Telling Tales 1-48 - KET Educationeducation.ket.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/tellingtales1.pdf · stories in Telling Tales, let your imagination roam beyond the “obvious.” A

TELLING TALES

Colorful folktales broughtto life by master storytellersbefore a live—and lively—

audience of children.

Teacher’s Guide

This guide accompanies the 16-program instructional televisionseries Telling Tales, a production ofKET, The Kentucky Network.

Teacher’s Guide Writers:Marilou AwiaktaAnndrena BelcherGloria BivensTom BledsoeNancy CarpenterBarbara CliftonElrene DavisJoy D’EliaGina KinchloeRich KirbyJohn O’Neal

Production Photography:Guy Mendes

Copyright © 1989, 1991,KET Foundation, Inc.600 Cooper DriveLexington, KY 40502-2296(606) 233-3000

ISBN 0-910475-53-9

The KentuckyNetwork

CONTENTS

5 Introduction:Using Telling Tales inthe Classroom or aLibrary Program;Notes on Language

9 About theStorytellers

14 Introduction toStorytellingBackground forPrograms 1-2

16 Program 1:“Hardy Hard Head”

19 Program 2:“The Two Gals”

21 Junebug: ALegend in HisOwn TimeBackground forPrograms 3-4

22 Program 3:“The Buzzard and theMonkey”

25 Program 4:“The Possum and theSnake”

28 GroupStorytellingBackground forPrograms 5-6

30 Program 5:“Jack and the Giants”

33 Program 6:“Soap”

36 Program 6:“Cat and Rat”

39 American IndianStorytellingBackground forPrograms 7-8

40 Program 7:“Little Deer andMother Earth”

44 Program 8:“Rising Fawn and theFire Mystery”

49 African-AmericanStorytellingBackground forPrograms 9-10

51 Program 9:“The Parable of theEagle”

55 Program 10:“Anansi’s Rescuefrom the River”

58 Music: TheRhythm of LifeBackground forPrograms 11-12

60 Program 11:“Wicked John”

63 Program 12:“Jack and the MagicMill”/“Henry, MySon”/“This Land IsYour Land”

69 Program 13:“Ash Pet”

72 Program 14:“Mutsmag”

75 Program 15:“Balaam Foster’sFiddle”/“The Banjoand the Loom”

80 Program 16:Passing It On

84 For MoreInformation

4 Telling Tales Teacher’s Guide

5KET, The Kentucky Network

Telling Talesin the Classroom

Imaginative stories appeal tostudents of any age, from anybackground, and at any abilitylevel. The KET series Telling Talesbrings you 16 stories (plus severalsongs and poems) with thisuniversal appeal, told by a varietyof storytellers. Ten of the storiescome from the AppalachianMountains, four have Africanroots, and two are grounded inNative American tradition.

For each tale in the series, thisguide contains a story synopsis,notes on the story’s origin, discus-sion questions, and activities thatcan be used to enhance the use ofthe series in the classroom.

Before showing the Telling Talesprograms to students, you shouldwatch them yourself to judge theappropriateness of particularstories to the grade level youteach. Some stories might workbest with older students, whileothers appeal to students of allages.

When you are ready to startusing the series in your classroom,a good way to start would be tolead a general discussion offolktales: What is a folktale? Whocreated these stories? What aresome folktales students haveheard at home, in the community,or from their families and friends?Have students studied anyfolktales in school?

As a follow-up activity for anystory in the series, or for the entireseries, ask students to collectstories from home. What are somespecial words, expressions,

riddles, or stories they’ve heardfrom their parents, grandparents,or other special people?

Telling Tales also shines thespotlight on the storytellersthemselves and the way they telltheir stories. The storytellingprocess actively draws in studentsand teachers—as listeners; aslearners; and sometimes as direct,active (and acting) participants. Astoryteller like Anndrena Belcher,for example, actually involvesstudents in the story. As thechildren act out their parts, eachchild offers something unique tothe storytelling—creative—process.

Each storyteller in this seriespulls listeners into the story indifferent, but effective, ways. Youmight take cues from each of themin developing your own style oftelling or reading stories in theclassroom. Like the storytellers inthe series, you might help your

young storytellers craft andperform their own stories.

Fortunately, storytelling doesnot fit neatly into any one curricu-lum area. Many of the activities inthis guide reinforce importantlanguage arts skills—usingcolorful language, rememberingthe sequence of events, retellingthe story either orally or inwriting, writing a new story. Butstories can add insight into otherareas of the curriculum—andlife—as well.

When students find placeswhere stories were collected ortrace the migrations of peoplesand stories on maps, they arelearning something about geogra-phy and history. Social studiesstudents can learn somethingabout economic systems based onbarter from “Cat and Rat” orabout child labor laws from “AshPet” or about the feudal systemfrom the “Jack tales.” Environ-mental issues and living in tunewith nature are central to “TwoGals” and “Little Deer and MotherEarth.”

For any of the stories in thisseries, you may want to talk aboutparallel stories from other cul-tures, leading into a discussion ofcommon threads in all cultures aswell as important differences.We’ve included some suggestionsof parallel stories in the “Notes onthe Story” section in each chapter.

The possibilities for extendingstories into other areas of thecurriculum depend entirely uponhow you want to use them, and

INTRODUCTION


school system. Following mymarriage to a native of PerryCounty (another Appalachiancounty), I settled in Estill County,where we have lived for the past16 years.

During my teaching years, Ifound the one thing my studentsseemed to enjoy most was story-telling—most of all when I told“Jack” tales. A storytelling occa-sion could even serve as a rewardor a bribe! The humorous part ofmy educational experience is thatin telling Appalachian tales, I havehad to incorporate the languageMother continually corrected mefor using. It took a while toovercome guilt for defying theeducational principles she hadinstilled in me. [See the nextsection of this Introduction formore on this subject.]

My goals now include strivingto develop in my students anappreciation for reading whichthey will share with their families,in order to help promote a highereducational and reading level inour county. I believe we can usestories in this effort.

Originally, I applied for a KETgrant to use Telling Tales in mylibrary program because I felt itwould enrich the storytelling Iwas already doing in the library.One of the things I wanted to dowas select books that related insome way to the stories in theseries. These I would either readto the students or encourage themto check out and read at home. Butonce I began watching the pro-

INTRODUCTION continued

are limited only by your imagina-tion. But in any storytelling lesson,opportunities exist for

• encouraging creativity, theuse of the imagination, and self-expression;

• integrating stories into thecurriculum—motivating studentsto read, improving communica-tion skills (listening, speaking,body movement), and enrichinglessons (language arts, history,and geography);

• building self-confidence andleadership skills (as children areactively involved in the stories);

• helping children understandtheir cultural history and roots;

• helping children to be moreopen to cultures and historiesdifferent from their own;

• developing oral history/family history projects;

• entertaining and showingthat learning is fun and exciting.

Telling Talesin the Library

The following introduction wascontributed by Elrene May Davis, thelibrarian for three elementary schoolsin Estill County, Kentucky. Shedeveloped a librarian’s guide to theoriginal eight-program Telling Talesseries in conjunction with a KETTeaching with Television grant shereceived in the spring of 1989.Teaching with Television grants areawarded to encourage the effectiveand creative use of high-quality ITVseries.

Elrene attended Morehead StateUniversity and earned her B.S.,M.A., and Rank I degrees fromEastern Kentucky University. Shecomes by her love for storytellingnaturally, having been raised inAppalachia. She is herself an excellentstoryteller.

I consider myself somewhat ofa “Jack” of all school trades. I havebeen an intermediate gradeclassroom teacher, a middleschool reading teacher, a highschool librarian, and a K-6 librar-ian. Presently I serve as librarianfor three elementary schools inEstill County, a school system inthe Kentucky foothills.

I grew up in Elkhorn City inPike County, Kentucky, where myparents owned a rural generalstore and later a market in townwhere I spent many of my hours.(Pike County is also AnndrenaBelcher’s birthplace.) Aftercollege, I, like the country mouse,moved to the city and served as alibrarian in Jefferson County(Louisville), the state’s largest


grams—which I used with 26classes, at grade levels from K to4—I began to see all kinds ofpossibilities.

Each time I viewed the tape, Iwould get another idea or book tocorrelate with the program. (Ithink you will, too, as you watchthe programs and read throughthe suggested questions andactivities.) Also, because of myinvolvement with two writinggrants, I could see many ways toincorporate these stories into awriting curriculum.

I also got lots of ideas from mystudents. I would ask them whatother books we had read thatreminded them of the story wehad just watched; or I would askthem to think of stories about, forinstance, someone who is mis-understood.

In choosing books related to thestories in Telling Tales, let yourimagination roam beyond the“obvious.” A book may updatethe story or contain elements ofthe story. Or the stories may becompletely different but share thesame theme or moral. Or theymay all be animal stories or “why”stories.

Many well-known stories willrelate to several different pro-grams; thus, they may be referredto rather than read again. You candecide when is the best time to usea story. But I’m sure you havefound, as I have, that smallchildren love to hear old favoritesread again and again.

Library skills for the primary

grades may be easily incorporatedinto the presentation—author,title, illustrator, Caldecott Medalwinners, and book care. Many ofthe stories provide opportunitiesfor study of both “fact” or non-fiction books and fiction—anddiscussion of the difference. Forolder students, there are researchopportunities which require themto use the card catalog or findnonfiction books in the library.

I believe we need to use differ-ent types of literature, includingstories, in the elementary school.My personal “soap box” is toencourage reading as fun and toencourage teachers to correlatelibrary books with the classroomcurriculum. The stories in TellingTales offer a golden opportunity.

Noteson Language

The Appalachian stories in thisseries are told in a language thatdiffers, often widely, from stan-dard English. The archaic words,non-standard grammar, andregional accents used help createthe atmosphere. But they also mayraise questions in the minds ofteachers who are trying to convey“correct” usage to their students.

The white settlers who cameinto the Southern mountains inthe 18th and early 19th centurieswere country people, largely fromlowland Scotland (often by way ofnorthern Ireland; hence, “Scotch-Irish”). The physical and culturalisolation of the mountains shel-tered innumerable songs andstories and allowed the languagespoken by these immigrants tohold on to many words andusages that fell into disuse else-where.

