My grandfather was fearless and very strong, even among the great people of the Ute. They said he had the heart of a great warrior, but the greater will of an explorer. Chipote, my grandfather, walked the path of a spirit walker rather than a warrior. From a very early age, he spoke with animals and trees and rocks. At first, he was dismissed as an imaginative boy, but later he spoke of things that he could not know as just a boy. He told the tribe where to find hidden naturally forming cisterns. He told them where to find the best area in which to hunt. He told them of dangers yet to come. Now you see the power a true spirit walker commands. By the time he was a young man he was already a great spirit walker and the tribe respected him as they would an elder. He often travelled the land alone and had a great many adventures. It was told to me that in his twentieth year and five that he sought out to speak with the great sky spirit. His wife, my grandmother, begged him not to go, for he said he would be gone for many months and have to climb the great mountains in the west in order to speak directly to the sky spirit. But, Chipote needed adventure just as you and I need air to breathe and to live, and so he travelled west. Along the way, he spoke with the fox and the cougar. They asked him where he was going. He said that he was going to speak to the sky spirit. He asked them if they have ever spoken with the sky spirit. No, they told him, you cannot talk to the sky spirit, for he is too far away, and we are nothing to him, you will see. Turn back and go home spirit walker they said to him. But Chipote knew what you and I know, that all spirits are limited to their environment. The fox and cougar do not live where heaven and earth meet, and so he travelled on. Days of walking turned into weeks as he approached the great mountains of the west. The land provided food and water for him, as it had always done so graciously and he thanked the spirits for this. At times, he would stop and swim in a stream fed from the mountain or sit upon a rock, and he would ask the water spirit and rock spirit of the sky spirit. The water spirit did not speak but Chipote felt its thoughts, that the sky spirit fed the stream with its rain, but knew nothing more. And the rock spirit only cared to sleep and knew nothing of the sky at all. Onward Chipote walked, day after day, coming to the base of the nearest great mountain. He began his ascent, all the while listening for the spirit of the mountain. The mountain was very large and high, thought Chipote, he must be great and powerful and wise. Hear me spirit of the mountain, hear me, lead me to your peak, I am the great spirit walker Chipote. Wake up spirit of the mountain, wake up and lead me to the sky spirit. Yet, Chipote was but an ant to the mountain spirit and the mountain spirit didn’t want to listen to one so small and insignificant. He grumbled and continued to sleep. Chipotle was insistent as he clawed and climbed and crawled. Wake up great one, wake up, do you not want to speak with me, for no other can hear you. I am tired and my hands are bloody and raw. I am hungry. Will you not help me get to the sky spirit? The mountain spirit cared not for man or to speak, and to silence him he rumbled and rocks tumbled down his sides. Chipote was shaken and some stones hit him. He fell and awoke in the dark, bruised and sore. The nights were cold and at that elevation, frost lay on the ground, even in early summer. Any normal man would have turned back, but not Chipote. Chipote called out for the ram and the bird spirits to help. And so they came. They guided him and at times the ram let him sit upon his back. He asked them of the sky spirit, but they knew nothing of him. At last, bloody and tired and hungry and cold, Chipote made his final ascent to the peak of the mountain. Snow and frost covered the hard cold rocks and almost all life was absent at this height. Even the ram and the bird turned back and went down to lower, more acceptable places. At this height, even many of the clouds were below him and the view was unlike anything Chipote could imagine. Below him a sea of white floating masses and between them, far away, green and brown plains and blue lakes. This was a place of great peace and tranquility and for Chipote to sit here at the peak was almost rapture. In his elation, he called out to the sky spirit. Sky spirt, can you hear me? I am Chipote, the spirit walker. Speak to me and I will listen. He sat and sat, and heard nothing. He called out again and still nothing. He waited hours and hours until a cloud enveloped the entire top of the mountain. As if in some dream, the dense cloud became like a fog shrouding all but the closest objects. And then came the vibration, deep and steady. He felt it around him and inside him. It was vast, so vast that it was almost incomprehensible. He knew that the sky spirit had heard him and had come.
    What are you, swirled the fog, speaking in but a whisper.
    I am Chipote, spirit walker of the Ute.
    And what is a Ute.
    I am a man Chipote replied.
    I know nothing of men answered the sky spirit, the fog swirling around Chipote. No man has ever spoken to me said the sky spirit. Are there more of you, where do you come from?
    I come from the earth below and there are many of us replied Chipote.
    Ahhh, then you are one of the many tiny dots that I see below me. I thought them ants, for in compare to lakes, plains and mountains, you are but nothing. Sometimes I send rain down upon you and see you hide and scatter. Why do you speak with me spirit walker?
    I come to know you as I wish to know all spirits. I seek your wisdom and your guidance.
    I think you too small to understand the sky, replied the sky spirit. I am vast and I stretch out far beyond lands that you ants live upon. I cover the sea and snow covered realms you cannot live upon. I touch the stars and play among the mountains where ants like you never come. I shape the clouds and with them rain upon you. I throw the lightning at the earth spirit to wake him, but he never wakes. I yell as thunder but only the mountains listen and shudder. I know you ants run and hide when I send thunder and lightning down upon you. We are not meant to talk, you and I spirit walker. I speak only with the wind spirit and those that dare fly so high, the greatest of bird spirits.
    Perhaps that is true replied Chipote, but is there nothing you wish to hear or know of my world or from the spirits below you.
    Hmmm… vibrated the sky spirit. There is one thing I do enjoy. In the dark of the night, I like to look upon your fires, for they twinkle bright like the stars, and at times, they have a wonderful smell. I like to inhale the smoke from those fires and it becomes part of me. It makes me feel…part of some other mysterious world.
    Ahh, then perhaps we can make a deal. What if I were to make a great fire at night full of those smells, to call upon you, would you come?
    Yes, I would come, but what is this deal?
    If I made such a great fire, would you send us rain shortly thereafter? I could send a messenger to you asking for this favor.
    A messenger? What sort of messenger.
    The spirit of the great eagle, grandest of all birds, wisest of all flying creatures. He alone can reach you and speak to you.
    Ah yes, the eagle. He plays in my domain. It is agreed then. If you make a great fire full of wonderful smells, and send the eagle, I will send my clouds and rain.
    And with that bargain made, Chipote returned to the lands below and back to the Ute tribe. There he told his tale to the tribe but many did not believe the tale. Late that summer a dry spell came and many crops of corn and wheat became in danger of dying. Chipote and others made a great fire, and in it, cooked a feast of meats, sending the smoke and odor high into the clouds. Members of the tribe banged drums and danced and sung around the fire, urging it to be bigger and stronger. The fire spirit was coaxed into a mad frenzy and grew hungrier to consume all it could. Chipote then called the great eagle spirit. The mighty bird came and landed before him. Chipote told the eagle to relay the message to the sky spirit, to bring rain and off the eagle flew. Soon clouds formed on the horizon, very dark clouds. By morning, a rain began to fall, then heavier and heavier until all became a deluge. It rained for three days and three nights, feeding the crops and the plains, the cisterns, the streams and the lakes, and then just as quickly stopped and all became bathed in sunlight again. The tribe never doubted Chipote after that. This is the legend of Chipote and the sky spirit, and we think this is the origin of the rain dance that even the white people know of.