The Importance Of Native American Storytelling

In today’s society, the Native American culture is found only in reservations and is not well known. Portrayed as

Although stories are a universal art form, they hold a more significant role in Native American culture, and literature. This occurs due to the millennia spent in isolation from the rest of the world, and having stories as the main source of entertainment. Thomas King’s statement, “stories can control our lives,” is an important notion, because it embarks on the idea of molding the diseased into more interesting versions of themselves. The statement is prevalent in many pieces of literature which fuse reality into the imagination, and cause people to lose themselves in the fictitious realm. Native literature is all closely related, and they all hold messages within their stories that show their great culture; both the good and the bad. Story

The Native American’s way of living was different from the Europeans. They believed that man is ruled by respect and reverence for nature and that nature is an

Mi’kmaq and Abenaki people use their creation stories to tell how things came to be in the world. These traditional stories are shared from generation to generation to help natives help define who they are as a unique group of people. Art, sculptures, carvings, songs, stories, and spiritual rituals are all ways where both native groups celebrate their culture and tell their creation story.

Trickster tales have been an important part of the Native American culture for hundreds of years. Trickster tales are an oral storytelling tradition and are continuously passed down from generation to generation of Native American Indians. American Indians enjoy listening and telling trickster tales because it is a fun and interesting way to tell a story with a valuable lesson. In many tales, the trickster has a name associated with an animal, and a majority of listeners assume they are animals; however, in some tales, characteristics may appear more human-like. Trickster tales allow Native American cultures to use their imagination and thoroughly understand the moral lessons presented in the tales, and therefore may help with one’s

Many aspects of Native American culture can be seen in their literature. Native Americans showed a high respect to nature and often viewed animals as equal in rights to humans. Myths of creation, nature, social order, and relations towards other tribes are often topics of literature. Animism was a commonly shared belief of Native Americans. They believed that souls and spirits existed in nature and that forces of nature were controlled by spirits.

Storytelling continues to be an integral part of Native American culture, providing us with an understanding of what was important to the Native Americans. Through their stories, Native Americans expressed an understanding of the environment, and the relationship that existed between themselves and their environment. These stories also provide us with a look at Native American legends, history, and a collection of knowledge critical to their survival. Native American stories are deeply rooted in their relationship with Mother Earth. Their many years connected with land, life, water and sky has created many stories explaining these important bonds with Mother Earth. From ancient times the Native Americans have looked to their

However, Native Americans have managed to challenge common stereotypes, keep their culture alive and have successfully progressed because of their entrepreneurial skills and

How do the culture, beliefs,and history of the Cherokee tribes influence their stories documents? The culture of the Cherokee tribes influence their people to keep in contact with their ancestries and the ways that they live. Beliefs of the Cherokee tribes influence their people to be in contact with the spirit world. Now the history of the Cherokee tribes influence us to think that not everything is so easy or sometimes even fair but we have to surpass all the unjustified things in

Native Americans had a great understanding of courage; they understood that without the courage to take risks, they would not survive. They had life figured out back then; they knew

The family is very important to Native Americans. Father is the hero and the breadwinner; his son takes a leaf out of his father's book. There is no intelligence in animals, but they learn something by looking at their parents. Looking at Native Americans, each tribe has a different culture. Some tribal groups, such as the Great Plains, were patrilocal. This means that the father was considered the head of the family, new couples lived near the husband's family, and linage was traced through the father's side of the family (Native American cultures: Family life, kinship, and gender, 1996a, para. 4). One important story to them is the story of the Stone Boy. A woman lived with her five brothers. Every time the brother's went out to hunt, one never came back. Eventually, the girl was left alone in despair. She swallowed a stone, and that stone caused her to give birth to a strange son. When he was old enough, the Stone Boy set out to find his five uncles. He found they had been killed by an old hag. He killed the old hag, brought the uncles back to live, and brought them back to their sister (The sun and the Moon: Myths from around the world, 2017). This story proves that the women in the tribe were nothing without the men going out and hunting for food. The sister could not have lived without a

Stories that have been passed on for decades by Indigenous people have many cultural values and meanings that can help teach and guide others. In his book Earth Elder Stories: The Pinayzitt Path, Alexander Wolfe’s includes three stories “The Sound of Dancing,” “The Orphan Children,” and “Grandfather Buffalo,” that reveal important Anishinaabe cultural values. In the story “The Sound of Dance,” the value of family sacrifice is shown as a strong Anishinaabe cultural value. In the story “The Orphan Children,” Wolfe expresses the importance of orally transmitted knowledge as a core Anishinaabe cultural value. Then in “Grandfather Bear,” the keeper of knowledge emphasizes the importance of the connection to the past, especially within family relations in Anishinaabe culture. There are many cultural values that can be found in these three stories told my Alexander Wolfe. Family sacrifice is one of many values shown throughout these stories, specifically in the story “The Sound of Dancing”.

For most of my life, the word “Native American” had immediately made me think of feathers, powwows, and a society uncorrupted by civilization. However, in watching the movie Smoke Signals, a movie that depicts the modern Native American culture, I learned many other things. For one, I learned that many of the customs that modern Native Americans have are very similar to my own. I also saw that the family life of the Native Americans in the film had many of the same problems that my family had undergone in the past years. This film was unlike any that I have ever seen; therefore, it reached me on a very personal level.

All humans are interested in their origins and trying to account for their existence through creation stories. Native Americans tribes are no different from the rest of humanity. The tribes’ stories explain how people came into existence, how they came to be live on the lands they do and the how people interact with nature and each other. These trends can be seen in the legends of three tribes hailing from New England to the Great Lakes Region.

Like a coin dropped between the cushions of a couch, traditional oral storytelling is a custom fading away in current American culture. For Native Americans, however, the practice of oral storytelling is still a tradition that carries culture and rich history over the course of generations. Three examples of traditional oral stories, “How Men and Women Got Together”, “Coyote’s Rabbit Chase”, and “Corn Mother”, demonstrate key differences in perspectives and values among diverse native tribes in America.