Introduction

Creation and Other Beginnings

In the Beginning

Ares

The Chicken Stars

Etana Ascends to Heaven

The Miraculous Birth of Abraham

Coyote Creates

How the Devil Helped

Mother of the Dark

The Wise and Heroic

Brave John and Marie

Seven Most Obedient Sons

What Sun Wanted

Na Ha Calls Down the Storm

How Wisdom Scattered

Glooscap and Baby

What We Learned from the Devil

The Power of the Question

The Quarrel

Finding Our Place

Most Precious

Lady Green of the Speaking Tree

Good From Bad

Better Rude Than Sorry

Water of Life

Shaydoola

Of Course

The Lesson

Familiar Tales and Characters

I’ll Never Be Old

Written in Gold

Witling’s Treasure

Legend of the Great Tuber

No Stranger at the Door

Second Shepherd’s Play

Mighty Red Riding Hood

Moshe’s Miraculous Shirt

From the Kids

How Blondes Came to Be Known as Airheads

Our Heroine Eva Kneva

Sharing the Well

Saving Stone Monster

Back to Reality

Storyteller’s Secrets

Telling Tales

Create Your Own Story

“We are all connected,” say the Lakota and Crow people in prayer. “The eight-legged, six-legged, four-legged, two-legged, those who crawl on grandmother earth. . . .” And we are not only connected; we are very much alike. My friend Tom Bray, homespun philosopher and sculptor, insists that individual differences, even within the average family, are greater than collective differences between one culture and another. Enter any room full of children and the old truth emerges again. As different as we may appear to be, we have common needs, concerns, and tasks in life. And like it or not, we are all connected.

We have seen the rediscovery of folkways and folk truths in regions as diverse as China, Russia, northern Europe, Mexico, and the United States, with a subsequent reinvigoration of many art forms, from dance to visual art to storytelling. At the same time, the investigations of physics suggest that from the subatomic level to the farthest reaches we can imagine, every vibrating speck of existence is connected to every other.

Humans and subatomic particles both demonstrate a tendency to move in ways that are habitual but not precisely predictable. We move, in families and societies, within shells that aren’t easily broken, and yet when we break out, when we transcend the ordinary rounds, there is a sudden release of energy, we could even say ecstasy. Attempting to describe these tendencies, the observer of physical law resorts to metaphor, what Albert Einstein called convenient fictions. Which brings us directly back to story­telling. Physicist Fritjof Capra says that all living things are engaged in self-maintenance, self-renewal, and self-transcendence. This elegantly summarizes the messages embedded in stories all around the world. Although most of us now learn stories from books, this has its perils. Print has an authority quite different from the gift of story delivered directly by another person. A story in print is the property of someone else. Storytellers, by contrast, can reexperience and reinvent what they are sharing.

“Ross is a passionate advocate for storytelling. She properly declares that in this cosmos where change and diversity seemt he order of the day there are also unity and constancy. Behind or underlying apparent disorder there is order; randomness is always challenged by design – provided that one can find it. And one of the ways of discovery is through the arts, in this case, the art of storytelling.”

—Dr. Louie Attebery (retired from Albertson College of Idaho)

“Jeanette Ross has written an unique, well-crafted book that takes the readers on an exciting journey into story-telling. Her broad range of challenges to the very young will certainly produce tales of childhood fun and an awakening of self and family. Mature readers will gain an insight into their past and will learn how to give life to their narratives.”

—Lorry Roberts, co-author, Elder Tales