He has yet to show any abilities related to this. Land Embodiment: The Buffalo is the personification of the lands and possesses every aspect of that, and which also gives him powers over the lands he covets.Samantha Black Crow has also encountered a female version of the Buffalo in her dreams.

Near the end of the story, Shadow comes across him and directly asks who he is. In these dreams, he often gives Shadow advice or leaves him with a question to ponder, such as 'What are gods?' He is often accompanied by Whiskey Jack. Shadow dreams that he is deep below the earth in a primordial cave, talking to the Buffalo across a campfire and can hear the Buffalo's words, but the Buffalo's mouth does not move when he speaks. Shadow frequently encounters the Buffalo Man in his dreams. When Shadow tries to leave the green house he is yanked back by Yggdrasill into his dream world were the Buffalo watches him learn of his origins through his memories. He awakens in the passenger seat of Betty with Wednesday driving them to Kentucky. The Buffalo approaches him and he is surrounded by the smoke from its eyes. Shadow dreams of digging out from a pile of skulls and climbing to the top of it where he encounters a massive tree. He is the patron god of an endemic tribe, and Atsula, the high priest of a recently arrived tribe, has to sacrifice herself to him to allow her people's survival.

Ibis's recounting of the arrival of a Siberian tribe to America during the Pleistocene, the Buffalo has been worshiped by the earliest arrivals to North America. As he backs away, the buffalo tells him to 'believe' and Shadow wakes up. He sees a white buffalo approaching him with its eyes aflame. He walks toward the middle where there is one massive, dead tree. Shadow falls asleep and dreams of the place were he is surrounded by human bones and dead trees.

American gods annotated