail the new calf, Second Chance, genetic experts question whether it is truly as much of a rarity as Miracle, whose chances of bearing a white coat were put at 1 in 6 million shortly after her birth.

When Miracle was born in 1994, members of the Lakota Sioux Tribe in South Dakota deemed her the first white buffalo born on U.S. soil since 1933. In the last decade, two dozen white calves – not albinos – have been born, and three were Heider’s, including one that died shortly after birth.

While still very rare, the birth of white buffaloes seems to be increasing. The explanations range from the practical to the scientific to the divine.

White buffalo were considered an oddity when an estimated 80 million bison roamed the Great Plains in the early 1800s.

Today, with only an estimated 500,000 bison farmed across the U.S. and Canada, experts say it’s astonishing that the recessive gene popped up again.

Scientists say three things in nature can cause this kind of spontaneous genetic mutation: radiation, chemical exposure and a natural accident in the process of the cell duplicating DNA.

Breeding also can play a role. Some scientists contend the rash of white calf births in recent years could be Mother Nature’s fallout from breeding brown buffalo with white French Charolais cattle that caught on in the 1960s and continues today. Many of the cream-colored offspring are processed into meat called “Beefalo.”

Brian Kirkpatrick, professor of animal sciences at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, also said inbreeding could have inadvertently occurred among Heider’s relatively small herd of 70 buffaloes.

Heider hasn’t had DNA testing done on his herd. But he says they are pure buffalo, and says Second Chance, a male, and Miracle, a female, were each bred from different blood lines – making their white coats impossible for him to explain.

“I’m starting to think the Indians must be right: This is sacred land,” he said.

Native Americans say the births could signify today’s critical need for mankind to seek unity. Still, they have rejected some of the calves as sacred symbols because their owners have tried to profit from their births, something they say Heider has never tried to do.

Heider declined several offers to buy Miracle and never charged admission to see the buffalo.

Floyd Hand, a spiritual interpreter who regularly traveled to Heider’s farm with fellow members of the Lakota Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, said the birth of the new calf restored his faith in the prophecy of peace.

“Positive things were supposed to come from Miracle, but mankind did not pay attention,” Hand said. “So now we have another chance.”

To many Sioux who traveled to Heider’s farm, Miracle represented the return of the sacred spirit of the White Buffalo Calf Woman who first appeared to the Indians some 2,000 years ago when tribe members were dying of starvation.

As told by Hand, whose Indian name is Looks for Buffalo, the woman offered a sacred pipe to the Lakota, showed them how to use it to pray and taught the Sioux the value of the buffalo. Before leaving, the woman told the Indians she would reappear one day, signifying the return of peace to Earth. As she walked away, the woman turned into a young buffalo, turning four colors – black, red, yellow and white.

Miracle’s coat changed color three times – from white to black to yellow and then to red. Pictures of Miracle’s different coats supplied by the Heiders are online at www.nativevillage.org.

Bison experts say some buffalo experience color change due to a variety of factors. But so many color changes is unusual.

Arvol Looking Horse, a Lakota tribal chief who is the 19th-generation keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf pipe, said Miracle would have had to change color a fourth time – back to white – for the Indian prophecy to be fulfilled.

“To us, this new calf brings another rebirth, and tells us have the faith and belief that if we unite and respect each other, we will see change,” he said.