Mountain speech has oftenbeen ridiculed; it is a prominentpart of the “hillbilly” stereotype.But linguists recognize Southernmountain speech as a dialect ofEnglish. Many of its usages,sometimes called “ignorant” orincorrect, are actually of greatantiquity. “You was” neatlydistinguishes you-singular fromthe plural “you were,” a nicetymodern English has lost. “Hisn”and “ourn” are part of a set ofpossessive pronouns of whichstandard English keeps only“mine.” When Ashy Lou “reddsup” the old woman’s hair, sheuses a word Chaucer used; whenthe Devil hands Wicked John a


chunk of “far,” he says F-I-R-E theway Shakespeare did.

This speech is a vivid, colorful,robust language. It is also the“native tongue” of many story-tellers. Storytelling is a spoken artform; it depends on sound,rhythm, imagery, and timing aswell as the literary tools of plot,character, and theme. Bringing astory to life requires a storytellerto use his or her own voice—inwhatever language comes natu-rally. Several of the storytellersfeatured in Telling Tales use a lot ofAppalachian speech in theirstorytelling because it fits with thestories and with the way theywere raised.

In fact, telling stories is awonderful way to find your ownvoice. In encouraging students totell stories, and in telling storiesyourself, don’t be judgmental onmatters of standard grammar and“good English.” Don’t try to“clean up” the language the storywants to be told in. Conversely,don’t try to force a hillbilly or Irishor African-American tone intoyour voice if it doesn’t want tocome. The best thing is simply totell the story, again and again andagain. The story itself will tell youwhat it wants to sound like inyour mouth.

Another reason to be non-judgmental about non-standardlanguage is that many studentsdon’t hear standard grammar athome and have to struggle with itin school. Sometimes thesestudents lag behind in written

work but, given the chance to usetheir own voices, turn out to bestar storytellers. They get excitedabout being able to use naturalspeech in some aspect of theirschoolwork and really enjoyfinding something they can dowell.

To close, of course, with a story:A couple from the city were

driving through the mountainswhen they passed an old farmertending a huge garden. Theystopped, and the man got out ofthe car and went over to the fence.

“Sorry to bother you,” he said,“but we’re just curious. When thecrops come in all at once, what doyou do with it all?”

“Well, we eat what we can,”said the farmer, “and what wecan’t, we can.”

“Oh.”The man got back to the car,

looking unconvinced. When hiswife asked him what the farmerhad said, he answered:

“He said that they ate whatthey could, and what theycouldn’t, they could.”

INTRODUCTION continued

Noteson Language continued


AnndrenaBelcher

Anndrena Belcher was born inPike County, Kentucky butmigrated with her family touptown Chicago when she wasvery young. It was in Chicago thatAnndrena learned what it meantto be a “hillbilly.” “We alwaysthought of the mountains as ourreal home,” she says. “Indeed, wewent home every chance we had.The summer and holidays spentwith my grandparents weremagical. Their stories and songs ofeveryday life strengthened myidentity as a child of the moun-tains.”

Anndrena spent one year atBerea College in Kentucky andthen returned to Chicago to enteran experimental community-based program offered throughNortheastern Illinois University.There she earned her bachelor’sdegree in English and a master’sin social sciences, with a majorconcentration in Appalachianstudies and rural in-migration.During her years at Northeastern,

she organized a cultural center forrural in-migrants, started an old-time dance group, and conductedAppalachian programs in neigh-borhood schools.

In 1976 Anndrena returned tothe mountains, first to a job inpost-secondary education andthen to a life as a storyteller,singer, dancer, and actress. Shehas performed and conductedworkshops in countless schoolsand libraries and at numerousfestivals and other eventsthroughout the region.

In Telling Tales, Anndrena tellsfive stories, demonstrating herpersonal brand of storytelling,which blends acting out thestories, music, dance, and audi-ence participation. In the finalprogram of the series, “Passing ItOn,” Anndrena tells a little of herown story.

John O’Neal

Playwright, actor, and stagedirector John O’Neal tours widelywith one-man shows and en-semble productions featuringJunebug Jabbo Jones. The charac-ter and his stories draw heavily onJohn’s experiences in the civilrights movement as a field secre-tary for the Student NonviolentCoordinating Committee and a co-founder of the Free SouthernTheater, a pioneering African-American arts organization.

John began his playwrightingcareer as a student at SouthernIllinois University, where hereceived a bachelor’s degree inEnglish and philosophy. Sincethen, he has won numerous grantsand awards for his writing,including the Louisiana Artist’sFellowship and grants from theNational Endowment for the Artsand the Rockefeller Foundation.He also has written under com-mission for the Play Group ofKnoxville, TN and the world-renowned San Francisco Mime

ABOUT THE STORYTELLERS


Troupe and served as guestdirector at the Play Group,Chicago’s Kuumba Theater, andhis alma mater.

John is no stranger to educa-tional settings, either. Many of hisresidency programs as a touringartist have included formal andinformal presentations for stu-dents ranging from elementary topost-graduate levels.

In explaining the appeal ofstorytelling, John has said, “Story-tellers are grounded in oralhistory. If people enjoy yourperformance, it’s not becausethey’re getting information aboutyou, the actor, but because they’relearning about themselves. Youhave to impart the quality andcharacter of their own lives, andthat’s what I try to use as grist. Itry to figure out what’s happeningin people’s lives that I have anemphatic response to, and thenbuild stories that communicatethat.”

master musicians of an earliergeneration.

In 1974, Rich began performingwith Tom Bledsoe. They teamedwith John McCutcheon to createWry Straw, a string band thattoured the country for four years.Rich and Tom continued as a duo,performing and recording for JuneAppal Recordings, a branch ofAppalshop, the media collective inWhitesburg, KY that has gainedwidespread respect for its workdocumenting the history andtraditions of Appalachia.

A variety of material can beheard in Rich’s current soloperformances—old ballads, newmountain songs, and music fromhis experiences in southern Africa.“My life seems to include severaldifferent cultures,” he says, “andI’ve found that storytelling andmusic can cross those barriers andbring things into focus.”

RichKirby

Rich Kirby inherited his lovefor old-time music and tales fromhis grandparents, who were bornand raised in Eastern Kentucky inthe 19th century. His grandmotherhad an extraordinary store of oldballads and hymns, and hisgrandfather was “a grand oldstoryteller whose life spanned theKentucky mountains, the Missis-sippi River, and the Old West.”

His family moved to New YorkCity when Rich was young; hedidn’t move back to the moun-tains until after college andgraduate school. He returned at atime when “all across the region,folks were beginning to think ofthemselves as ‘mountain people,’reaching back to their roots to findperspectives on the present.”

Rich began playing profession-ally in 1971 and since then hasplayed everywhere from kinder-gartens to political rallies tofiddlers’ conventions. He playsbanjo, fiddle, guitar, and mando-lin and has spent a lot of time with

ABOUT THE STORYTELLERS continued

JohnO’Neal continued


TomBledsoe

Tom Bledsoe grew up in afarming family on the banks of theClinch River in Scott County,Virginia, where he was sur-rounded by traditional music andstories sung and told by familymembers and neighbors. Hebegan learning guitar as a teen-ager and became inspired to learnmore about his own musicaltraditions while serving in the U.S.Navy in 1970. “I was stationed inWashington state when I heardtwo young guys playing fiddleand banjo together. It immediatelyreconnected me to my family andhome community, but alsoshowed me that the musicaltradition was much larger than Ihad imagined,” he says.

Tom has played with manytraditional masters since returninghome. He has recorded with UncleCharlie Osborne, the Home Folks,Wry Straw, Rich Kirby, andothers. In 1981, he joined RoadsideTheater, a part of Appalshop Inc.of Whitesburg, KY. With Road-

side, he performs Mountain Talesand Music, Pretty Polly, South of theMountain, and Leaving Egypt.When not touring, he can befound with his wife, Joy D’Elia, ontheir mountain farm in Snowflake,VA. Tom and Joy sometimesperform as “Skin and Bonz,”combining banjo and bones withpowerful harmonies.

MarilouAwiakta

Poet/author Marilou Awiaktasays she has had to build her ownlife’s story from pieces of threecultures: Cherokee; Appalachian;and high technology, which shedescribes as “a culture in itself.”Born in Knoxville, TN into afamily that had lived for genera-tions in the mountains fromVirginia to northern Georgia, shemoved to Oak Ridge, TN at theage of 9. At the time, Oak Ridgewas a fenced-off, top-secret city—the “atomic frontier.”

“My parents had always taughtme to be proud of my Cherokee/Appalachian heritage,” she says.“But very early I had to cope with‘outsiders’ who came into OakRidge, many of them feeling theywere ‘missionaries to the natives.’I’d never heard the word ‘hillbilly’till then.… But not all outsiderswere alike either, as my motherpointed out. Some were kind andrespectful. So my interest inmulticultural respect began veryearly.”


MamaYaa

“Mama Yaa” (Gloria Bivens)developed her love for storiesthrough listening to and learningfrom her grandparents, parents,and other relatives, as well as aneighborhood librarian sheremembers from her years grow-ing up in Louisville, KY. Her latertravels through the West Africancountries of Togo, the Ivory Coast,and Gambia, as well as to theVirgin Islands, confirmed herinterest in the African oral tradi-tion and African culture.

Gloria studied political scienceat the University of Louisville butwas drawn to social work aftergraduation. She is director ofsocial services for the PresbyterianCommunity Center in Louisville.The arts are an important part ofher job and her life. Although thecommunity center keeps her busy,she still finds time to tell storiesand says her telling has spreadfrom front porch stoops, picnics,and family weddings and gather-ings to university campuses (such

Marilou’s unique vision hasbrought her international recogni-tion. In 1986, the U.S. InformationAgency chose her books AbidingAppalachia: Where Mountain andAtom Meet and Rising Fawn and theFire Mystery for its global tour ofAmerican writers. At Le Havre,France, her poem “Out of Ashes,Peace Will Rise” was the onlyAmerican work featured in aceremony for the survival of theworld sponsored by French poets.In 1989, she received the Distin-guished Tennessee Writer Award.

