BEND, Ore. (AP) — Pendleton Woolen Mills is making new Navajo-style medicine blankets using wool and blended hair shed by an unusual herd of white buffalo in central Oregon.
Ranching experts say fewer than 50 white buffalo, or American bison, live in the U.S.
On a sanctuary east of Bend, 11 of them roam acres of isolated juniper forest under the care of Cynthia Hart-Button and her husband, Charles Button.
Buffalo usually are black or brown. White buffalo are produced when recessive genes trigger the unusual trait. Some Native American tribes consider them sacred.
