Native American storytelling has become a very vital issue in education. It preserves Native American history for the next generation and teaches them important lessons about the Native American culture. It also conveys moral meanings, knowledge and social values of the Native American people to the universe. More importantly, Native American…

Considers how misrepresentations of Indian culture can be addressed through the study of Native American oral traditions and literatures. Details the use of literature circles and storytelling in the classroom to combat negative stereotypes and racism. Discusses ways of weaving interpretive threads, examining misconceptions, reading and writing…

Native American storytelling contributes to maintenance of Native cultures; development of individual identities rooted in awareness of family, community, heritage, and land; and the flourishing of contemporary Native American fiction. Today, stories are transmitted by oral tradition and the writer's craft. Includes author's recollections of…

Among the American Indians of western Washington State and northwest Oregon, stories have served as educational tools by presenting lessons concerning the traditional culture. Several types of instruction have been noted in the oral literature of these Indians of the Southern Northwest Coast. Today these stories present another type of insight and…

Based on her belief that all of our lives are stories that are pieces to a puzzle forming the truth behind the sacredness of life, Anne Dunn--Ojibwe storyteller and author--seeks to build bridges between cultures, between generations, and between oral and written storytelling. Includes a review of her book "When Beaver Was Very Great."…

Examines seven Hopi narratives that focus on the first death that occurred after the Hopis' emergence into this world. Provides questions to use in teaching this myth and other cultural texts, including questions concerned with use of sacred texts, parallels with Anglo stories, translation issues, audience, storytellers, quality, art of the…

In the Western Apache discourse community, landscape is not just the realm of nature in its sheer physicality. Neither are places in the landscape to be read as metaphors. Rather, places, visual things by reason of their identification with aspects of social hierarchy are literally giving moral messages, are imploring people to live right. This…

Coeur d'Alene School District (Idaho) developed an American Indian oral literature curriculum component with the help of the neighboring Coeur d'Alene people. This book is based on a general background guide that provides classroom teachers with a context for understanding Coeur d'Alene narratives incorporated into the curriculum. The book also…

American Indian literature deserves a more prominent place in the English language arts curriculum. Oral literature of American Indians includes didactic stories, told to maintain tribal mores and value systems; it also includes humorous and entertaining stories, as well as histories of various American Indian peoples. Anthropologists and…

This children's book relates the story of Travis and Laura and how their grandfather, a Maidu Indian, teaches them about their history and culture through stories. The book stresses the importance of storytelling as the traditional way of passing on the history of Indian peoples. As part of a school project, Travis tells his classmates the Maidu…

Although traditional indigenous stories are widely recognized for their artistic merits and their role in the linguistic and cultural continuity of indigenous peoples, they are seldom used in schools. This paper discusses the instructional uses of traditional coyote stories, with particular reference to bilingual revitalization programs involving…

A Native American literature professor's account of college students' cross-cultural field experience on two Indian reservations near the Grand Canyon shows how the experience enhanced student understanding of the Native American belief in the people and land as one, storytelling and a sense of the sacred, and the history and impact of…