This book is about how the Indians thought the buffalo was a sacred being. A thousand years ago the Indian tribe lived on the North American prairies and they depended on their buffalo for survival. The Indian tribe didn’t have a written language but they communicated with stories that they passed on from generation to generation. Stories were told how the Indians’ grandfathers saw the buffalo live under the earth. Long ago a man found this to be true because he entered one of the holes in the ground. What is a bison? It's a relative of cattle. Scientist would use the name Bison instead of Buffalo to avoid confusing the American Bison with the Asian water Buffalo which is a distinct relative to the Bison.

The best way to kill a Bison was to take advantage of their herding instincts. The best way to hunt a Buffalo was to stampede a herd over a cliff. They ate all the meat that was for clothes and blankets. The Buffalo was the most important out of the human's relationship. A Sioux medicine man said that the Bison was the chief of all animals and represents the earth and all that it is. The Spanish brought horses to Southwestern North America in the 1500s. In the 1650s, the Spanish traded horses to the Apaches so they could receive slaves from Wichita. By 1687 the Indians of Texas were already hunting Buffalo on horseback. The Plain Indians culture was transformed by the use of horses. Therefore, this was the end of the old method of Buffalo hunting.

Once the Indian tribes mastered horseback riding. Years later the Bison and the Indian world would be destroyed by the white man. The Bison and the Indians were friends; therefore, the buffalo tried to protect their Indian friends from the white man. However the white man sent soldiers with rifles, then hunters to kill the buffalo for no reason. When the buffalo was almost gone and they could not longer protect the Indians, the great herd met so they could decide what must be done. A few cows and calves with a few surviving young bulls was lead by an old cow bull straight toward a big mountain that opened up revealing a beautiful land that had clear water and fresh green grass the way it was before the white man.

This story was told by the great chief that predicted the return of the great buffalo. There were only seventeen states in the United States in 1806. All the states were east of the Mississippi River, with white settlers coming and settling on Indians lands. This brought conflict between the two cultures. Therefore the United States, government made an agreement with the Indians that they would trade land for peace. They broke this promise with the Indians anytime the white settlers needed land. This made the Indians feel that they could no longer trust the white man.

There was a story of the; White Buffalo Calf Woman;. She was a sacred woman that told a warrior of a village to tell his chief that she would come to him in four days with important information. The white buffalo woman came to the village with a gift of a special sacred pipe. There was 7 sacred ceremonies, including the sun dance that she taught the people of the village. The Sioux Indian people have honored these ceremonies for generations and; today the Lakota Sioux chief still honors it. On August 20, 1994 a white buffalo calf was born in Janesville, Wisconsin. This Calf was born to a family that were not Indians. An Indian name Arbol horse and other Sioux leader visited this farm and declared that this was indeed the sacred white buffalo that was once foretold.

Why I picked this book?

I picked this book because I thought it would be an interesting story and it was. I liked learning about the buffalo and the Indian and all their beliefs. It was interesting how the white buffalo Miracle brought hope back to the Sioux Indian. It was very tragic and disappointing but not surprising how the white man stole and lied to the Indians. Maybe one day the Indians and the buffalo can return in harmony to the land . I gave the book my rating which is a 4 because it was interesting, full of knowledge, and somewhat sad. ( )

This reviewer appreciated Patent’s attempt to fill a gap in historical nonfiction for upper elementary and lower middle students, but was left disappointed on several counts. The first concern is the use in the title and throughout the book of the word Indian to describe the Native American tribes the author references. While use of the term does not automatically condemn the book, a short foreword explaining her rationale could go a long ways towards avoiding cementing the stereotypes and discrimination that Native Americans still face today. The lack of maps and timelines is also a concern, since at the age this book is geared towards, readers are still working on their grasp of historical time (how long ago was 1000 years versus 200 years?) and geography. There were many beautiful and helpful photographs of the natural landscape and reproductions of paintings, but few of the illustrations were linked directly to the text, and often the captions were very brief, even with reference to historical paintings in which Native Americans were actually painted using red paint. The book does contain a good list of sources for further reading and an excellent index. None of the information given was incorrect, it simply could have been better. Additional selection for those looking to build their Native American resource collection. ( )