. . .A Few Words about the White Buffalo Tribe

The White Buffalo Tribe is true sponsor of the Native American Poet Laureate contest. It is not a physical organization, although its lodge members and honorary chiefs are physical people. There are no officers, dues, meetings, bylaws or rules. Only one way to join exists, as far as I know: each member finds at least one successor and initiates him/her in whatever manner is fitting. They serve in the creative spirit of the Great Spirit, whether they are or are not of Native American descent.

I initiate my successors through literary nominations: the first White Buffalo Poet Laureate award winner, Barbara Youngblood Carr in 2009, and subsequent Native American Poets Laureate: Dr. Carl B. Reed, Altus, Okla.(2010), and Ronald J. Jorgenson (aka Dr.Charles A.Stone), Austin, Tex. (2011). As laureate poet, each became an Honorary Chief of the White Buffalo Tribe. Two others I named were Barbara Callahan Quin (LittleCrow WalkingEagle) and Yvonne Londres (Dances with Poetry). who will carry on when I return to Spirit.

Each initiate receives a symbolic Native American name by whatever means is appropriate, if he/she does not already have one. My name "Prairie Flower" came intuitively. I had a Chickasaw ancestor and possibly at least one Cherokee on my father’s side, but no proof exists other than my late aunt Geneve Stephenson’s genealogy records that are incomplete. My father was a cloud and shape reader, and I have always been intuitive and attuned to various Native American numinous influences of a subtle nature.

I am a successor to the late-great Canadian artist/musician William Leonard Fairchuk, more familiarly known as Len "White Buffalo" Fairchuk. A Salteaux, Len named me Honorary Chief of the White Buffalo in 1968 in Los Angeles. Len celebrated talented Canadian First Nation people through his widely popular TV program "The Western Hour." Len died in 2004 and was posthumously inducted into the Aboriginal Music Hall of Fame. (click Fairchuk)

Details about The White Buffalo Tribe appear in my poetry chapbok which won the 2010 IRWIN (Industry Recognition of Writers in the News) Best Visionary book award from Book Publicists of Southern California. "The Last Indian on the Trail of Tears" introduces The Unknown Indian and six other Native American spirits who helped me get a $91,000 settlement in my one-woman legal stand against the City of Springfield (Missouri). Proceeds from book sales will help further White Buffalo Native American literary events such as challenges and contests.

HOW TO ORDER

The Last Indian on The Trail of Tears

Mail $10 per copy (includes postage) in checks payable to Wanda Sue Parrott to: