White Buffalo Brother

The dream begins in a place I am familar with, the Pigeon River State Forest, in northern lower Michigan. I have hiked in this wilderness on previous trips. There is a sizable wild elk herd that lives in this region. My appearence is one of a savage in buck skin. I am on a vision quest like that of the Native Americans who may have once roamed here.

There is a meadow and I suddenly see a glowing ghostly figure. He appears to be, what one might imagine, an old traditional native shaman might look like. He has long white hair and dressed in white buck skins. He says he has come to assist me on my quest and instructs me to move to the center of the meadow, and there I will find what I need. What I find there is a new born white buffalo calf. The sense is that it is orphaned. He is healthy and strong, but alone. White buffalo are extremely rare, occurring in only about one in ten million births, and are considered sacred among Native Americans. They are regarded as a good omen. Such an auspicious find! It has the potential of offering great wealth/strength/power.

I put a leather collar on the calf with the intention of bringing him back to my village. My left hand holds the collar. The calf is very strong. He pulls me along down a path of his own choosing. Strangely we come to the outskirts of a modern city. We are approaching a train station. My outward physical appearence shifts to one of a business man in a suit. Off to our left is an urban street gang eyeing us up. They ponder if they should attack and take the calf for themselves. I believe they think the effort of butchering the animal to eat seems too much like work and they deem us not worthy of the effort. The calf and I enter the train station. The calf is now slowly transforming, as well, into a young boy. His appearence is very much like my real-life younger brother Larry. A Mexican couple approaches us, they are dwarfs, they find the young boy attractive and want to abduct him. I am forced to push them away and make them leave. We are standing near the ticket booth of the train station. The mute young boy desires to leave the platform. He wants to explore the city. 

Suddenly, I am forced into a moral quandry. Is the young boy my slave or new ward? What choices must I make? Do I set him free to wander alone in the city? Can he fend for himself? I could take him aboard a "freedom" train and leave the city. I cannot in good conscience abandon White Buffalo Brother. But is he my new slave, burden or blessing? What am I to do? So as what happens, so often in my dreams of moral conflict, I wake up to escape my difficult choices.

The Lokota Souix, a warrior tribe of the Great Plains, have legends of The White Buffalo Woman. She appeared to them the first time in her radiant white holy human form. She gifted them with the peace pipe tradition and shared much wisdom. Herds of buffalo appear at her departure and the famine stricken people were fed.

My own current situation seems to be one of drought; unemployed and looking for a breakbrough, both in my personal and professional life. What am I to take away from this dream? Good fortune? Are there larger implications beyond just my own personal fortunes? The possibilities seem as open ended as my dream. It had no definitive conclusion. What insights might I have gained had the dream gone on longer? Who knows? Perhaps White Buffalo Brother had much to teach me. We may yet meet again in the our dreams or maybe that inscrutible shaman will return and help me sort out what the heck just happened. You just never know!