Marilou’s work appearsregularly in magazines andanthologies and was featured inthe KET production Voices ofMemory, a documentary about theoral traditions of the southeasternUnited States. The March/April1991 issue of Ms. featured heressay “Red Alert! A Meditation onDances with Wolves.”

Through Tufts University, sheis currently working with a teamof 80 national scholars to “developa new model of American Studies,using black, ethnic, and feministperspectives to integrate thesciences and humanities.”

A magna cum laude graduate ofthe University of Tennessee with adegree in French and English,Marilou lives in Memphis withher husband, Dr. Paul Thompson.They have three children.

Marilou’s new collection ofpoems and essays, Selu: Spirit ofSurvival, was scheduled to bepublished by Tradery House inMemphis in the fall of 1991.

as the University of Kentucky,Kentucky State University,Tennessee State University, andBerea College) and to one verymemorable time on a dark countryroad in Kpalime, Togo, when thevan broke down in the middle ofthe night.

Gloria is a member of theKentucky Coalition for Afro-American Arts, the InternationalOrder of E.A.R.S., the NationalAssociation for the Preservationand Perpetuation of Storytelling,and the Association of BlackStorytellers.

Like the other storytellers inthis series, Gloria is fascinated bythe similarities among culturesand their stories. “Hearing storiesopened me up to the wholeworld,” she says. Gloria tells twostories of African descent forTelling Tales.

ABOUT THE STORYTELLERS continued

MarilouAwiakta continued


JoyD’Elia

Joy Marie D’Elia grew up inGreenwich, CT listening to storiestold by her Italian grandparentsabout “the other side.” Shegraduated from St. Joseph’sCollege with a degree in elemen-tary education, specializing inearly childhood education.

Joy started telling original andclassic stories to her preschool andelementary students in 1975, usingthose stories to stimulate thechildren’s interest in reading andwriting their own stories.

After college, Joy lived inAthens, OH; in St. Augustine, FL;and on a sailboat in Denmarkbefore moving with her husband,Tom Bledsoe, to their mountainfarm in Snowflake, VA. Over theyears, she has also taught garden-ing; made baskets; sailed theAtlantic Ocean on the Danishketch Fri; and been a restaurateur,baker, and street musician.

Joy plays fiddle and two Irishrhythm instruments, the bodhranand bones, with banjo player Tom.

As “Skin and Bonz,” they haveperformed at festivals, at rallies, inschools, and on radio. She isworking on a children’s bookcalled Dessert Island that combinesher experiences as a sailor, baker,and storyteller.

“I have always had manyinterests in life, and storytelling isa way I can combine all theseexperiences and share them withothers,” she says.


INTRODUCTION TO STORYTELLINGby Anndrena Belcher

I sit now on a rock at the top ofthe Clinch Mountain at Mendota,VA. I have, from here, a flyingview of the world. Clouds, hawks,butterflies, hummingbirds, anddry leaves fly by me. Big MocassinValley lies below. This big bluemountain gives way to greenrolling waves of hills at its base.These waves of green are inlaidwith the corrugated rectangularpatches of earth plowed forgrowing tobacco. Some strips ofbrown earth lie empty, ridded ofgrowth; the tobacco is in the barn.Others lie part empty, part inhab-ited by yellow and green varia-tions of the one cash crop left tofarmers in this part of the world.

These days only a small per-centage of our population lives onsmall farms. My friend whoknows says 2% of our nation’speople make a living at farming.*Times have changed drasticallysince the agrarian society ofThomas Jefferson. The problem-solving machines and industrythat were meant to save us timeand toil have only served tocomplicate our lives and pollutethe world. Even the new “clean”technologies take us farther andfarther from our original hostess:the big, grand, wild, and nurtur-ing Mother Nature. We seem tobe, as a society, confused about

our role here. We have lost oursense of purpose, our sense ofbelonging, our sense of connectionwith the whole. We know, in-nately, that we are a part of this“eco scheme”; but, as Jack mightsay, “Bedads, if it hain’t hard tofigger out!”

Every bird, every flower, everyplant and tree has a story to tell.The winds and the water talk toevery human being who will taketime to listen and learn thelanguage of the Earth. The Earthdoesn’t just belong to us. Webelong to it. And it is in the oldstories that we learn to respect andtake care of ourselves, and to takecare of our Earth in the process.

It is a reciprocal relationship.To really know our own story, wehave to know the story of thenatural world we live in. Urbandweller as well as country dwellermust know his or her kinshiproots. Then we can set a true path;then we can function as wholehuman beings connected witheach other, connected with thepast, connected with our Earthhome. When we know thisconnection, we can go forwardwith a sense of the circle wetravel—with a sense of securityand responsibility in how wemake our world.

Mobile society makes morechallenges for us in this venture.Times have changed. Most peopledo not grow up in one place. Thefamily home place, the familycemeteries … the community thatmy generation knew has under-

gone drastic changes. People ofrural cultural roots and values theworld over are being pushed andshoved and pounded to fit amainstream idea of how peopleshould live.

In these times, when values andmores and language and art aredictated to us from someplace onthe academic, didactic high, howcan natural learning take place?How can the rainbow-colored,rainbow-talking peoples of theworld survive and perpetuate theancient myths, the stories, the artsand survival skills of the agrarianpast? How can the ancient and themodern-day peacefully coexistand dance together? How can achild of Appalachia learn to takepride in his culture, know hisarchaic language, and still “suc-ceed” in a mainstream academicenvironment? How can the NativeAmerican grow up learning theancient arts and farming methods,the language of the ancestors, andstill deal with a mainstream worldrun by white people? How canAfrican-Americans feel proud oftheir ancestry, know their lan-guages and dialects, pass on theold ways, and live in the world ofmainstream America today?

In a time when our Earth isbeing ravaged, our rain forestsmassacred, our air and waterpolluted, our young peoplemagnetically drawn to a world oframpant consumerism throughhigh-powered technologicaladvertising wizardry, how can wesee our connections? How can we

* From A Time To Reap, a radioseries produced by Maxine Kenney in1988 for distribution to public radiostations around the country.


“figger” out where we belong inall this? Bedads!

Sometimes, in order to goforward, we have to go back. Wehave to go home. We have to learnour histories. We have to knowthat each of us has a home in thisworld’s history, that each of us hasa home in our own individualstory, and that each individualstory of the past is tied with everyother story of the past. Eachhuman history is tied with thehistory of the birds, the plants, thewaters, and the winds.

We take our stories with uswherever we go. We can takesome, choose to leave some; butthey’re there for the journey. Trynot to think of story as a lot of oldbaggage to lug around, but moreas a journey cake to nibble on forsustenance as we travel.

Telling Tales is a series offolktales and literary pieces thathelp us look at the ways in whichpeople of various racial and ethnicbackgrounds viewed themselvesand the world around them. Thetales teach morals and survivallessons for those ready to listen.

Some tales are about people,some about animals, some aboutthat which extends beyond thenatural world. In the storytellingand the story listening, we learncultures, we learn history, welearn language, we learn toimagine. It is through this creativeprocess that we gain understand-ing. And is not this the aim ofevery educator?


HARDY HARD HEAD11Noteson the Story

This story is a “Jack tale.”Richard Chase’s preface to hisbook The Jack Tales (Boston:Houghton Mifflin, 1943) is a goodsource for background on Jacktales. The appendix refers readersto the myths and folklore ofIreland (Jeremiah Curtin’s HeroTales, Boston: Little, Brown andCo., 1894) for additional informa-tion.

For related stories, see “The SixServants” in the Brothers Grimmcollections; “How Six Men Trav-elled the Wide World” from theAndrew Lang Fairy Tale Treasury; aRussian version in The Fool of theWorld and the Flying Ship byArthur Ransome (New York:Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968);and a version from Chile, “TheTalented Companions,” in DannyKaye’s Around the World Story Book.

Atold by Anndrena Belcher

princess does nothing but cry all day long—the result of a witch’s hex. Jack and hisbrothers, Will and Tom, set out to trick the

witch and break the enchantment.Their mother gives Will, the first to try, $2 for a bet

with the witch and spice cakes and milk for his lunch.Along the way, Will refuses to share his lunch with alittle old man. At the witch’s, Will bets he can jumponto a hackle, which is a board full of spikes, andbounce off like the witch can. He can’t. Tom’sadventure turns out the same.

By the time it’s Jack’s turn, his mother has nomoney left to give him and only cornbread fritters andspring water to pack for his lunch. But when the oldman approaches him, Jack generously invites him toeat. To show his gratitude, the old man changes thefritters into a chocolate cake, gives Jack a magic stick,teaches him a magic incantation, and lends him$1,000 for his bet with the witch.

Using the old man’s magic, Jack conjures up a boatand puts together a crew that helps him win his betwith the witch. Then he splits his winnings among hiscrew, repays the little old man his $1,000, and returnshome to find the princess smiling. Besides winningthree bushels of gold and the chance to court theprincess, Jack has learned that “two heads are betterthan one.” ■


BeforeViewing

◆ Information from The Jack Talesby Richard Chase will help youintroduce students to Jack and“Jack tales.” This book gives someof the fascinating history behindthe discovery of these tales in the1940s.

Chase says that most of the Jacktales find their way back toCouncil Harmon, who lived inBeech Mountain, NC during the19th century. Where did theycome from originally? Havechildren find the AppalachianMountains, Kentucky, NorthCarolina, Virginia, and WestVirginia on a map.

◆ Talk about Jack as a universalcharacter, a character who can befound in the tales of many coun-tries (e.g., the English Jack, theGerman Hans, John in African-American stories, Ivan in Russia).

You may also want to discussthe culture out of which thesetales arose. Topics you mighttouch on include subsistencefarming and the values of a ruralsociety—sharing, showing respectfor elders, acknowledging kinshipof elders and others in the com-munity, cooperation. Havestudents watch for evidence ofthese values in the story.

