As Moira Villiard dug into the history of Chief Buffalo, she realized she knew almost nothing of his story, but it turns out, she already knew several of his relatives!
As she contacted them for more information, one of those descendants, Henry Buffalo, shared the following with her:
“Contemporary elders say that the lines from the hearts and eyes of the Catfish, Man-fish, Bear, and the three Martens to the heart and eye of the Crane signify that all the headmen shared the same views. The last line, going out from the Crane's eye, indicated that the entire group had authorized Chief Buffalo (Crane Clan) to speak to President Fillmore on their behalf.
"In this statement they mis-identify Buffalo as Crane instead of Maang. Crane and Loon were the leadership Clans and as the pictograph suggests, all the authority from the others go to Crane and there is a last string that goes out from Crane. This string goes to the clan of the spokesperson.
"Remember this authority was given twice – once in 1849 to Oshcabawis when he was asked to go to Washington to address boundary issues. His clan was not depicted. The same with Buffalo. He was asked to go to Washington to address the Removal using this same document and his Clan was not depicted. It makes sense that the spokesperson’s Clan is not depicted because he is there himself (at the meeting with government officials) and can speak for his Clan’s support personally."
