White Buffalo, Cheyenne was born in 1862 &
died in June 1929.
He was described in newspaper articles in 1902 as being of striking appearance, as his hair had turned completely white when he was very young. His photo from his Carlisle days, dressed in a suit with a short haircut in the white man’s style, shows that to be true. In 1888, when he was 26, he married a full-blood Northern Cheyenne widow. Medicine Woman, who was 30 at the time. She had also been born in Montana as had her parents. On the 1905 Indian Census for their reservation, they had four children listed: Emma White Buffalo, son Receiving Roots, Paul White Buffalo and Pratt White Buffalo – named for the Carlisle School founder. On the 1910 U. S. Federal Census, they are listed with only three of seven surviving children: John White Buffalo, James White Buffalo and Fred White Buffalo. According to the 1910 census, the mother of Medicine Woman also lived with them as well, 76 at the time, widowed and named Siege Woman. Medicine Woman is listed on this census as illiterate, as is her mother. His son, John White Buffalo enlisted for service in World War I. As full blood Cheyenne, both White Buffalo and Medicine Woman received land allotments on the reservation in 1891 in Lincoln Township in present-day Blaine County, Oklahoma. These are listed on several of the Indian Census lists as allotments number 966 and 967. White Buffalo lived to be 67 years old, and passed away on June 23, 1929, per the 1930 Indian census for the reservation. According to his obituary in the Watonga Republican newspaper dated June 27, 1929, he is buried at the Indian Mission Church on the reservation and was survived by his wife and sons.
White Buffalo, Cheyenne
Photo by Frank A. Rinehart, 1898.