◆ To prepare the students for thelanguage in the story, you maywant to discuss the history of themountain dialect, relating it toQueen Elizabeth I and ElizabethanEnglish. How and why did thelanguage of the British Isles

For DiscussionAfter Viewing

? Discuss Jack as a character.What do you think Jack looks like?List Jack’s characteristics. Do youknow someone like Jack? How areJack, Will, and Tom alike? Howare they different?

? Discuss class systems. Whichclass did Jack come from? Howdid Jack outdo the witch? Whomight the old man be? What doeshe represent?

? Discuss the witch. What do youthink she looked like? What kindof people were viewed as witchesearlier in our country’s history?

? Discuss the King. Who do yousuppose the King is in this story?

? How were old people viewedin Jack’s time? How are old peopleviewed now? Do you knowanyone 70 years old or older?

? What lessons can be learnedfrom this story?

? How did you react to thelanguage in the story? List someexamples of archaic words orexpressions you heard in thestory. How is this languageusually viewed? Discuss stereo-types. Compare standardizedtextbook English to archaiclanguage.

These questions can lead into adiscussion of bilingual cultures—the mountain people of Ap-palachia, black Americans,Hispanics, and Asian-Americans.

survive longer in the mountains?Can students come up with someexamples of archaic words orexpressions they have heard? Askstudents to listen for examples inthe story.

All of these topics can bereturned to after students watchthe program. Either before or afterviewing the program, you maywant to have students watch Fixin’To Tell about Jack (AppalshopFilms, Whitesburg, KY) in order tomeet one of the master storytellersof the mountains, Ray Hicks. Arecording featuring Hicks is alsoavailable (Jack Alive, June AppalRecords JA0052). Hicks, a winnerof the National Endowment forthe Arts National Heritage Fellow-ship, is said to have one of the“purest examples of the speech ofthe Scotch-Irish and Englishpioneers who settled Appalachiain the late 1700s.”


HARDY HARD HEAD continued

What would happen if we alltalked, looked, and acted thesame?

? Imagine a time before writtenlanguage. What were storiesmeant to do? Are survival skillsmodeled in this story? Discuss thepower of storytelling.

Follow-UpActivities

✚ It is often effective to havestudents tell the stories in TellingTales in their own words. Here aresome variations:

• Tell the story in the dark.What is the effect of telling astory in the dark? What kind ofmood or tone is set in thedarkness? How is it differentfrom listening to a story beingtold in the light?• Tell the story with action andfacial expressions.• Paint faces on each finger ofboth hands, with each fingerrepresenting a character in thestory, and tell the story withfingers acting their parts.• Divide the class into groupsand have each group tell andact out the story. Compare thedifferent versions.

✚ Talk about the role of thenarrator in the story. How can oneperson portray all the differentcharacters and narrate the story?Discuss the differences betweentelling a story and putting on aplay.

✚ Have students create a magicship out of cardboard (or what-ever materials are handy). Havethem get into the boat and de-scribe how it feels to fly. (Thismagic ship can be used as a propin a dramatic retelling of thestory.)

✚ Another common follow-upactivity is writing the story downand illustrating it, perhaps in the

form of a homemade book, whichcan be produced individually byeach student or by the class as awhole.

As a variation on this writingactivity, ask students to rewritethe story, making the charactersand situation contemporary. Makesure the new story containselements of the original: magic,characters working together tosolve a problem.

✚ Invite in grandparents who arewilling to talk about the differ-ences between “then” and “now.”

✚ How can this tale be viewedand told if the players are worldcountries? For example, replaceSee Well, Hear Well, and theothers with the names of countriessuch as the United States and theUSSR. What task(s) must thecountries work together to accom-plish? How does the theme ofcooperation carry over?

✚ Here’s a research project forolder students. Ask them to findother Jack tales in the library or tofind and read similar versions ofthe “Hardy Hard Head” story.


22told by Anndrena Belcher

n old woman has two daughters: one sweet,kind, hard-working, and considerate; the otherher complete opposite. One day, the sweet

daughter is pulled into the well while fetching waterand finds herself in another land. She walks alonglooking for work and comes to a creek with a log lyingacross it. Just as she is about to step on the log, it asksher to go around. So she hops over it. She also grantsthe requests of an apple tree, a woolly sheep, and acow. Finally she arrives at a funny-looking house andasks the old woman who lives there for a job.

After three months of drudgery, the girl asks for herpay. The woman gives her a choice of three boxes. Theone she picks, at a bluebird’s suggestion, is filled withthe old woman’s silver and gold. The woman chasesher, but the cow, the sheep, the apple tree, and the logall hide her as she makes her way back to the well.

Once she is home, her mother takes the money andsends the girl back out to the pigsty. Then she sendsthe lazy girl off to fetch more gold and silver. But thelazy girl refuses the requests of the log, tree, cow, andsheep; and at the old woman’s house, she’s too lazy todo any work. When the woman offers her three boxes,she takes the purple, again at the bird’s suggestion. Asshe runs off, the old witchy woman decides to teachthat lazy girl a lesson and chases after her to give her aspanking. The log, tree, cow, and sheep ignore herpleas for help, and the old woman whacks her.

Somehow she makes it home; but when she and hergreedy mother open the box, they find it full ofrattlesnakes and copperheads. Those two women takeoff running—and, according to the story, they’rerunning still. ■

ANoteson the Story

“Two Gals” is a story collectedby folklorist Leonard Roberts andpublished in his collection ofSoutheastern Kentucky talesentitled Old Greasybeard: Tales fromthe Cumberland Gap (Detroit:Folklore Association of GaleResearch, 1969). The traditionalversion of the story has the greedywoman and her lazy girl eaten upby the snakes. This adaptationsoftens the punishment.

THE TWO GALS


BeforeViewing

◆ Use a map to locate the Appala-chian Mountains. Look at thesoutheastern part of Kentucky,where this particular story wascollected. Explain the immigrationof peoples from the British Islesand other parts of the world intothis country and into the Appala-chian region.

◆ Again, you may wish to discussarchaic language and the use ofdialect in the story. Are therechildren in the classroom whocome from this region? Are therechildren from other rural areas ofthe United States? From ruralareas in other countries? Whatkinds of towns/urban areas arethe other children from?

Explain that people have beentraveling from one place toanother, from one town to an-other, from one country to an-other, and from the farm to thetown for hundreds of years. Helpthe children first speculate aboutand then understand the reasonsfor migration.

◆ Discuss the ways in whichstories travel, just as people do,and how they change along theway, so that we may have manydifferent versions of the samestory.


? Discuss language. Were therewords or pronunciations differentfrom what you are used to hear-ing? What are some examples ofthe colorful language Anndrenaused? Make a list. Look at thedifferent ways to spell and pro-nounce these words.

Students from an urban envi-ronment or another region of thecountry might make a list ofwords peculiar to their commu-nity that might be unfamiliar tochildren elsewhere.

? Discuss point of view. Howwould the tree, the cow, or the oldwoman tell the story? How is eachof us like the characters in thestory? How are we different?

? Discuss motivations and familyrelationships. What motivated themother and the second daughterin the story? Discuss relationshipsbetween brothers and sisters. Doyou see similarities to/differencesfrom the two girls in your ownrelationships?

? Discuss the “morals” in thestory:

• our relationship with natureand the ideas of interdepen-dency and reciprocity• stereotypes of “good,”“bad,” “witch,” and “lazy”

? Can you draw parallels be-tween the journey the girls tookand some sort of journey you havetaken? What did you learn onyour journey?

Follow-UpActivities

✚ Have children draw pictures ofwhat they saw in their imagina-tions as they watched the pro-gram. Did Anndrena give themany visual clues during the storyto suggest what characters orplaces in the story might look like?Can they remember the sequenceof events in the story? Ask them towrite down as much of the storyas they can remember.

Once they have completed theirdrawings and versions of thestory, discuss their pictures andreconstruct the story. Put togethera class book.

✚ Set the story in another envi-ronment—a contemporary urbansetting, for instance. Instead offalling in a well and landing in thecountryside, have the charactersdiscover another kind of land.What will they meet along theway? Students can illustrate thisstory and make it into a book.

✚ Have children act out the story,experimenting with ways of usingtheir bodies, voices, and facialexpressions. For example, havethem show the difference betweenthe sweet girl and the lazy girl bytheir voices and facial expressions.

THE TWO GALS continued


Backgroundfor Programs 3-4

Junebug Jabbo Jones is agenuine folk character, a legend inhis own time. Junebug wascreated by members of the Stu-dent Nonviolent CoordinatingCommittee (SNCC) to stand as asymbol of the wisdom of the ruralworking people who made up therank and file of the civil rightsmovement. I learned of him whenI began working as a field secre-tary for SNCC in 1962.

By 1965, SNCC was beginningto fall apart. Knowing that oralliterature tends to evaporate whenit isn’t used, I had begun collect-ing “Junebugisms” as a sort ofhedge against his disappearance.At first I thought I might use thosestories and aphorisms to create anewspaper column like LangstonHughes’ “Simple Speaks HisMind,” which featured Jess B.Simple; his wife, Joyce; and a hostof other characters. It was 1979before I realized that it was betterto present oral literature inperformance than in written form.Working with a talented group oftheatre artists, I have since devel-oped several plays featuringJunebug, collectively referred to asSayings from the Life and Writings ofJunebug Jabbo Jones.

That part of Junebug’s historyis fairly straightforward. But aswith other mythic folk heroes,there’s considerable speculationabout Junebug’s earlier days. Inthe late ’50s, students at HowardUniversity shared a bit of campusfolklore about a character theycalled “Dr. Jabbo.” The character

JUNEBUG: A LEGEND IN HIS OWN TIMEby John O’Neal

was a satiric attack on the type ofprofessor who is more concernedwith the form than the substanceof education. Dr. Jabbo was soconcerned with how to “looksmart” that he talked too muchand often did very dumb things.

