Freeport Journal in Freeport, Illinois

Dancing Ghosts of the Northern Lights Legend Told

A Chippewa tale describes the aurora as Je bi ne me id de waad the Dancing Ghosts. A famine drives a famine ritual where three warriors are sacrificed at midnight on a hill. After ashes smoulder, a feast of drier roots follows and hunters prosper as the northern lights appear with three crimson kinglike figures dancing across the sky.