Native American Indian Storytelling

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  Okay, So today we're gonna be looking at Native American

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  storytelling, focusing on elements and themes as we move into

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  our first major unit in American literature.

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  And so what we're gonna be focusing on today, with

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  a little bit of an overview, is the background, the

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  purpose, the elements and ultimately, the legacy of Native American

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  storytelling in American literature.

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  So started background.

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  Now, traditionally, uh, I grew up learning that Christopher Columbus

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  discovered the New World discovered America back in 14 92.

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  But often times when we look at that story were

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  kind of glossing over very significant tradition and culture and

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  the process, because it's important to know that in reality,

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  I'm over here.

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  Okay? In reality, Leif Eriksson as an explorer beat Columbus

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  here by 150 years.

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  Ah, and then even dating back to as early as

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  30,000 before the common era, there are at least five

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  million indigenous people living in North America, which means hundreds

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  of tribes and additionally, Justus, many languages.

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  Okay, there I am.

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  All right.

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  So what is the purpose of native American storytelling?

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  Primarily it is mythology and mythology is a very specific

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  type of story.

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  what we would consider today's mythology at one time was

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  someone else's religion.

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  Somebody think a Greek mythology or Roman mythology?

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  We're talking about the spirits and gods and practices that

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  these people worshipped.

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  And so it's very similar for Native Americans.

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  Thes are the stories that define their culture and their

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  tradition, and so often times when you think of mythology

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  in any spectrum of anthology, we're talking about three different

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  elements. Mythology.

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  So number one, which a significant portion of Native American

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  myth deals with, is what we call the ecological, which

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  explains the meaning or reason behind something.

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  So, for example, you might read or hear a story

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  that explains the reason that possum has a tail or

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  why Turtle has a shell or why we have strawberries

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  or why the sun is in the sky or even

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  the meaning of word or a name.

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  Second reason is historical provides some kind of chronicling of

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  the history of ah, place or people, and then the

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  third would be psychological.

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  So a story is meant to be moralistic and instructive,

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  instructing the listener on how to think and how to

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  feel about a topic or an issue.

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  Okay, So let's look at specific storytelling elements.

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  What separates Native American storytelling or myths, even from Greek

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  and Roman counterparts?

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  When we think of traditional mythology, while there are a

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  few elements that are really specific on and kind of

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  wonderful about Native American mythology, so one is repetition.

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  Uh, numerical repetition is very important in these myths.

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  Oftentimes you'll hear four distinct story elements because the importance

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  of the four corners there's a significant rhythm on.

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  That's because we're talking about an oral tradition.

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  These are stories that are told, not always written down,

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  even though you will largely be looking at written versions

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  of the text for this unit on DSO.

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  That rhythm allows it to be memorable and musical, and

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  therefore easy to pass down lots of humor in these

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  stories very important points of view.

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  Sometimes point of views come from spirits, animals, people or

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  the earth itself, but really distinct ways of looking at

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  the world around the myth and then often times some

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  kind of take away again.

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  We go back to those three kind of reasons or

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  structures for a myth, but at the end of it,

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  you take something away with you a lesson to be

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  learned and understanding about the world.

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  Around your very least, you have taken away a story

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  that you can tell yourself.

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  Okay, There I am again.

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  Okay. Atmosphere.

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  This is something really distinct and unique to the oral

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  tradition, not just of a Native American myth, but with

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  storytelling as an oral tradition itself.

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  Eso an atmosphere that's very personal.

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  You know, you have a storyteller in the tribe who

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  is responsible for cataloguing and keeping and sharing all of

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  these stories On DSO they take ownership and they have

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  distinct style.

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  And every time a story is passed down, someone takes

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  on something new.

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  They see something new where they add something to it.

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  And so a lot of times you can even look

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  at the same story like again.

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  Why do we have strawberries?

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  And if you have five different storytellers telling that story,

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  you're gonna have five different stories with a different flavor

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  to it.

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  No pun intended.

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  OK? Eso the very intimate, the very personal.

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  Oftentimes gather around a campfire or inside a um ah

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  cabin rt Pierre hut or on the open plains.

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  Very musical, oftentimes with musical accompaniment and very physical, a

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  lot of physical gestures, a lot of hand movements on

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  symbolism, toe help aid in the telling of a story

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  make it more engaging and mawr entertaining and more snappy.

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  All right.

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  And then the last thing we want to think about

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  is the legacy of native American storytelling.

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  What does it keep alive?

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  Why are we looking at it in, ah, US literature

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  class? Because we're not just talking about the United States

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  as 17 76 beyond, but the stories and the language

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  and the literacy of this land on dhe.

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  So we have to go all the way back to

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  the beginning s so that we can really chart the

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  development of culture in this country on DSO there's some

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  really interesting history and culture behind it.

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  So one thing I want to point out is we'll

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  be looking at the Constitution of the Iraq War Confederation

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  on, and this is actually a document, a living document

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  that even Ben Franklin himself presented a copy of a

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  zey model potentially for the Constitution of the United States

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  during the Constitutional convention in 17 87.

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  It's stories that could be passed down from generation to

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  generation eso.

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  We're very familiar with the trail of tears and the

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  decimation of Native American culture in this country.

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  How do we keep those cultures alive?

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  Is through the stories there many tribes that have died

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  out completely, languages that have been effaced, um, no longer

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  spoken or written.

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  But the stories can continue to persist.

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  So it it's something that we can pass down on

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  that specifically that culture has ownership and pride and comm.

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  Pass it down and it gives meaning in connection not

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  just to that world, but to today's world.

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  Um And then it's kept alive because of the work

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  of scholars because of art historians, literary installer, scholars, archaeologist,

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  preservationists but most importantly, the storytellers themselves.

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  So the last thing that I'm gonna have you do

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  here in this presentation is you're gonna watch this short

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  video from a storyteller, and you are going to enjoy

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  a story of why we have fire.

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  All right,