Dick Gregory, who was justbecoming popular as a stand-upcomic, came to Howard to per-form a show that included asection about some of the uniquenames African-Americans use.“Junebug” was one of his ex-amples. Gregory’s Junebugcharacter reminded the studentsof their own Dr. Jabbo, so theycombined the two names. Whenseveral Howard students laterwent south to work with SNCC,they took Dr. Junebug Jabbo withthem.

Over time, Junebug lost hisPh.D., picked up a surname, andwas transformed from a satiricattack on dumb professors into asymbol of the wisdom of thecommon people. As such, he isheir to a long tradition of trickstercharacters found in the folklore ofAfrican and other oppressedpeoples who have been obliged byhistory and circumstance tooppose power with wit. While heis always concerned with impor-tant, “serious” problems, Junebugwields humor and guile as indis-pensable weapons in his arsenal.

The plays we have developedfor Junebug under the aegis of theJunebug Theater Project areintended for adult audiences. Butbecause we have chosen to present

Junebug as a storyteller, andbecause of the popularity ofstorytelling with young audiences,we have also developed materiallike the traditional stories inTelling Tales for young audiences.

When telling to young audi-ences, I make a special effort toshare useful historical informationthat they are likely to have missed.Junebug also has a strong sense ofvalues that he shares, but theprimary presumption of theapproach is that our task as artistsis to present strong, clear imagesthat have an emotional impact onaudiences. They will then decidefor themselves what they think—regardless of how young or oldthey are.


33told by Junebug Jabbo Jones (John O’Neal)

t is a time of terrible drought, and all theanimals are hot and hungry. The buzzardcomes up with a selfish plan to feed himself:

He convinces Sister Rabbit to take a ride on his back,then goes into a power dive and shakes her off ontothe ground, where she splits open, providing himwith a good meal.

After the buzzard manages this trick with asecond victim (Brother Turtle), the monkey hearsabout it and decides to put a stop to it. He lures thebuzzard with his “buzzard-attracting dance” andagrees to go for a ride. But before the buzzard canstart his dive, the monkey gets a stranglehold on thebird by wrapping his tail around the buzzard’sthroat and grabbing onto his feathers. Then he makesthe buzzard fly by the rabbit’s and turtle’s houses sotheir relatives can scorn the buzzard. The monkeydoesn’t turn the buzzard loose until the buzzard haspromised never to eat another animal—unless it isalready dead.

The storyteller begins and ends the story withthe Nat King Cole song “Straighten Up and FlyRight.” ■

INoteson the Story

This story is one of the mostwidely known of its type in theworld. John’s version is based onone he learned from LouiseAnderson of Jacksonville, NC. Hereports that “Ms. Louise is also theone who freed me from thetyranny of scripts and a certainkind of ‘acting’ when she told me,‘Sometimes I have to tell a storytwo or three years before I feel likeI’m doing it right.’”

THE BUZZARD AND THE MONKEY


BeforeViewing

◆ Because this story is based onan African-American tale, itpresents an opportunity fordiscussing the immigration ofAfricans to this country and theadvent of slavery. In tracing how astory moves from one place toanother, use maps, history books,and discussion to learn about themigration of Africans fromSouthern plantations to themountains and to cities and tofind out about the undergroundrailroads and their routes.

◆ Using the essay by JohnO’Neal, introduce your studentsto the Junebug character. You mayneed to give a little background onthe Student Nonviolent Coordi-nating Committee and its place inthe civil rights movement.

◆ This story and the followingone are different from others inTelling Tales because they are toldby an actor speaking as a character(Junebug Jabbo Jones), rather thanin the storyteller’s “own words.”Talk about this difference withyour students. What are thesimilarities and differencesbetween “acting” and“storytelling”?


? How does the monkey punishthe buzzard for what he has done?Is the punishment effective? Thinkof different ways you’ve beenpunished. How do differentpunishments make you react?

? How would you describe thecharacter of the buzzard at thebeginning of the story? At theend? What has the buzzardlearned by the end of the story?

? The monkey in the story is an“authority figure”: He teaches thebuzzard a lesson about what hisproper place is. How do peoplelearn where they “fit in”? Who arethe authority figures in your life?What kinds of lessons do theyteach?

? Before the monkey decided totake action, how were the otheranimals dealing with the problemof the buzzard? If you avoid aproblem, will it go away? Cantaking direct action have badconsequences? How do you decidehow to deal with a given prob-lem?

? Like all the animals, the buz-zard needed to eat to stay alive.What was wrong with the way hechose to go about it? Was hewrong because he was beingdeceitful? If so, was it OK for themonkey to use deceit to teach hima lesson? Why? Are certain things(like being dishonest or killing)always wrong, or can they bejustified by circumstances? Some

people believe it’s wrong forhumans to kill animals, even forfood. How do you feel about thatpoint of view?

? This story offers an explanationfor why buzzards eat things thatare already dead. Can you think ofother animals that “scavenge” thisway? What important functionsdoes this activity serve? Whatwould happen if there were noscavenger animals to “clean up”after other animals have died?


THE BUZZARD AND THE MONKEY continued

Follow-UpActivities

✚ Read some other “why” storiesinvolving animals. A good placeto start is with Rudyard Kipling’sJust So Stories. Various collectionsexist, and several (“Elephant’sChild,” “How the Camel Got HisHump,” “How the Rhinoceros GotHis Skin”) have been publishedseparately. Pick one to tell as aclass or in small groups, withstudents acting out the parts.

✚ Assign short reports on animalsthat live primarily by scavenging(vultures, jackals, carrion beetles).How many examples can yourstudents discover? Talk about thefunction of these animals inrecycling nutrients through thefood chain. Ask your students tocompare this natural “garbagedisposal” with the way humansdispose of waste. What problemsdoes our approach to garbagecause? What are some examples ofways we can recycle or reusethings we normally would justthrow away?

✚ Lead a class discussion on thecivil rights movement. Moststudents will have heard of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., but whatother important figures andevents from the movement canthey name? Talk about civil rightsas a current issue. What individu-als and organizations are active inthis movement today? How havethe issues involved changed overthe last several decades?

One recent publication on thistopic, designed specifically as a

classroom resource, is Free At Last,published by the Southern Pov-erty Law Center in Montgomery,AL to commemorate the dedica-tion of its Civil Rights Memorial in1989. It is available through theCivil Rights Education Project, 400Washington Avenue, Montgom-ery, AL 36177.

✚ John uses the song “StraightenUp and Fly Right” at the end ofthis program to show how the

same story idea can be told orsung. Ask your students for otherexamples of songs that tell stories.Bring in recordings and hold aclass listening/singalong session.

“Straighten Up and Fly Right”was written by Nat King Cole,who was the first black man tohost a TV variety show. See whatelse you can find out about himfrom magazines and biographies.What other sources of informationcan you think of?


44Noteson the Story

John O’Neal reports that he stilltells this story with two differentendings because he hasn’t figuredout the best way to resolve theissues it raises. A musical versionof the story, in which a womantakes a snake into her home, wasrecorded by Oscar Brown Jr.; youmay have heard it on the radio. Itends with the “You knew I was asnake …” statement and the snakebiting his helper. The alternateending, including the bear’sintervention, is based on a versiontold by Atlanta-based storytellerCynthia Watts.

told by Junebug Jabbo Jones (John O’Neal)

possum is out for a walk when he hears avoice crying for help. When he investigates,he sees a snake down in a hole with a brick

on its back. “Please take this brick off my back,” thesnake pleads. The possum has his doubts, but hedecides to help by removing the brick.

Next the snake begs, “Please get me out of thishole.” So the possum pulls the snake out of the hole.“Please let me ride in your pouch—I’m cold and Iknow it’s warm in your pouch,” says the snake. “Butyou’ll bite me!” says the possum. “Oh, no, I won’t,”the snake promises. But as soon as the snake has beenin the pouch long enough to warm up, he gets readyto bite the possum. “But you said you wouldn’t biteme!” cries the possum. The snake replies, “That’strue—but you knew I was a snake!”

The possum gets the snake to agree to arbitration,and the two animals ask the wise old bear for hisopinion. By telling them that he needs to recreate theevents in order to make a judgment, the bearconvinces the snake to get back into the hole. Then heputs the brick back on top and walks away, leavingthe snake exactly as the possum found him.

The moral of the story: Don’t trouble troubleunless trouble troubles you. ■

A

THE POSSUM AND THE SNAKE


THE POSSUM AND THE SNAKE continued

BeforeViewing

◆ Discuss the statement “Don’ttrouble trouble unless troubletroubles you.” Without havingseen the program, how do youreact to this statement? What doyou think it means?

NOTE: You may want todiscuss these questions again afterthe students have seen the pro-gram.

◆ Talk about the idea that peopleare the way they are “by nature.”Are some people just naturally“good” or “bad”? Can peoplechange their natures?

◆ Play a word association gamewith the word “snake.” Whatwords immediately come tomind? Talk about other storiesand sayings relating to snakes orserpents. (The serpent in theAdam and Eve story, the hypnoticpython in the Disney movie of TheJungle Book, and the expressions“snake in the grass” and “speak-ing with a forked tongue” aresome examples.) What qualitiesdo snakes represent in theseinstances? Why do snakes havesuch “bad press”?


? Why did the possum agree tohelp the snake in the first place? Ifyou were the possum, would youhave helped? Why or why not?

The biblical story of the GoodSamaritan teaches that you shouldalways try to help someone introuble, even if helping involvessome cost to you. In this story, thebear seems to agree with peoplewho say “Don’t get involved.”Which of these points of view doyou agree with? Why? How doyou decide when to “get in-volved”? Does the decisiondepend on the potential forreward? On possible danger?Think of the last time you reallyneeded someone else’s help. Whathappened?

? The snake excuses his badbehavior by telling the possum“You knew I was a snake,”implying that the possum has onlyhimself to blame for being bitten.Is he right? Do bad things happento people because they somehow“ask for it”?

? How would you describe thesnake’s character? The possum’s?The bear’s?

? What function does the bearserve in the story? Is his solutionjust? Is it really a solution? Has thesnake learned a lesson? What doyou think will happen when thenext passerby comes upon thesnake down in the hole beggingfor help?

