A rare white buffalo, whose 2006 birth at the Woodland Zoo spawned Native American pilgrimages to Fayette County, is getting a new home.

Within a few weeks, the male buffalo given the Lenape name Kenahkihinen — translated in English as "watch over us" — will be a part of the Wildlife Academy at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, near Farmington.

The academy features interactive entertainment and live animals programs with an emphasis on education, according to the resort's Web site. The collection of almost 100 species of animals includes lions, leopards, two-toed sloths and alligators.

Nemacolin is acquiring other animals from the zoo, the resort's assistant general manager, Chris Plummer, said Friday.

The white buffalo — and a female black buffalo from the zoo — will be included in a Native American interpretive center resort officials are planning to teach about Native American culture, he said.

"It would just be another unique offering that Nemacolin would have for guests," Plummer said.

The white buffalo has been a major feature of the zoo, which is just a few miles away from the resort on Route 40 in Wharton Township. When he was born, he was believed to be one of six white buffaloes alive in the country.

In addition to Intertribal Buffalo Nation Powwows the past two summers there, the National Park Service mentions in some advertising for the nearby Fort Necessity National Battlefield that visitors stopping at the zoo "should not miss the buffalo."

The sale of both the white and the black buffalo had been causing a stir in Native American communities in recent months, according to Michael "Hawk" Goodfire, who said he answered a spiritual calling to live at the zoo and be involved in their care.

Indian Country Today newspaper published a story last month about an informal auction for the animals that was scheduled for early September.

A West Virginia nonprofit, On the Wings of the Whispering Winds Inc., attempted in August to raise $25,000 to buy the white buffalo so he could live on a Lakota reservation in South Dakota, but the task was too difficult to pull off, according to founder Sharon Littledove.

The zoo's owners, Jill and Sonny Herring, have declined to comment about the sale of the buffalo. They've declined to discuss the future of the zoo's operations without the buffalo.

"This property is privately owned by Sonny and I, and we wish to remain private," Jill Herring said.

In a news release yesterday, Goodfire said Nemacolin already purchased the mother of the two buffalo in the spring.

"This is an amazing, beautiful opportunity for our people, along with a safe and secure home for the two sacred gifts," said Goodfire, who family is of the Shawnee and Holikachuk tribes.

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