White Buffalo Cow Society

[1] The women of the White Buffalo Cow Society perform the buffalo-calling ceremony.

[2] The White Buffalo Cow Society originated with the Mandan but was adopted by the Hidatsa.

Other Oceti Sakowin tribes who also depend on the buffalo may have similar women's societies.

This society, associated with the White Buffalo Cow oral history, has historically performed important buffalo-calling rites.

In ceremonies written about by men in the 1800s, they said members of the society have traditionally painted one eye a color based on their personal preference, typically blue, tattooed black marks between their lips and chin, and some women wore a headdress made of white buffalo cowhide embellished with feathers.