? Which of the story’s twoendings do you like better? Why?Would you have answered thatquestion differently immediatelyafter watching the program?


Follow-UpActivities

✚ Have small groups of studentsplay the part of the bear in thestory and see what alternatecourses of action they can comeup with. After their ideas havebeen presented to the class, askthe students to think of real-worldsituations the story relates to (abully demanding favors or money,terrorist threats). Discuss variousways of responding to the threatof evil. What options have peopletried (avoidance, negotiation,nonviolent resistance, physicalconfrontation, etc.)? What havethe results been?

✚ Have students research variousreal-world snakes and possumsand write short reports on theirhabits. How do these animals’ reallives compare with their popularreputations?

✚ Talk about how Junebug usedvoice characteristics and bodylanguage to “show” you thedifferent animals in the story.Have students mime other ani-mals and see whether theirclassmates can figure out whichanimals they’re impersonating.

✚ Students may be interested inhearing more from or aboutJunebug Jabbo Jones. The JunebugTheater Project makes availablevarious materials for staging shortplays, discussions, and relatedactivities in the classroom. Forinformation, contact Western andSouthern Arts Associates, P.O.Box 50120, Austin, TX 78763, (512)477-1859.



Our traditional image ofstorytelling is of a single persontelling the tale—granny gatheredwith the kids in front of the fire,the “good ole boy” down at thestore, the griot performing for thevillage. But often enough, every-one present knows the story, andtelling it is a sort of group ritual.Family stories are often like this:Everyone present throws in bitsand pieces of the tale, and thetelling itself is part of what drawsthe group together.

In recent years, some story-tellers have expanded this sort ofexperience into a form calledgroup or tandem storytelling.Anywhere from two to five or sixpeople learn a story together andtell it as a group. Narrationalternates with role-playing; andthe tellers step in and out ofcharacter freely, sometimesdescribing the action, sometimesportraying it. Group storytelling issomewhere between traditionalstorytelling and acting. It reliesheavily on imagination—nocostumes, a minimum of props.And it can convey a story with aremarkable amount of power andenergy.

Group storytelling works wellin the classroom. Left to them-selves, children are natural story-tellers. In groups (with the properencouragement), they can getcaught up in the excitement of astory and become effective tellers,with all the advantages that followwhenever students become reallyinvolved with their education.

Telling Tales can serve as thebeginning of a group storytellingproject, since it presents not onlystories but also examples of thetechnique. Following is an outlineof the process as we have workedit in classrooms.

Please bear in mind that this isonly an outline of a process that issometimes rather intuitive. Eachclassroom has its own dynamics;feel free to change and adaptaccording to your own situation.The material, the process, and theamount of structure and guidanceyou provide can change, so longas the students are free to explorethe story and express themselveswith it.

1. Introduce stories and story-telling to the class.

Read, watch, or listen to thestories you want to use. Discussthem with the students. Whatinteresting questions do the storiesraise? Do the stories say anythingabout the students’ lives? (Thematerial given with each story inthis guide is the sort of thing tostart with.)

2. Divide into groups.Three is a good number for a

group. You probably will need toget everyone involved, so largergroups may be necessary. Butkeep in mind that any group withmore than five members getscumbersome and needs extraenergy (theirs and yours) to learnto work effectively. Try to avoidcliques while still putting togethergroups that will work together.

GROUP STORYTELLINGby Rich Kirby and Tom Bledsoe

3. Select a story for each group.Pick stories that are either

known or easy to learn—perhapssome from Telling Tales. Goodstories for group telling haveseveral characters and a fairamount of action and movement.If at all possible, let the studentspick the stories themselves; theywill be a lot more enthusiastic.

4. Learn the story. Thoroughly.Ideally, anyone in the group

should be able to tell the wholestory or any part of it. A usefulapproach is to go over the storywith the class and outline it: Listthe characters, define the setting,summarize the scenes. Whenstudents write this informationdown, they will have, in effect, a“script” to work from whenpracticing. This script will helpthem learn the story in their ownlanguage, rather than trying toduplicate the book or video.

5. Assign parts.Each tale will have a certain

number of characters and anarrator. There may well be moreparts than tellers, so peopledouble up. The key here is thenarrator, the person who talks tothe audience in his or her ownvoice. The narrator keeps up thepace and rhythm of the story. Thispart can be shared among severaltellers.

6. Practice, practice, practice.This stage of the proceedings

will closely resemble mayhem and


anarchy, especially if severalgroups are trying to work in oneroom (which is usually unavoid-able). As the students learn thebasic outline of the story, the focusshifts to the task of presenting iteffectively. This is where charac-ters begin to develop and the storystarts to be fun. Work movementand variety into the story. Some ofthe exercises using voice andmovement in other parts of thisguide are useful. More thananything else, you will need toremind students to project theirvoices and actions and to slowdown and take their time.

7. Help each other out.It is hard (even for profession-

als) to visualize how an audiencewill see a presentation. It is reallyhelpful, once the groups havetheir basic acts down, to get themto perform for one another, thencritique the presentations. Con-structive criticism from one’speers goes a long way. (It’s up toyou to ensure the criticism isconstructive. It helps if everyonehas a turn on stage.) If possible,videotape the presentations, orphotograph them with an instantcamera. It helps a lot to see whatthe presentation looks like.

8. Take it on the road.When the group moves out of

the classroom, the whole processreally takes on excitement. Go dothe stories for younger grades;they’ll love it. Parents’ nights,talent shows, school board meet-

ings, homes for older adults …

A final note: Some people arejust natural storytellers. Encour-age solo storytelling if there’s aninterest.

For an account of a group story-telling project in a Kentucky class-room, see Hands On #30 (Fall 1987),page 20. Hands On is a magazine forteachers published by the FoxfireFund, Rabun Gap, GA 30568.


Noteson the Story

Jack has lots of adventures withgiants. This version was puttogether from several stories thatcan be found in Richard Chase’swork (see “Big Jack and LittleJack” and “Jack in the Giants’Newground” in The Jack Tales) andelsewhere.

told by Tom Bledsoe and Rich Kirby

he storytellers begin with a song, pointingout that there are “lots of different ways totell tales.” This song, “I Wish I Was a Mole

in the Ground,” tells a story, too: a story “aboutwishing you’re something besides what you are.”

Today’s tale is about Jack, a poor mountain boywho lives with his mother. Jack needs a job, but theonly person around with any money, the king,refuses to give him one. Jack pleads with the king,who in exasperation offers Jack a bushel of gold if hewill rid the land of four giants. Jack figures any jobworth that much money is too much trouble forhim; but, before leaving, he takes some cold noodlesand grapes from the king’s dinner for his trip home.

Jack lives south of the king’s house, but due to hispoor sense of direction, he goes “south in anortherly direction” and winds up in a strangeland. He climbs up a tree to get his bearings whenthe first giant, Baby Hugo, comes along. Because ofhis quick wit and foresight—to pack along thegrapes, the noodles, and a mirror—Jack tricks BabyHugo and the three giants who follow. A proud Jackreturns to the king, but the king finds it impossibleto believe that Jack could have gotten rid of fourgiants in just half a day. He sends his army out tocheck. Sure enough, they find no giants, forcing theking to give Jack the bushel of gold.

But that gold didn’t do Jack any good: “He spentit. He had corn flakes every morning. With bananason ’em.” ■

T

JACK AND THE GIANTS55


BeforeViewing

This story, like “Hardy HardHead,” is a Jack tale, and much ofthe discussion about that taleapplies here. However, there is nosupernatural power in this story.Instead, it shows another side ofJack: the trickster, the ordinaryperson who must get by on hiswits.

Stories feature several kinds of“heroes.” Perhaps the oldest andmost common is the strong personwho uses might and weaponry tosolve his problems: Achilles, SirLancelot, Rambo. Jack belongs toanother type: Odysseus, HuckFinn, Brer Rabbit.

Introduce your students to ahero from each group above, oruse examples they are alreadyfamiliar with. Compare these twokinds of heroes. What can eithertype teach us about solvingproblems?


? Why do giants figure in somany old stories? Think of giantsyou are familiar with. Are giantsalways “bad”? Can you think ofsome “good” giants?

Examples of “good” giants arePaul Bunyan or Atlas holding upthe sky. These images carry overinto today’s world in the JollyGreen Giant and André the Giant.Other giants who are not “good”are the Cyclops and the FrostGiants in Norse myth. What arethe differences?

? As you were listening to thestory, did you expect that Jackwould be able to defeat the giants?Why? Are there any clues to thekind of person Jack is early in thestory, before he sets out on hisadventure? Jack is neither rich norpowerful. How does he outwit thegiants?

? This story is a good one to usewith older students and in con-junction with a study of theMiddle Ages. When Jack neededmoney, he had to go to the king,who was the only employer. In thesocial system of that time, moneyand cash-paying jobs were scarce.Read about and discuss therelationship between kings andtheir subjects under the feudalsystem. What were the mutualrights and responsibilities?

Jack was an ordinary person.He was under the power (indifferent ways) of both the kingand the giants. What were therights and responsibilities Jack

had to the king? What did theking owe Jack?

? What about the giants: Whatwas their relationship to Jack?What did Jack owe them? Theycome out very badly in the story;two are killed. Would it beaccurate to say they were “mur-dered”?

? Shakespeare wrote: “… it isexcellent/to have a giant’sstrength, but it is tyrranous/to useit like a giant.” Discuss what hemeant.

? Many political philosophershave tried to distinguish between“rightful” and “wrongful” author-ity and use of power. Is there adistinction of that sort here,between the king’s power and thatof the giants? Does the subject (theweaker person) have a “right ofrevolution” against authority thatis abused? When? The Declarationof Independence recites a long listof injustices by King George tojustify the revolt of the Americancolonies. Is Jack a real Americanhero?


Follow-UpActivities

✚ Read “Big Jack and Little Jack”in the Richard Chase collection ofJack tales. Jack is the same in thisstory, but it involves a differentking. Compare Jack’s attitudetoward and relationship with thekings in the two stories.

