Tribes honor the birth of a rare white buffalo calf in Yellowstone and reveal its name: Wakan Gli

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. (AP) — In a gathering near a picturesque lake outside Yellowstone National Park, hundreds of people cheered Wednesday as a Native American leader spoke the name revealed on a painted hide for a rare white buffalo that was born in the park earlier this month: Wakan Gli, which means “Return Sacred” in Lakota.

The moment marked the highlight of a Native American religious ceremony to commemorate the calf's birth that also featured dancing, drumming, singing and the retelling of how a mysterious woman brought a message of reassurance during hard times.

Earlier this month, the white buffalo calf was born in Yellowstone National Park's vast and lush Lamar Valley, where huge, lumbering bison graze by the hundreds in scenes reminiscent of the old American West.

To the several tribes who revere American bison — they call them “buffalo" — the calf's appearance was both the fulfilment of sacred prophesy and a message to take better care of the Earth.

“It’s up to each and every one of you to make it happen for the future of our children. We must come together and bring that good energy back,” Chief Arvol Looking Horse said at the ceremonies a few miles west of Yellowstone, in far southern Montana.

Looking Horse is spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and the Nakota Oyate in South Dakota and the 19th keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe and Bundle. He describes the white buffalo calf's appearance as both a blessing and a warning about the natural environment.

About 500 people — including representatives of the Colville Tribes in Washington, Lakota and Sioux in the Dakotas, Northern Arapaho in Wyoming, and Shoshone-Bannock in Idaho — attended the ceremonies at the headquarters of Buffalo Field Campaign between Hebgen Lake and the southern reach of the Madison Range. The conservation group works with tribes to protect and honor wild buffalo.

At most, only a handful of people got a look at the calf soon after its birth June 4. Fewer still got photos to prove its existence. The calf has not been seen since.

Each passing week without a sighting adds to suspicions the calf has fallen victim to predators, river currents, illness or any number of hazards for young buffalo. Regardless, it was an auspicious sign with deep roots in Lakota legend and spiritual belief.

Some 2,000 years ago — when nothing was good, food was running out and bison were disappearing — White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared and presented a bowl pipe and a bundle to a tribal member and said the pipe could be used to bring buffalo to the area for food.

As she left, she turned into a white buffalo calf. She promised to return one day, when times are hard again, as a white buffalo calf with black nose, black eyes and black hooves.

“This is a very momentous time in our history when this white buffalo calf with black nose, black eyes, black hooves is born,” Looking Horse said.

White calves are unusual but not unheard of on buffalo ranches, a result of interbreeding between buffalo and cattle. White bison in nature are another level of rare, with none known in Yellowstone — the continent's largest wild reserve of the animals — in recent memory, if ever.

This calf came after a severe winter in 2023 drove thousands of Yellowstone buffalo to lower elevations. More than 1,500 were killed, sent to slaughter or transferred to tribes seeking to reclaim stewardship over an animal their ancestors lived alongside for millennia.

Jordan Creech, who guides in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, was one of a few people who captured images of the white buffalo calf.

Creech was guiding a photography tour when he spotted a cow buffalo about to give birth near the Lamar River. The buffalo disappeared over a hill and the group continued to a place where grizzly bears had been spotted, Creech said.

They returned later and saw the cow with its calf, Creech said. It was clear the calf had just been born, he said, calling it amazing timing.

“And I noted to my guests that it was oddly white, but I didn’t announce that it was a white bison, because, you know, why would I just assume that I just witnessed the very first white bison birth in recorded history in Yellowstone?” he said.

Yellowstone park officials have no record of a white bison being born in the park previously. Park officials have been unable to confirm this month's birth.

Erin Braaten, who also captured images of the white calf, looked for it in the days after its birth but couldn't find it.

“The thing is, we all know that it was born and it’s like a miracle to us,” Looking Horse said.

Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Ota Bluehorse, a member of the Spirit Lake Tribe, wears a headdress adorned with bison horns during a naming ceremony for a white buffalo calf at the Buffalo Field Campaign headquarters in West Yellowstone, Mont., Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The reported birth of a white buffalo calf in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times. (AP Photo/Sam Wilson)

Charlene Hollow Horn Bear and Keith Ryder take down a buffalo hide painted with a depiction of a white buffalo calf after a naming ceremony for a recently born calf at the Buffalo Field Campaign headquarters in West Yellowstone, Mont., Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The reported birth of the white buffalo calf in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times. (AP Photo/Sam Wilson)

Drummers sing a song at the end of a naming ceremony for a white buffalo calf at the headquarters of the Buffalo Field Campaign in West Yellowstone, Mont., Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The reported birth of the calf in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times. (AP Photo/Sam Wilson)

Ota Bluehorse wears a ceremonial headdress adorned with bison horns while attending a naming ceremony for a white buffalo calf, Wednesday, June 26, 2024, at the headquarters of the Buffalo Field Campaign in West Yellowstone, Mont. The reported birth of a white buffalo calf in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times. (AP Photo/Sam Wilson)

People gather at the headquarters of the Buffalo Field Campaign in West Yellowstone, Mont., for the naming ceremony of a recently born white buffalo, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The reported birth of a white buffalo calf in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times. (AP Photo/Sam Wilson)

Arvol Looking Horse, a spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate peoples in South Dakota, closes out a naming ceremony for a white buffalo calf at the headquarters of the Buffalo Field Campaign in West Yellowstone, Mont., Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The reported birth of the sacred calf in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times. (AP Photo/Sam Wilson)

This photo provided by Jordan Creech shows a white buffalo calf born on June 4, 2024, in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, a spiritually significant event for many Native American tribes. The calf's birth fulfills a prophecy for the Lakota people that portends better times but also signals that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals. (Jordan Creech via AP)

This photo provided by Jordan Creech shows a white buffalo calf born on June 4, 2024, in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, a spiritually significant event for many Native American tribes. The calf's birth fulfills a prophecy for the Lakota people that portends better times but also signals that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals. (Jordan Creech via AP)

This photo provided by Jordan Creech shows a white buffalo calf born on June 4, 2024, in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, a spiritually significant event for many Native American tribes. The calf's birth fulfills a prophecy for the Lakota people that portends better times but also signals that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals. (Jordan Creech via AP)

This photo provided by Jordan Creech shows a white buffalo calf born on June 4, 2024, in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, a spiritually significant event for many Native American tribes. The calf's birth fulfills a prophecy for the Lakota people that portends better times but also signals that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals. (Jordan Creech via AP)

PANAMA CITY (AP) — A judge has acquitted 28 people accused of money laundering in an international case known as the Panama Papers, including the co-founder of a law firm that authorities say was at the center of a conspiracy to hide money linked to illegal activities.

Jürgen Mossack founded Mossack & Fonseca with then associate Ramón Fonseca, who died in May. Mossack was acquitted on Friday along with others after a Panamanian judge found that the evidence against Mossack didn't comply with the chain of custody after authorities raided the office of the now defunct firm.

Prosecutors had accused Mossack, Fonseca and others of creating offshore companies and using complex transactions to hide money from illegal activities related to the so-called car wash corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to a charge related to using shell companies to hide millions of dollars in bribes paid worldwide to win public contracts.

The judge noted that other evidence in the Panama Papers case “was not sufficient and conclusive to determine the criminal responsibility of the accused.”

In addition, the judge lifted personal and property precautionary measures against all the defendants, according to a judicial statement.

“We feel satisfied in the midst of mixed emotions, because many lives were affected along the way,” Guillermina Mc Donald, who was the defense attorney for Mossack and Fonseca, told The Associated Press. Her firm also represented 80% of the accused firm’s collaborators.

Judge Balaoisa Marquínez had decided to combine the Panama Papers case with another known as “Operation Car Wash,” a major anti-corruption investigation that began in Brazil.

On Friday, she ruled that in the car wash case, “it was not possible to determine the entry of money from illicit sources, coming from Brazil, into the Panamanian financial system with the purpose of hiding, concealing, disguising or helping to evade the legal consequences of the preceding crime.”

In June 2022, Mossack, Fonseca and 37 other people were acquitted in a separate money laundering case.

The investigation in Brazil began in 2014, with the Mossack & Fonseca firm later coming under scrutiny after 11 million financial documents tied to the company were leaked.

The repercussions of the leak were widespread: it led to the resignation of a prime minister in Iceland and brought scrutiny to now former leaders of Argentina and Ukraine, Chinese politicians and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others.

FILE - Juergen Mossack, partner of the law firm Mossack-Fonseca, leaves the Supreme Court during the trial of the "Panama Papers" money laundering case in Panama City, April 8, 2024. On Friday, a Panamanian judge acquitted Mossack and 27 other people who were accused of money laundering in the notorious Panama Papers case. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera, File)