Nita-isa, nita-isa,
He′yahe′eỹe′!
Translation
When first our father came—Ahe′eye′!
When first our father came—Ahe′eye′!
I prayed to him, I prayed to him—
My relative, my relative—
He′yahe′eỹe′!
This song was composed by Paul Boynton (Bääku′ni, “Red Feather”), a Carlisle student, after having been in a trance. His brother had died some time before, and being told by the Indians that he might be able to see and talk with him by joining the dance, Paul went to Sitting Bull, the leader of the dance, at the next gathering, and asked him to help him to see his dead brother. The result was that he was hypnotized by Sitting Bull, fell to the ground in a trance, and saw his brother. While talking with him, however, he suddenly awoke, much to his regret, probably from some one of the dancers having touched against him as he lay upon the ground. According to his statement, the words were spoken by him in his sleep after coming from the dance and were overheard by some companions who questioned him about it in the morning, when he told his experience and put the words into a song. The “father” here referred to is Sitting Bull, the great apostle of the Arapaho Ghost dance. It was from Paul’s statement, intelligently told in good English before I had yet seen the dance, that I was first led to suspect that hypnotism was the secret of the trances.