"Pte San Win- The White Buffalo Calf Woman"
"Pte San Win- The White Buffalo Calf Woman" The lakota are a warrior tribe, and one of their proverbs says, "Woman shall not walk before man." Yet Pte San Win is the dominant figure of their most important legend. The medicine man Crow Dog explains, "This holy woman brought the sacred buffalo calf pipe to the lakota. There could be no lakota without it. Before she came, people didnt know how to live. They knew nothing. The Pte San Win put her sacred mind into their minds." At the ritual of the sun dance one woman, usally a mature and universally respected member of the tribe, is given the honor of respresenting Pte San Win. Though she first appeared to the lakota in human form, Pte San Win was also a buffalo---the lakota' brother, who gave its flesh so that the people might live. Albino buffalo were sacred to all Plains tribes; a white buffalo hide was a sacred talisman, a possession beyond price. One summer so long ago that nobody knows how long, the