Algonquian ( or other group?) term for White Buffalo Calf Woman?

[Jonathan Holmes]

In the text, Teton Sioux Music by Frances Densmore, 1918, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 61, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, there is a chapter on Ceremonies which begins on page 63. The first topic is the legend of the White Buffalo Calf Maiden and how she brought the White Buffalo Calf Pipe referred to in the text as(Ptehin'Cala CanoN'pa) to the Sans Arc division of the Teton Lakota as dictated by an informant named Lone Man.

In two separate footnotes, there are references to other works.

Page 63 footnote:
"In connection with this chapter see Fletcher, Alice C., The White Buffalo Festival of the Uncpapas, Peabody Museum Reports, III, Nos. 3 and 4, pp.260-75, Cambridge, 1884."

Page 65 footnote:
"Cf. Bulletin 53, pp.143, 144, in which a woman is said to have been the supernatural means of bringing permanent peace between the Chippewa (aka Ojibway) and Sioux (aka Lakota)."

I hope this may give you some leads to what you were looking for. Just a cultural note however. Most early references to this female spiritual being talk about her as a "maiden" or young girl, not a "woman". She was said to be a virgin girl, about 14 years old in some stories. Which is why the stories talk about her changing into a White Buffalo "Calf", rather than a full grown Buffalo Cow. Therefore the term Lakota word "Win" may not be the accurate term to use in this case.

Good Luck,
Jonathan Holmes


"R. Rankin" <rankin at ku.edu> wrote:
I'm afraid I don't know the answer to this particular
question, but the story of trickster catching game
birds (ducks, gees turkeys in different versions) by
having them dance with their eyes closed is VERY
widespread. I have several versions of it from Kaw,
Omaha and Dakotan speakers and I heard a Sac and Fox
version last semester. Is there an Algonquian listserv
out there anywhere?

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "phute-khniyanyan"

To:
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 6:34 AM
Subject: Algonquian ( or ther group?) term for White
Buffalo Calf Woman?


> The Lakhota have a legend about the coming of the
> White Buffalo Calf Woman, who brings the ceremonial
> pipe to the Lakhotas. The Lakhota term for this
> person is "Pte Hinchila Ska (or SaN) Win". My
> question is: Do groups other than Siouan have this
> same or similar legend? If so, what is this person
> called? I ask this because, years ago in BAE, I came
> across identical stories of the Lakhota trickster
> character "Iktomi", and the strategy he uses to
> capture ducks by having them dance with their eyes
> closed, which was identical to an Algonquian legend
> and their trickster character, even though the
> Algonquian source of the legend was transcribed at a
> time period when the Algonquian source was located
> far to the northeast of the current location of the
> Lakhota.
> Because the Algonquian were widely dispersed, it
> seems that a term for White Buffalo Calf Woman would
> have been existed within this group, too.
>


		
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