✚ Have students take turns actinglike Jack, the king, the giants. Playaround with posture, tone ofvoice, and gestures to portray big,small, cocky, scared, angry,puzzled, and the other emotionsportrayed in the story.

✚ Read the story of Odysseus andthe Cyclops. A variation has beencollected in Kentucky as “Jack andthe One-Eyed Giant” by LeonardRoberts in Sang Branch Settlers(Austin: University of Texas Press,1974).

✚ Using several Jack tales, make acharacter sketch of Jack. Howwould he handle various modernsituations that might seem torequire force? Would Jack haveany success dealing with pollu-tion, terrorism, and the like? Whatrole would Jack have on a baseballor basketball team? Could wemake up some new Jack talesfeaturing a contemporary Jackdealing with one of these contem-porary problems?

✚ Try writing a new ending forthis story. What else could Jackspend his money on besides cornflakes with bananas?

JACK AND THE GIANTS continued


Noteson the Story

This tale is taken from Grand-father Tales by Richard Chase(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948).A similar story is “The ArrantFool” in Russian Fairy Tales byAleksandr Afanas’ev.

told by Rich Kirby and Tom Bledsoe

nce a woman told her son, James Henry, togo to the store and buy some soap. Her sonhad a tendency to forget things, so he left

repeating “soap” to himself to help him remember.Along the way, he fell into a mudhole; once out, herealized he had forgotten what he was supposed tobuy. An old man came along, saw the little boywalking back and forth between the dry ground andthe hole, and heard him saying: “Right there I had it.Right there I lost it.”

Wanting to help, the old man started looking andasked what they were looking for. The little boy justkept repeating to himself, leaving the old man tothink the boy was just crazy. As the old man walkedoff, he too fell into the mudhole. Blaming the littleboy for his accident, he angrily told him to say:“Sorry I done it—won’t do it again.” And this iswhat the little boy repeated as he walked on.

Through a series of similar misadventures, the boycontinued to get himself deeper and deeper intotrouble by repeating what he heard from each personhe met. Finally, a woman doing her wash at the riverwas about to paddle the little boy when she noticedwhat a mess he was. “Go home,” she said, “and tellyour mommy to take some soap to you.” “SOAP!”said the little boy, and off he went to buy the soap.

His mother was proud of him for remembering.But she could also see and smell how dirty he was.She put him in the washtub, soaped him up, rinsedhim, and hung him up to dry—clothes and all. ■

O

66 SOAP


BeforeViewing

◆ Everyone has had the experi-ence of being misunderstood,though maybe not as much asJames Henry in this tale. Talk withyour students about misunder-standings you and they havesuffered. Were any of them funny?Annoying? Unfortunate? How dowe handle them?

◆ Another universal experience isthat of being a child in a world ofbig, powerful grownups. Talkabout the feelings arising fromthat situation.


? A “folk” tale, by definition, is astory that has been handed alongfrom one person to another. Thefact that it exists at all is evidencethat whoever told it thought therewas something worthwhile there,as did the person the storytellerlearned from, and the person whotaught that person, etc. Discussthe process of stories gettingpassed along. What are someexamples of stories in circulationin your school or community? Canyou tell which ones might be olderthan others?

(Note: It may take repeatedasking, but you should be able toelicit quite a lot of examples. Earlychildhood is a great repository ofreal folktales, not all of thembenign.)

? What happens to a story ifpeople decide it isn’t worthwhile?What was the “something worth-while” that caused “Soap” to belearned, remembered, and passedon?

? Some stories set out to try toteach us something (for example,Aesop’s fable about the boy whocried “Wolf”). Others seem to beintended just to enjoy. Should wedig around in the latter kind ofstory for some sort of “lesson”?

? Is “Soap” about the importanceof a good memory or about therelationship between kids andgrownups?

? What are some tricks to im-

prove memory? Think aboutrhymes (“30 days hath September…”) and memory devices (“EveryGood Boy Does Fine”).

? How does James Henry com-pare with Jack? How do thegrownups in this story comparewith the grownups in the storywith the giants?

SOAP continued


Follow-UpActivities

✚ Play with the way things getchanged through repetition. Makea circle and whisper to the firstperson a saying, a simple story, ora tongue twister. Have him/herwhisper it to the next person, andso on around the circle. When itgets back to the beginning,compare the end product with theoriginal.

✚ Each episode in the story isdescribed “frontward”—that is,we hear of a situation, then James

Henry comes in saying exactly thewrong thing. Ask students toimprovise some episodes bythinking “backward”: Give JamesHenry something to say, thenmake up a situation where sayingit would get him into trouble.

✚ An extremely old way of tellinga story involves making a picturein which each episode happens insequence. Draw James Henry’sjourney and show all the thingsthat happen to him.

✚ Pick a story to read aloud. Thenassign parts for students to learnthat will allow them to practicedifferent voices and styles ofmovement. When they havepracticed, read the story again andhave them join in on the parts theyhave learned.

Two stories that work well forthis exercise are Three Billy GoatsGruff by P.C. Asbjornsen(Harcourt, 1957) and Wolf and theSeven Kids from the BrothersGrimm (Troll, 1979).


Noteson the Story

This version was collected byLeonard Roberts from storytellerDave Couch in Leslie County,Kentucky in 1952. Roberts pub-lished the story in Sang BranchSettlers. Roadside Theater re-corded the story on its recordMountain Tales (June AppalRecordings, JA0036).

told by Rich Kirby and Tom Bledsoe

he cat and the rat were playing mumblety-peg one day, and the cat was losing. Nowthe cat didn’t like to lose, so when the rat

wasn’t looking, he cut the rat’s long tail off. Herefused to give the tail back unless the rat would goto the cow and get the cat some milk. The cow saidshe would give the rat some milk—if he would go tothe barn and get the cow some hay. The barn, inturn, sent the rat off on another errand.

This continued for quite some time, with the ratscurrying from one place to the next, until finally hearrived at the farmer’s door. The farmer was soastonished to hear a rat asking for a key that hehanded it over. The rat retraced his steps, givingeveryone what he or she had asked for. When at lasthe gave the milk to the cat, the cat gave him his longtail back. “Rat wiggled it on and away he went.” ■

T

CAT AND RAT66


BeforeViewing

◆ Cumulative tales and songs(ones that get longer with eachverse or episode) have beenpopular for ages. It might be funto “warm up” by singing “TheTwelve Days of Christmas,”“There’s a Hole in the Bottom ofthe Sea,” or “The House that JackBuilt.”

◆ This story is about findingways to get what you need. Talkabout various ways people (bothchildren and grownups) fill theirneeds—by force and otherwise.


? Animal stories are relativelyscarce in white American traditionbut quite common in the African-American tradition. “The Buzzardand the Monkey” and “ThePossum and the Snake” areAfrican-American animal tales.Compare the animals in them withthe animals in “Cat and Rat.”

? A curious thing about “Cat andRat” is that the two animals arenot mortal enemies. (Compare“Cat and Mouse Keep House” inGrimm, an unrelated story inwhich the cat ends by eating themouse.) How would you describethe relationship between the catand the rat in this story? Howwould you compare it with therelationship of Tom and Jerry?

? Find Leslie County, Kentuckyon a map. How did white settlersget there? When and why? Thearea is close to Cumberland Gapand the Wilderness Road. Whatparts did Daniel Boone and theRoad play in the settlement ofKentucky? Why would an area soclose to the main road in the 18thcentury become so isolated later?

? By story’s end, the rat hasinvented a complicated economy,based (like all early economies) onbarter. How is everyone in thestory better off after trading?

? Discuss trades people maketoday. What difference does itmake that we use money? That weseldom see the people who makethe things we use?

Follow-UpActivities

✚ Have students use improvisa-tion and the story as a frameworkto develop their own memorygame. One person can be the “rat”and ask others what they wantand from where. For example, thecat might tell the rat to go to thelibrary for a book. The library(another student) might then askfor a pop from the store … and soon until the rat loses track.

✚ Almost every folktale has aninternal rhythm. This one has avery obvious rhythmic pattern,using a chant. Find examples ofrhymes, chants, and songs thathelp us remember things. Talkabout why rhythm and repetitionmake remembering easier.

✚ Read the story as given in SangBranch Settlers. Look at the waysTom and Rich have “expanded”the story by slowing it down andadding personality traits to thecharacters. Students might try thiswith other stories, either inwriting or orally. (In “Goldilocks,”for example, develop separatepersonalities for each of the threebears.)

✚ Try acting out this story. Inaddition to fitting well with thegroup storytelling techniquedescribed in Rich and Tom’sintroduction, this story could beplayed out with puppets.

✚ Ask students to write a story ordraw a picture describing whatthey imagine it looked and felt


like when Dave Couch told thisstory to his children. If anyone intheir families tells stories, askthem to write or draw these familyscenes.

✚ Draw a map showing tradesthat are made between parts of theU.S. (for example, Kentuckytobacco for Iowa corn) andbetween different countries. Whydoes it seem to be better to tradethan to try to make everything weneed here?

For FurtherStudy

Sang Branch Settlers by LeonardRoberts is a unique book, givingan in-depth picture of the tradi-tions of a family living in a timeand place where stories and songswere a vital part of everyday life.It provides a remarkable chance tolook at “Cat and Rat” in the totaloriginal context.

A similar work on record is TheHammons Family: A Study of a WestVirginia Family’s Traditions,Library of Congress L 65-66. Thistwo-record set and the accompa-nying book detail a large numberof songs and stories from a familythat was blessed with a large stockof them.

Follow-UpActivities continued

CAT AND RAT continued



In the novel Ceremony byAmerican Indian writer LeslieMarmon Silko, the Storyteller saysabout stories:

There is life herefor the people …

And in the belly of this storythe rituals and the ceremony

are still growing.

He speaks a truth and a caution.A story spoken aloud is alive in

a special way. Like its counterpartsin other cultures, the traditionalAmerican Indian story entertains,instructs, and empowers. It teachespeople how to live in harmonywith one another and with theirenvironment. It contains situationsand characters with traits that areuniversal and constant fromgeneration to generation. The storycan be adapted to changing timeswithout altering its basic truth.Passed through the oral tradition,it preserves the continuity of theculture and helps the peoplesurvive.

