Changing Woman & the Buffalo Ghost

Changing Woman & the Buffalo Ghost, watercolor, 9 x 10.5", was the second image in the Blue Coyote series, painted in July, 2008.

Last year I watched Dances with Wolves for the first time since 1991. I had thought the buffalo hunt was filmed with a few buffalo, with special effects to make them seem like a huge herd. From the dvd, I learned they filmed that sequence on a ranch with a real herd of 3000 buffalo.

3000 buffalo. I wept.

Not a lot compared to the millions that once swept across the plains, but a miraculous multitude compared to "now the buffalo are gone."

The buffalo are not gone, nor are the buffalo secure in healthy numbers. There are still a lot of ghosts to answer to.