Montana Medicine Show: Big Medicine

Welcome to the Montana Medicine Show. I'm Derek Strunk. He was a gift to all Montanans a talisman of good fortune harmony and hope. That's historian Dave Walters description of big medicine a snow white bison born on the Flathead Indian reservation in 1933. Just one in five million American bison are white buffaloes bison expert William T Hornaday reported in 1887 I have met many old buffalo hunters who had never seen a white one. It appears that not over 10 or 11 white buffaloes are white buffalo skins were ever seen by white men. Plains Indians considered white bison sacred. Some tribes used white buffalo robes to wrap sacred medicine bundles. Others in curing ceremonies but the bison slaughters of the late eighteenth hundreds meant the chances of seeing another white buffalo were next to nil. That's why Joyce went through Indian country when Big Medicine was born at Montana's national bison range. Big medicine became a depression era sensation magazines newspapers and newsreels featured what

naturalist Dale f lot called surely the most photographed buffalo that ever lived. Dave Walter declared the idea of this majestic white animal captured the imagination of a nation struggling to survive a collapse national economy. Following his 1959 death taxidermists preserved big medicine. He now resides at the Montana Historical Society and Helena visited by more than 90000 persons annually. From KGO studios. I'm Derek strong. Montana medicine show is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A private corporation funded by the American people.