Now everybody form a circle and sit down, and we'll know you

I'm going to take you on a trip in time, to a point when I was a boy, living in the province of Alberta, in Canada

Walking Eagle, Great Chief of the Stony, also known as Morley Beaver, would bring his

Braves and their families into town

And while they visited the stores and trading posts, the tiny papooses dressed in beaded buckskin and snugly wrapped to boards, were placed in a row on the store shelves

The papooses never cried

Chief Walking Eagle would tell me stories of life in the forest and of how he learned to forecast weather from the animals

His forecasts were always accurate

One day, the great chief invited me to a sacred celebration called a Sundance, which was being held by another tribe

Now somebody in your circle, take a puff from a piece of pipe and pass it to a friend

Pass it all around

Hold hands and sway from side to side, if you feel it, act out the scene in body sign language

Now it's evening, the Indian people have arranged their tipis in a giant circle around the edge of a valley, in the Sand Hills

The ceremony is in progress

Each tipi glows from a small fire inside, around the circle four horses walk, on each is a man and a child and they are singing

In the center of the valley is a giant tipi made from the tallest popular trees, hanging from the top are yards of brightly colored cloth

Inside the ceremonial lodge the medicine men sit cross-legged on the ground in a circle, around a painted buffalo skull and a small fire

They appear to be having visions

Perhaps they remember how it was when their great people lived alone in the land

On either side of the medicine men are short willow barriers

From behind one, a group of men or braves who wear their hair in long braids rises and sings

Now and then they disappear and a group of women appear from the other side

Each woman has a small feathered whistle in her mouth, and the sound soars like a wild bird, as the women move to the rhythm of the drums

The sacred Sundance continues for three days and three nights

This is a special ceremony because the son of another tribal chief had hurt his arm

On the third night, even though we live a few miles from the valley, the drums are as

Loud and as intense as if they are in the backyard

Look up, and you can see the great sheets of brightly colored northern lights dancing in the sky

The drumbeats continue aloud and strong

The mountains echo their message

Before the end of the third day more magic happened!

The roads and trails to town became filled with carts and wagons full of people, from far

Across the mountains, even across the Great Divide

They have come to pay their respects to the boy who was rapidly becoming well, and from then on was Called Cough Boy

And after the third night, Walking Eagle and his people return to the forest

Some packing their tents and belongings on sleds made of animal hide stretched between two poles and pulled by a horse

The drums began to fade, and all became quiet in the Sand Hills

Pass the peace pipe to a friend

Pass it all around

Never put it down, my friend

Never let it down