Published as "Life in Native America: Winter draws people closer for traditional storytime with honored tales" on Dec. 12, 2022 in the Tulsa World Magazine
s the days get shorter and the nights get colder, families and friends start to gather around the warm glow of fireplaces.
Winter is the time for many to be in fellowship with their people, and for Gayle Ross, a prominent Cherokee storyteller, a warm winter fire is also perfect for traditional Native American storytelling.
“It’s true, winter is a perfect time and always was,” Ross said. “The long winter nights when people would be indoors because of the weather — storytelling was just a natural part of that cycle. Winter time is the time when people draw closer together. Stories are a means of doing that."
In Cherokee culture, storytelling is a way of educating young people and teaching Cherokees about the world around them. For Ross, a descendant of Cherokee Nation Principal Chief John Ross, who led the nation during the Trail of Tears, she believes she is part of the living, breathing culture of storytelling and has been since she fell in love with stories when she was young.
“The long winter nights when people would be indoors because of the weather — storytelling was just a natural part of that cycle. Winter time is the time when people draw closer together. Stories are a means of doing that," storyteller Gayle Ross said.
Storytelling tells the history of Cherokee people and connects Native people to the Earth and to nature.
"You can see that wonderful connection that stretches back generations, literally to the beginning of time where we have existed as a distinct people," Ross said. "It's part of what makes us all Cherokees. Our history, our traditions, our relationships. Most importantly to me, as a storyteller, our beautiful traditional stories express our relationship with the world, with all the animals, all the birds, all living beings."
'The Coyote and the Bear'
In the Osage Nation, stories also connect people to nature, but in modern times, the Nation uses stories to teach future generations Osage language.
The Osage Nation Language Department recently released a children's storybook called "The Coyote and the Bear," which tells the story in Osage orthography of how the bear got his stubby tail.
In many cultures, the Coyote and the Bear tells the story of Bear, who was vain and loved showing off his long, bushy tail, and Coyote, who was a trickster and wanted to teach Bear a lesson.
One day during winter, Coyote told Bear the best way to catch fish in a frozen lake was to stick his tail down a hole in the ice and lure the fish to him. The bear did this, and the next day when he pulled his tail out of the frigid water, his tail broke and became stubby.
Braxton Redeagle, the executive director of the Osage Nation Language Department, said this story has been passed down for generations and is an easy way to show young Osage people their language in context. The book launched in September and was given out to Osage members at the Osage Sesquicentennial Celebration on Oct 22. The book was also made available to purchase.
"This project in particular is pretty symbolic of a lot of different things in our culture," Redeagle said. "We thought it captured the essence of what we want to do and what we need to do to take those traditions our elders had and stay true to them, but adapt them in a way we can connect and be a bridge between our older people and our younger generations. This is a good demonstration of how we can do that with language and our stories."
By using a traditional story to teach language, young readers can see Osage language in practice, and use context of the story to learn how to read.
"You get to see the real language usage," Redeagle said. "When most people teach language, any kind of world language, they usually focus on things like vocabulary, verb conjugation. We teach those things as well, but we wanted to produce something that shows the language in action, in movement. The actual uses of the language.
"The fact that we're targeting children — children are our future. We start with them, and we can kind of mold the community and build that language."
The storybook also has a mobile app version people can use, and a QR code in the print version of the book when scanned on the app turns the book into a pop-up story book. Redeagle hopes this modernization of storytelling will fuel younger people to engage in Osage language.
"We took a traditional story we had and repackaged it for modern times to where younger generations can use their technology to read the story and learn the language," he said.
Two Clan Brothers meet the Uk'Ten and Thunder
On a spiritual level, Ross said, storytelling connects Cherokees to cosmic beings, like the personification of Thunder, and the world beyond the physical one.
Outdated history tells people Cherokees worshipped the sun, the moon and Thunder as gods, but Ross said those are beings Cherokees had actual relationships and interacted with. One story explains this relationship.
There are two clan brothers, and when they are very small, they encounter a beautiful bright-colored baby snake.
The snake speaks to them and says, "I'm little, I'm helpless. You boys have those blowguns; I bet you could bring me some food."
Of course, the young brothers are absolutely enchanted. They use the blowgun and bring some little birds and an occasional squirrel, and the snake keeps growing bigger.
The boys grow bigger, and now they are hunting with a bow and arrow and they're bringing the snake much bigger food and the snake keeps growing until it's apparent he is not an average snake.
He is an Uk'Ten (or Uktena): the giant Cherokee dragon.
The boys are frightened, but he keeps telling them they need to keep feeding him.
One day, as they're making their way to the place where he lives, they come across the Uk'Ten, and his coils are wrapped around a man. They are wrestling to the death, and the man, every time he opens his mouth, thunder rolls.
They realize that man is Thunder. Thunder used to come into Cherokee country as a human.
The Uk'Ten and Thunder start pleading with the boys.
The Uk'Ten says, "Don't you remember how Thunder frightened you when you were children with his roars?"
Thunder says, "I've always been a friend of Cherokees. This is the Uk'Ten, your ancient enemy."
The boys are confused, but then they remember their mother telling them when they were frightened of the thunderstorms that without thunder and rain, the Cherokee people would starve.
The boys then carefully aim their arrows and shoot the Uk'Ten, but a horrible noxious cloud of poison rises from the dragon. Thunder yells at the boys to run, and as they are running, Thunder sends lightning to strike trees behind the boys as they run away.
The fire and smoke starts clearing the air of the poison, and after the seventh time Thunder sends lightning, the last of the poison is gone.
And a gentle rain starts falling. The boys are safe.
That story tells us about how Thunder was a friend to Cherokees and always will be.
— Gayle Ross
'She knows them by heart'
In Ross's work, she has gone to many places to tell children stories, and it was one of those children who actually helped her see the value of storytelling from a child's perspective.
She was at a third-grade classroom telling stories, and one boy asked her how she was able to memorize all the stories she told.
"A little girl sitting next to him poked him with her elbow and said, "She doesn't memorize them; she knows them by heart," Ross remembered her saying. "I never thought of it that way, but that is absolutely true, because if you're not engaged and in love with the world the story takes you, you can never make it magic for your listeners."
Having that emotional connection to traditional stories keeps Cherokee culture alive, Ross said, and gathering together, whether in a classroom, at a festival or around the warm fireplace in the winter, reminds Cherokees what it means to be Cherokee.
"It's the relationships we have with each other, with our families, with our neighbors, with our community," Ross said. "Gathering together and listening to told stories is such a wonderful vehicle for that. It reminds us of who we are as Cherokees, as families, as people."