White Buffalo Calf Woman=Mary?

[BartBurk]

I guess we don’t discuss Native American spirituality around here very much, but I came across this and found it interesting:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Buffalo_Calf_Woman

A Native American was telling this story on a show on RfD TV last night. It almost sounded like a Marian vision except for the fact the legend says she killed one of the warriors. Anyway, I guess Lakota Christians associate Mary with this vision. Does it even make any sense that God would teach Native Americans in this way prior to the advent of Christianity in the Americas?

 

[Wesley7]

You might want to post that in this other forum religiousforums.com/forum/native-american-dir/ . .

 

[Aelred_Minor]

If this story really does predate Christian influence in the region (which could be a tricky thing to determine for tribes from the center of North America since there were centuries with occasional or indirect European influence before Americans or Canadians really started coming into regular, intensive contact with them), it could be a providential parallelism and/or just an expression of the natural human desire for there to be a holy, pure supernatural woman one can admire.

A lot of American Indian beliefs are syncretic between Christian and pre-Columbian American elements, so it’s not surprising to find some familiar sounding elements in them. Heck, there were even some Catholic Norsemen living on this continent in the Middle Ages, possibly including a bishop, and who knows if they left any kind of mark on the myths and beliefs of any cultures here.

 

[achmafooma]

A Native American was telling this story on a show on RfD TV last night. It almost sounded like a Marian vision except for the fact the legend says she killed one of the warriors. Anyway, I guess Lakota Christians associate Mary with this vision. Does it even make any sense that God would teach Native Americans in this way prior to the advent of Christianity in the Americas?

Interesting.

The Catechism says (para 843), “The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as ‘a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life.’”

This implies that there are elements of truth in other religions, and sometimes that manifests itself in parallels like this. Invariably there are errors – like the semi-Marian figure killing a warrior – but I believe that these things aren’t coincidences. Like the Catechism says, these things help prepare non-Christians for receiving the Gospel.

My wife is Chinese-American, and I learned from her and her family about the Guanyin, a similar Marian figure from Buddhist tradition - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanyin. Many Asian Christians, like the Lakota Christians you mention, associate Mary with the Guanyin as well. In fact, for centuries in Japan it was a capital offense to be a Christian…so Christians would venerate statues and images of Kannon (as Guanyin is known in Japanese) as a stand-in for Mary that would not arouse suspicion.

Very interesting topic. Thank you for sharing!