The Native American tribes that lived in buffalo country all had stories about white bison. They were considered sacred by some and significant by all. They were certainly rare, and for many reasons. The first hurdle was genetic. In the early 1800's, when there were possibly seventy to eighty million buffalo roaming the plains, the odds have been estimated at one in ten million for having a white or albino calf. Even if they weren't nearly that rare, they were certainly more rare than albino humans, which happen once every 15,000 births or so. Secondly, the lack of pigment in the eyes of albinos leave a large portion nearly or totally blind, so the majority of those that were born probably didn't make it through the first year, and...finally... if one did make it beyond these obstacles, they spent their lives as white predator-beacons in a vast sea of brown and, by the mid-1800's, the sea was growing smaller every day...
By 1830 there were an estimated forty million bison left in North America...by 1865...fifteen million...in 1926 there were 4,400 left. It was logically assumed that the recessive gene for the white coat had been lost in the slaughter, and that the full albinos had happened too rarely to ever be seen again. The white buffalo was considered as lost as the great herds it had haunted.
Then in May of 1933, on the National Bison Range in western Montana, hope was rekindled. A white bull calf with ice-blue eyes, brown horns, and a curious brown top-notch was born in captivity.They called him "Big Medicine" and he was soon to become quite a tourist attraction. Not being a full albino, he didn't have the vision problems that traditionally plagued his kind. He grew into one of the major herd bulls.Four years later he was bred to his own mother in a successful attempt to produce another white calf. "Little Medicine" was born in May of '37. He was a full albino with pink eyes and creamy white hooves, but he was completely blind. At six months old he was shipped to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where he remained until his death in 1949.
Big Medicine outlived his son by a decade. Thousands of tourists flocked every summer to see the big bull until his death in August, 1959 at age 26. A taxidermist named Bob Scriver spent two years mounting the bull's remains. They are now on display at the Montana State Historical Museum in Helena, Montana
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6 comments:
Wonderful retelling of the story Wade. Thanks! Statistically it's even more dramatic. The 30-40 million number as a population estimate for the bison circa 1820 is pretty solid. The robe market opened in the 1820's, and by the time the Sharp's 50 caliber buffalo rifle was introduced it's likely that demand for robes for sleighs etc already exceeded the population of three principal herds. The herd in the Bronx was established in 1899, ten years before the American Bison Society began to manage the remaining population as a single herd. In the 1870's 500 bison were being slaughtered every day. By 1890 they were virtually gone. Hornaday estimated the population at around 1000 animals. In 1899 beyond a few dozen stray animals in the wild the population was probably around 800 animals in private herds owned by the Smithsonian, the Bronx Zoo, James McKay, Charles Alloway, Charles Goodnight, Walking Coyote, Frederick Dupree, and Charles J. Jones. That's the extent of the genetic pool.
Which begs the question... Did the gene for albinos survive in one of those animals? Or did it possibly arise spontaneously through mutation in a future generation? Given the genetic of the relatively small captive herds, it almost seems like it should have manifested earlier if it was a secreted trait within the population. But likely if we looked at Big Medicine's sire and dame we would find that it was carried there by a common ancestor shared after the Society began shipping animals from local to local to broaden genetic stock. Maybe it was mostly luck!
Ben
Ben,
I suspect the hardships of being born albino, partial or complete blindness, plus dying at a very early age for the reasons stated, may have been why there were not many more born. Big Medicine was not an albino, but a mutation and I wonder why there have not been more reports of pinto or partial colored buffalo like him. May the ancient Indian sightings of white buffalo were actually pie bald or marked individuals and the Indians just called them white. I find it interesting that Big Medicine was bred to his mother to produce an albino. That type of inbreeding to produce an albino would be devastating to the calf, as indicated by the condition which I have always wondered at. You could have gone back to the Bronx archives and looked again for a year, and you wouldn't have found reference to a white buffalo. And I'll quit being angry at Hornaday for missing the boat and not mounting the head. LOL
Wade
Wade, Did you ever see Miracle, the white buffalo born near Janesville, Wisconsin? There is a website - http://whitebuffalomiracle.homestead.com/
Jeannie
Jeannie,
Yes I have seen him, but he's not the "real deal." He is kinda like a white lion. When he hairs up for the winter he gets a normal colored coat.
Wade
That is strange. I remember reading the stories in the newspaper when he was born and how the native Americans saw it as an omen, but do not remember any mention of him changing color in winter. You are a lot smarter than you look, by the way.
Jeannie
Jeannie,
"Native Americans" saw it as an omen. Do you mean like the "Native Americans" of 1800? I have spent my life in show business, and realize the importance of a great press team, and publicity. There is a white buffalo in Jamestown, North Dakota that was born in Michigan, that grazes under a statue of the "Largest Buffalo in the World" and North Dakota "Native Americans" didn't get their loin cloths in a knot over it. Looks can be deceiving, as I do some dumb things, sometimes. LOL
Wade
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