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Sacred white buffalo killed

Mar. 27, 2000

Last Sunday, a Nebraska police officer ordered a Lakota Sioux man to shoot a sacred white buffalo to death. The animal's body was left where it fell, and apparently later mutilated.

The buffalo was running along a road near the reservation when a local police officer began to pursue it. He was joined by Sioux man Leon Poor Bear, who tried to coax the buffalo back into its pasture. But the buffalo veered into a nearby yard. The police officer then ordered Poor Bear to shoot the animal "for the safety of the community."

The white buffalo, who was dubbed Medicine Wheel by the local Oglala tribe, was born in 1996, and was the first white buffalo known to have been born on Native American lands in more than a century.

The Sioux believe that the white buffalo is a sign of the spiritual return of the legendary wise woman who taught their forefathers the seven sacred rituals.

Read the LINCOLN JOURNAL-STAR story here.

--BSB