What is White Buffalo?

White Buffalo (Sacred Buffalo Stone, White Turquoise) was discovered at the Dry Creek turquoise mine on the Shoshone Indian Reservation near Battle Mountain, Nevada in 1993. To date, this is the only place it is found. White Buffalo is as rare as the sacred white buffalo, which is why the Shoshone Indians named it Sacred Buffalo Stone. It is white with black and/or brown matrix and it is sometimes called white turquoise but it is technically not turquoise. This is because turquoise, by definition, contains copper (it is a copper aluminum phosphate), which is what gives turquoise its characteristic blue color (presence of iron will shift the color toward green). Although Sacred Buffalo Stone resembles turquoise in hardness and will polish to a high shine like turquoise, it has no copper, thus no blue color.