Buffalo Spirit Shield Coffee Mug

Buffalo Spirit Shield, artwork by Zeke Sena, New Mexico, USA. The grasslands and Llano Estacado (staked plains) of northeastern and southeastern New Mexico were home to hundreds of thousands of Cibola – Buffalo. The hispanic colonists who settled in New Mexico learned from their Pueblo Indian neighbors that Buffalo provided an abundance of food and clothing. “Ciboleros,” as they were known, left the safety of their villages to head out into the vast “no-man’s land” of the plains for months at a time. Here, other peoples, too, hunted the mighty Buffalo; Ute, Comanche, Kiowa, and Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Chiricahua bands of Apache. Nothing of Buffalo was left to waste as was the case later on when the Americans appeared in the region. Buffalo connotes, life, great strength, abundance, gratitude, life builder. Buffalo provides all good things for living, and bestows great curing powers.