But the American Indian storyhas an additional, crucial dimen-sion: It is sacred. It has a spirit thatis active and responsive, becausewithin the story, “the rituals andthe ceremony are still growing.”To tell the story without respectingits spirit will bring repercussionson the storyteller and perhaps onthe listeners as well. Most Indianstorytellers give this caution; but ina society geared to technology, itoften goes unheeded.

When someone asks me, “Willyou tell my group an Indian

AMERICAN INDIAN STORYTELLINGby Marilou Awiakta

story?” I always say, “I appreciateyour interest. But I also have totell about the tribe it comes from,about their culture … how, when,and why the story is told … whatit means to the people.”

“We don’t want all that. We justwant the story.” If the inviterresponds this way and will notaccept an explicit caution, I do nottell the story. Neither does anyother conscientious storyteller,Indian or non-Indian. The story isa strand from a people’s way oflife. It must not be removed fromthat context, either orally or inprint.

And so, if you wish to tell anIndian story, learn the authenticversion and context from the tribalelder who tells it. Talk with theelder yourself and ask permissionto use the story. Or, if you areusing an anthology, make sure theauthor or editor has done so. Thisinformation should be provided inthe introduction and/or the text.

Told respectfully, the stories do“entertain, instruct, and em-power” in traditional ways. Theyalso help erase the “drums andfeathers” stereotypes of AmericanIndians by reflecting the diversi-ties of the tribes (there are morethan 350 in this country) and byrevealing what the tribes have incommon—qualities such as love offamily, respect for the elders, asense of humor. At the root ofIndian culture and Indian storiesis the belief that the Creator madeall beings in the universe “rela-tives”—members of one family.

The principles of reciprocity andright relation to the Earth sustainthe Sacred Circle of Life.

American Indians have not“vanished”—despite wars, forcedremovals to reservations, suppres-sion of language and culture,separation of families, racialdiscrimination, and despair. Thesepowers of destruction have beenmighty; but as the Storyteller inCeremony says, “They can’t standup to our stories.”

Recently, my work in theMemphis Arts Council’s Arts-in-the-Schools program took me to akindergarten. The teacher said:“Yesterday I asked the class, ‘Ifyou had one wish, what would itbe?’ One boy said, ‘I don’t want todie.’ Even little children know theEarth is in trouble. Society is introuble. The problems are right inthe children’s own neighbor-hoods.”

So are the stories. Althoughthey are as varied in ethnic originas Americans themselves, thestories share the power of wisdomand hope. If we take the time totell them, they are “life for thepeople.”


T

LITTLE DEER AND MOTHER EARTH77Noteson the Story

Maintaining a right relationshipwith Mother Earth is at the root ofNative American cultures andstories. One principle of thatrelationship is “Take only whatyou need, with respect andgratitude.” Marilou’s story tellshow Awi Usdi (or “Little Deer”), aCherokee spirit of respect, circlesthrough time to teach this prin-ciple. It also shows the way atraditional story weaves into thelives of the people who created it.

The story of Little Deer andMother Earth first appeared in atraditional Cherokee version. Theearliest version in English is inMyths of the Cherokee and SacredFormulas of the Cherokee by JamesMooney (pp. 250-51, 263-64).Mooney, an ethnologist from theSmithsonian Institution, was toldthe story in 1887 by Swimmer, ashaman* of the Eastern Cherokee

told by Marilou Awiakta

he delicate balance between Mother Earthand Father Sky is being threatened by someof Earth’s creatures. Humans are killing too

many of their animal relatives, taking more than theyneed and threatening some of the animals withextinction.

The animals decide to take defensive action. Thebears trim their nails in order to be able to use bowsand arrows, but soon discover that they can nolonger climb trees to get honey. So the plan isabandoned.

Then Little Deer comes up with another idea: Theanimals will talk to the humans and lay down thelaw. From now on, humans can kill animals onlyafter they have asked permission from the animalsand from Mother Earth, and they must eat all theykill and never take more than they need. Then theymust thank the animal and Mother Earth. ■

* A shaman is a tribal holy man.He is the repository of the tribe’scollected wisdom, the keeper of itsstories and songs, and he uses themagic they contain to conduct therituals that preserve the well-being ofthe tribe and its individual members.In Western terms, he would be both“priest” and “doctor”—but tradi-tional Native American cultures donot regard the spiritual and physicalaspects of life as separate “special-ties.” Rather, physical or societalproblems such as illness or crime areseen as manifestations of underlyingspiritual disharmony. To cure the one,you must address the other.


in North Carolina. Swimmer alsowrote down the story in Cherokee.(Mooney’s book is now publishedin paperback by C. Elder ofNashville.) A source with a morecomplete text is Keepers of the Earthby Michael J. Caduto and JosephBruchac (Fulcrum, Inc., 1988).

Awi Usdi next takes a contem-porary form in Marilou’s poem“The Coming of Little Deer” fromher book Abiding Appalachia: WhereMountain and Atom Meet (Mem-phis: St. Luke’s Press, 1978).

In the program, the storytellerbrings Little Deer into the AtomicAge. Little Deer is a protectorspirit, watching over the powerfulforce of nuclear energy to makesure it is used for good purposesand not harmful ones. Marilou’snecklace, her own design, showsLittle Deer leaping in the center ofan atom, as alive in the high-techworld as he was in the Cherokee’sdeer-hunting past. It symbolizesher belief that if we have rever-ence for all that exists—theCreator, Mother Earth, andhumanity—we can create a new

harmony for our environment andour people.

The poem used in the programis entitled “When Earth Becomesan ‘It.’” Marilou wrote it for anaddress of the same name to theGovernors’ Interstate IndianCouncil in August 1988. (Thepoem is included in her new book,Selu: Spirit of Survival, TraderyHouse/Wimmer Co., 1991.)

When Earth Becomes an “It”

When the people call Earth“Mother,”

they take with loveand with love give backso that all may live.

When the people call Earth “it,”they use herconsume her strength.Then the people die.

Already the sun is hotout of season.Our mother’s breastis going dry.She is taking all greeninto her heartand will not turn backuntil we call herby her name.

BeforeViewing

◆ The idea of Little Deer as aliving presence provides anexcellent opportunity to dispel themyth that American Indians have“vanished.” Little Deer is 2,500years old, as old as the Cherokeethemselves. They still tell hisstory, both in the Eastern Band inNorth Carolina, which has about9,000 members, and in the Chero-kee Nation of Oklahoma, whichnumbers more than 100,000. TheCherokee tribe, in fact, is thesecond largest tribe in America.

Find Cherokee, NC on a map.This is the area of the QuallaBoundary, where the EasternBand lives. Next, find Tahlequah,OK (near Tulsa). It is the capital ofthe Cherokee Nation there, whichhas a service area of 14 counties.Compare these two sites with theoriginal Nation, which reachedinto eight Southern states (JamesMooney’s book has a map on page23). Discuss the forced removal ofthe Cherokee—the Trail of Tears—in 1838, which divided the Nation.Talk about this question: How didthe stories help the people sur-vive?

◆ At the top of a chalkboard,write, “Take only what you need,with respect and gratitude.” Alsowrite the old Appalachian saying,“What goes around, comesaround.” Under these sentences,draw a large circle. Within it,draw a web. Ask the studentswhether they have ever touched aspider web. When you touch onestrand, do the others move? If you


break one strand, what happens tothe web? (It sags.)

Around the web, draw simplesymbols—cloud, tree, plant,animal, water, fish, bird, humans(male and female). Discuss theAmerican Indian belief that allthings in the universe are con-nected in a Web of Life, a SacredCircle; that we are all family,“relatives.”

This chalkboard drawing canbe used throughout the study ofthis story and the “Rising Fawn”story.

◆ To illustrate the truth of the twosentences you’ve written on theboard, discuss the destruction ofthe Amazon rain forest in relationto the idea of “taking more thanwe need.” How is the processaffecting the sky (the ozone layer),the plants and animals, andhumans? Discuss the meaning of“What goes around, comesaround.”

◆ In the center of the circle, writethe word “stories.” Talk about thefunction of stories in traditionalNative American cultures. Thesestories teach how to live in a rightrelationship with the Web of Life.They entertain, instruct, andempower all at once. They are notsubdivided, as Western oralstories are, into legends, myths, orfolktales; nor are they strictlyparables or fables designed toteach specific morals.

◆ Another important concept for

students to understand is thetraditional American Indianattitude toward animals. Storieslike “Little Deer and MotherEarth” are not “animal stories,”where animals speak like peopleor somehow symbolize people.Rather, the animals themselves areseen as “family,” relatives who areequal partners with humans onEarth. They speak for themselvesabout the wisdom of respect andcooperation, and their points ofview must be taken into accountby humans.


? Look at the circle and Web ofLife on the chalkboard. Forcenturies, the Cherokee dependedon deer as a primary food. Whatceremony and ritual did thehunters carry out to show respectand gratitude to the deer theykilled? What happened when theywere disrespectful? If the hunterstook more deer than they needed,what would happen to the deerherds? To the people’s foodsupply?

? Name some animals and birdsthat are extinct or endangered.What happened to them?

? What problems has nuclearenergy brought us? If radioactiveor other toxic waste is not prop-erly disposed of, what can hap-pen? How do the poisons releasedtravel around the Web of Life?What do they do to our “rela-tives”—Mother Earth, plants,animals, and so on? To ushumans?

? On Earth Day 1990—a Sunday—Bette Midler portrayed MotherEarth on television and said, “Yousay you love me on Sunday. Butwhat will you do on Monday?”What signs have you heard aboutthat tell you Mother Earth is sick?Talk about the signs mentioned inthe poem on the program: “She istoo hot” (the greenhouse effect)and “Her breast is going dry”(desertification, draining ofwetlands).

How would Little Deer explain

LITTLE DEER continued

BeforeViewing continued

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Telling Tales 1-48 - KET Educationeducation.ket.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/tellingtales1.pdf · stories in Telling Tales, let your imagination roam beyond the “obvious.” A