Gib Singleton
Tatanka
Bronze
19h x 16w x 7d
Edition of 99
This is actually kind of a crossover piece. It's Native and Western, for sure, but it's also really spiritual, because the white buffalo is big medicine among the Plains peoples,...
This is actually kind of a crossover piece. It's Native and Western, for sure, but it's also really spiritual, because the white buffalo is big medicine among the Plains peoples, a very religious symbol.
Tatanka is Lakota for bull buffalo. Like the great spiritual leader and war chief we call 'Sitting Bull' was Tatanka Yotanka in his native language. Buffalo - bison, really, but we call them buffalo because the first white guys to see them were French fur trappers who called them boufs, which means ox or bullock - were the center of Lakota and Plains life. They provided food, clothing, shelter, tools, fuel... People moved with the buffalo herds, and their fortunes rose and fell with them.
Their range was way up into Canada, really almost to the Arctic, all the way down into what's now Northern Mexico, and east to the Appalachians. We're talking tens of millions of these big beasts at their peak. And I do mean big! A good bull might weigh over a ton. Maybe even 2,500 pounds. And when they were moving, man, the earth shook!
The white buffalo is an old legend among the Lakota people, and a lot of other tribes have similar traditions. The story goes that the People had lost touch with the Creator and times were hard. There was no game and everyone was hungry. So the Creator sent a messenger to teach the People ceremonies that would restore them to peace and balance. The messenger first appeared as a white buffalo, and then transformed into a beautiful young woman
Because of that, they called her White Buffalo Calf Woman. And she gave them the seven sacred ceremonies that are at the heart of Lakota culture, including the peace pipe, the sweat lodge, the vision quest and the Sun Dance.
Then when she was leaving, she said that one day she would return to purify the world. She would bring back spiritual balance and harmony, and the birth of a white buffalo calf would signify that her return was at hand
So the guy in the sculpture is praying to his God. He's in communication with his Creator, seated on a sacred animal, asking for renewal for all humanity and harmony between all peoples.
Well, we all know what happened to the buffalo. They were hunted almost to extinction - for food, for sport and especially for their hides. And as the herds disappeared, so did the Plains cultures that depended on them.
But if anything, that made the legend of the white buffalo even more important.
A white buffalo is still seen as a messenger from God, and even today, the birth of a white buffalo is seen by the Native peoples as a prophetic sign that the mending of life's sacred circle is beginning
You know, when Miracle, a white buffalo calf, was born in Wisconsin several years ago, thousands of people from all over the country came to see her. So in some way, that symbol still touches the hope in all of us.
- GIB SINGLETON
Tatanka is Lakota for bull buffalo. Like the great spiritual leader and war chief we call 'Sitting Bull' was Tatanka Yotanka in his native language. Buffalo - bison, really, but we call them buffalo because the first white guys to see them were French fur trappers who called them boufs, which means ox or bullock - were the center of Lakota and Plains life. They provided food, clothing, shelter, tools, fuel... People moved with the buffalo herds, and their fortunes rose and fell with them.
Their range was way up into Canada, really almost to the Arctic, all the way down into what's now Northern Mexico, and east to the Appalachians. We're talking tens of millions of these big beasts at their peak. And I do mean big! A good bull might weigh over a ton. Maybe even 2,500 pounds. And when they were moving, man, the earth shook!
The white buffalo is an old legend among the Lakota people, and a lot of other tribes have similar traditions. The story goes that the People had lost touch with the Creator and times were hard. There was no game and everyone was hungry. So the Creator sent a messenger to teach the People ceremonies that would restore them to peace and balance. The messenger first appeared as a white buffalo, and then transformed into a beautiful young woman
Because of that, they called her White Buffalo Calf Woman. And she gave them the seven sacred ceremonies that are at the heart of Lakota culture, including the peace pipe, the sweat lodge, the vision quest and the Sun Dance.
Then when she was leaving, she said that one day she would return to purify the world. She would bring back spiritual balance and harmony, and the birth of a white buffalo calf would signify that her return was at hand
So the guy in the sculpture is praying to his God. He's in communication with his Creator, seated on a sacred animal, asking for renewal for all humanity and harmony between all peoples.
Well, we all know what happened to the buffalo. They were hunted almost to extinction - for food, for sport and especially for their hides. And as the herds disappeared, so did the Plains cultures that depended on them.
But if anything, that made the legend of the white buffalo even more important.
A white buffalo is still seen as a messenger from God, and even today, the birth of a white buffalo is seen by the Native peoples as a prophetic sign that the mending of life's sacred circle is beginning
You know, when Miracle, a white buffalo calf, was born in Wisconsin several years ago, thousands of people from all over the country came to see her. So in some way, that symbol still touches the hope in all of us.
- GIB SINGLETON