Big Medicine

Big Medicine

Limited Editions of 50.

Story Behind the Image:

The legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman tells how the People had lost the ability to communicate with the Creator. The Creator sent the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman to teach the People how to pray with the Pipe. With that Pipe, seven sacred ceremonies were given for the people to abide to ensure a future with harmony, peace, and balance.

Legend says that long ago, two young men were out hunting when from out of nowhere came a beautiful maiden dressed in white buckskin. One of the hunters looked upon her and recognizing her as a wakan, or sacred being lowered his eyes. The second hunter approached her with lust in his eyes desiring her for his woman. White Buffalo Calf Woman beckoned the lustful warrior to her, and as he approached a cloud of dust arose around them causing them to be hidden from view. When the dust settled, nothing but a pile of bones lay next to her.

As she walked toward the respectful young hunter, she explained to him that she had merely fulfilled the other man’s desire, allowing him, within that moment, to live a lifetime, die and decay. White Buffalo Calf Woman instructed the young man to go back to the People and tell them to prepare for her arrival to teach them of the way to pray. The young hunter obeyed.

When White Buffalo Calf woman arrived with the sacred bundle (the prayer pipe) she taught the People of the seven sacred ways to pray. These prayers are through ceremonies that include the Sweat Lodge for purification; the Naming Ceremony for child naming; the Healing Ceremony to restore health to the body, mind, and spirit; the adoption ceremony for making of relatives; the marriage ceremony for uniting male and female; the Vision Quest for communing with the Creator for direction and answers to one’s life; and the Sundance Ceremony to pray for the well-being of all the People.

When the teaching of the sacred ways was complete, White Buffalo Calf Woman told the people she would again return for the sacred bundle that she left with them. Before leaving, she told them that within her were the four ages and that she would look back upon the People in each age, returning at the end of the fourth age, to restore harmony and spirituality to a troubled land. She walked a short distance, she looked back towards the people and sat down. When she arose, they were amazed to see she had become a black buffalo. Walking a little further, the buffalo laid down, this time arising as a yellow buffalo. The third time the buffalo walked a little further and this time arose as a red buffalo. Walking a little further it rolled on the ground and rose one last time as a white buffalo calf signaling the fulfillment of the White Buffalo Calf prophecy.

The sacred white buffalo follows his herd across the prairie skyline. Beyond him the age-old mountains rise above. They hold the ancient secrets and legends of the past and speak of an era before domestication and fences, a time when wild buffalo, wild horses and bears shared the prairie vistas with one another. 

The Tempest is one of the last plays written by the great William Shakespeare around the time of 1611. It tells of a ship at sea, caught in a tempest (storm), and run aground on a remote island, where the passengers, a sorcerer Prospero and his daughter become stranded. The play evokes the spirit of enchantment and magic on the island.

The two wild horses in this Sable Island version of The Tempest represent the playful spirit of the horses on this remote Canadian island also known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic because of the hundreds of ships that have failed to safely navigate her treacherous shoals. The image was captured early one morning as the fog-enshrouded island lifted its veil to reveal horses wandering along the tideline. Two of them began to play and circle one another, twisting and turning down the beach, themselves resembling a small storm of flying mane and sand.