"OK, nephew. Here is a simple test. If you don't believe the dead come back, go the graveyard. There is a new grave in the cemetery where the old ones, the ancients, are buried.

"Go on Halloween night. The white men say that on Halloween night, spirits walk. Put a knife in the grave so that we will know you were there," the uncle told him.

When the nephew got there, he could see the outlines of the raggedy crosses and tombstones and began to notice the creepy sounds of the night. He felt just a little nervous now. He reached the barbed wire fence surrounding the graves, jumped off his horse, tied it to the fence and stumbled over grass-covered graves to a new mound of dirt.

He could see dead flowers in baskets and wreaths on the grave. The smell of damp, new dirt left him a little shaky, but he pulled his out knife, jabbed it into the grave and turned to leave."

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Take the graveyard challenge (The Grand Forks Herald 10/30)

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