EDITOR’S NOTE: To find a buffalo skull in the wild is a rare and extraordinary discovery.
Famed Montana painter Charles M. Russell employed it as a lament motif in many of his scenes. When the image appeared on an official state quarter in 2007 produced by the US Mint, it appeared as both an homage to Russell and reference to Montana’s role in being a historic homeland to America’s official national land mammal.
While for some it is a symbol of what once was, it is, for poet Lois Red Elk a touchtone of a spiritual presence that still is. Many plains tribes, including Red Elk’s Lakota and Dakota, see the buffalo skull as representing sacrifice, connection and, of course, sustenance.
We’re happy to have Lois back sharing her poems which are always enjoyed by Yellowstonian readers. She remains at work on a new collection of poems. We’ll bring you more information as the volume comes together. Enjoy “Palms On Buffalo Skull” below and check out her other poetry collections: Our Blood Remembers, Dragonfly Weather, Why I Return to Makoce, and she contributed a work to I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights. —Todd Wilkinson
Palms On Buffalo Skull
(for my sons, Dustin and Neil)
By Lois Red Elk
Standing with palms on the Buffalo skull,
I watch the tips of the horns. One reaches
for the Red space, the other reaches for
the Black, it is a road from East to West,
from a rising to a setting, from a birth
to a cleansing, for a life choice. The
skull’s eyes are filled with bundles of sage,
a shield, the acknowledgement that this
moment, this alter is sacred and will be
protected. Again, his horns move and are
encircled with sage bracelets donated by
last year’s Sun Dancer, was told to use as
the humble trail for the sweat and tears all
sacrificed for the height of sun, the rattle
of cottonwood leaves, the support of songs,
the rhythm of the flute, to honor the life
giver, to honor all relatives, to honor sacred
breath, to honor all that is. I watch smoke
circle the house, the room, the hair, the body.
Time to retreat, to set mind to the wisdom
of the skull, where all blood knowledge
filters from the universe into the skin of
dancers, children, food, water. At one, the
vibration begins, palms on the Buffalo skull
become warm, become energized, become
extended, become taken. Now prayer begins…
© Lois Red Elk
