White buffalo/Red heifer

THE SYMBOLS OF THE WHITE BUFFALO AND THE RED HEIFER Every culture has its own set of norms and beliefs that serve as guide and standard of living for its people . Each culture is being protected and kept sacred by the people and is being passed by generation to generation . Even as the world goes on to its fast changing global trend although some of the world 's ancient cultural traditions have already vanished or at least faded away , some remained strong and were kept observed and regularly celebrated today . While Greek and

Roman mythologies are integrated in the modern culture (such as the names of the heavenly bodies , the legends and myths which main characters are animals can still be traced in the modern cultural traditions held by the people . Two of these examples are the legends of the White Buffalo and the Red Heifer , animals which symbols are held sacred even unto this day

The White Buffalo and the Red Heifer are animals that are held symbolically sacred by the Native Americans and the Jewish people respectively . While their legends are held by completely different cultures , these animals symbolize quite the same sacred values of hope change , life and death . Before we can make further comparison of the two different cultures , it is important that we first have to look into the stories behind their cultural symbols . A brief narration of the story of the White Buffalo Woman , which is believed to have been the origin of the symbolic importance of the White Buffalo in the culture of the Sioux or the Lakota tribe , will be briefly narrated here before we will try to extract the symbols deep inside the legend . We will be taking the highlights of the legend from the story as told by John Fire Lame Deer a man believed to be a Heyoka , and a holy man of Lakota (John Fire Lame Deer , 1967

In one summer , the seven sacred council of fires , called Oceti-Shakowin ,of the nation called Lokota Oyate encamped . The chief of the one of the bands (Itazipcho or Without-Bows , Standing Hollow Horn sent two of his men to hunt for food . In a high hill , they came across with a woman , floating with two round red dots of face paint on her cheeks (John Fire Lame Deer , 1967 . In John Fire Lame Deer 's own words

She wore a wonderful white buckskin outfit , tanned until it shone a long way in the sun . It was embroidered with sacred and marvelous designs of porcupine quill , in radiant colors no ordinary woman could have made

The woman was identified as Ptesan-Wi , White Buffalo Woman . One of the men had a sexual desire of the woman and tried to touch her but was struck by lighting and was burnt until all was left of him was a heap of blackened bones . Other version of this part says that the young man was eaten by the snakes which were under the feet of the...