This collage is a mash-up of some of my favorite things about Buffalo, NY, where we spent a long weekend attending a beautiful wedding for an even more beautiful couple. 

Hidden in the collage are the words of John Fire Lame Deer, a Native American holy man from the Sioux tribe. While Buffalo (the animal) never actually inhabited Buffalo (the city), I like that his description embodies what we found while there: Our connection to nature (Niagara Falls was stunning), to beauty (the AKG Art Museum was world class), and to one another (the incredible people we met while out and about impressed us with their kindness, as well as their fierce amount of Buffalo pride): 

“The buffalo gave us everything we needed. Without it we were nothing. Our tipis were made of his skin. His hide was our bed, our blanket, our winter coat. It was our drum, throbbing through the night, alive, holy. Out of his skin we made our water bags. His flesh strengthened us, became flesh of our flesh. Not the smallest part of it was wasted. His stomach, a red-hot stone dropped in to it, became our soup kettle. His horns were our spoons, the bones our knives, our women's awls and needles. Out of his sinews we made our bowstrings and thread. His ribs were fashioned into sleds for our children, his hoofs became rattles. His mighty skull, with the pipe leaning against it, was our sacred altar. The name of the greatest of all Sioux was Tatanka Iyotake—Sitting Bull. When you killed off the buffalo you also killed the Indian—the real, natural, "wild" Indian.”

-John Fire Lame Deer