………. my grandfather he walked off by himself ……..up in the pine hills up there he walked all night crying, praying, when it became apparent dawn was coming, he rested alongside of a hill, he laid down and he fell asleep, right away, he fell asleep. The next thing he heard was ‘Hey dig a hole, you remain in that hole 96 hours and you going to do without what the people need to exist upon this earth, you shove it aside. Which is food, water, tobacco and sleep. No, you shove them all aside over there, 96 hours.” So he did.
First night went by, nothing, second night went by, nothing. Third night went by, nothing. Fourth night went by nothing. But when the morning star hit the horizon…… and it was his brother James put him on the hill, cause he told him he heard a voice telling him to dig the hole. So his brother said yup you are going to do this, he helped him dig the grave. When they put him in there it was on the third day that James my other grandpa he started crying so they ask him, “hey why are you crying “. He said the man we put on the hill; he died! “So, we’re going to go get him!” he said: “Nope nope he’s gonna do four days”. And that was on the third day. “We are going to get him on the fifth day.”
The third day when my grandfather died. He was standing in the pit and in the middle of his feet there was a rumbling and then out popped a board and here he fell back in the grave. And here they took a medicine, and this is for the canupa. This is for the other canupa. This is the medicine for the gourd, the last one they placed on his abdomen. And they took him deeper into the earth and pushed him deeper into the earth. So he started getting his bearings and looking around. And here he found himself in a church. So right away he started for the door. He was looking for the door. No door. At the other end there was a light so he started walking that way and here, seen a pair of arms just holding two things, so he started walking up and he looked at it and here in the right hand was a bible, the left hand a hymnal. And a voice telling him, he said, don’t you ever forget these two. Ho. And they told him because you want to communicate with the unseen, we’ll communicate with you but first you tell us that you will never say no for the rest of your life. You will never say no. My grandfather. Say yup I will never say no. So all of the material these the tobacco ties, they showed him these and what they said about these colors, it represents the races of man, the blue represents the sky in which the people live under, the green represents the land upon which they walk, the tobacco ties, the ceremony, everything and what they said about these things and the tobacco ties that was told to him which applies to us was this, before you ask anything of us, they said, you make these with your prayers and your wants. Then when you get done you smudge them, you lift them up and present them back to us. And he said if anybody does that, they said, we’re going to take a good look at them, were gonna take a good look at them and if they’re sent back the same way that we sent them down there they said, were going to take those and were goanna give you your prayers. So we call them offering shawls and tobacco ties…
– Godfrey Chipps
“….We are given four things by Wakan Tanka to assist us: the canupa, the drum (cancega), the inipi, and the hanblecheyapi. All four colors of man are given these things and are also given 16 days and nights to communicate with the Unseen. Four sets of four. But the first thing we discover on the hill is ourselves, our weaknesses …
– Godfrey Chipps