Though white buffalo are becoming more common, their legend lives on

Scientists say there are several explanations for the birth of two dozen white calves in the past decade

By Susan Kuczka
Chicago Tribune

JANESVILLE, WIS. - For more than a decade, hundreds of thousands of American Indians 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 late August, Heider discovered a newborn white calf nuzzling its mother in a pasture.

But while American Indians 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.

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 past decade, two dozen white calves -- not albinos -- have been born, and three of those were owned by Heider.

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 on U.S. and Canadian farms, experts think it's astonishing that the recessive gene for a white coat popped up again.

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

Some scientists say the rash of white calf births in recent years could be fallout from the practice of breeding brown buffalo with white-colored French Charolais cattle that caught on in the 1960s and continues today. Many of the cream-colored offspring are processed into food called beefalo.

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

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

To many Sioux who traveled to Heider's farm, Miracle represented the return of the sacred spirit of the White Buffalo Calf Woman.

As told by Floyd Hand, a spiritual interpreter and member of the Lakota Sioux tribe, the beautiful woman gave the Lakota a sacred pipe, showed them how to use it to pray and taught them about the value of the buffalo. She told them she would reappear one day, signifying the return of peace to Earth, then she turned into a young buffalo, turning four colors -- black, red, yellow and white.

Said Arvol Looking Horse, a Lakota tribal chief: "This new calf brings another rebirth, and tells us [to] have the faith and belief that if we unite and respect each other, we will see change."