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Descended from Chief John Ross, this preeminent Cherokee storyteller speaks about how storytelling has changed, and how she chooses stories.
What inspired you to become a storyteller?
It was a hobby that got out of hand. I was telling stories once at the Cherokee
Heritage Center and my mother was up with me. My mother came up with me because
she was so proud that I had been invited to perform at the Heritage Center.
Somebody came up and asked that same question and my mother leaned over, interrupted
and said she was always that way.
I guess probably it's true. My grandmother told stories. In fact, beginning
around 1916 through the early 1920's, she traveled around as a storyteller.
At one point she had her own one-woman show off Broadway in New York and she
told Cherokee stories, sang in Cherokee. When I came along, she was long past
those days but she was the family storyteller and the family historian. I just
grew up with a love of stories and a love of language
Can you share some of your experiences and challenges as a storyteller?
When I began telling stories, we were driving around the country in a 1959
Volkswagen Van. I guess what's really different about those days is that you
always had to explain what you meant when you said you were a storyteller.
When we would talk to theaters, folk festivals or places like that, they would
say "Storyteller? Are you going to read to the kids?" Now, there is huge network
of festivals around the country devoted exclusively to the art of storytelling.
Today when you say you're a storyteller, more often than not they know exactly
what you mean. They have heard storytelling before. They look for good storytellers
to work in their venues.
What do you think changed the perception of storytelling?
More and more people hearing it for themselves. There are wonderful storytellers
performing today, everywhere from schools and libraries to the Kennedy Center.
Just the word-of-mouth consciousness of storytelling as a highly entertaining,
very engaging kind of presentation has taken it beyond the borders of what people
think of. For a period of time, the places where stories were traditionally
told began to shift and change, and our lifestyle shifted and changed with radio,
television and motion pictures.
For a time, like a river that encounters an obstacle in its bed, storytelling
was sending little rivulets here and there until they wore a bed deep enough
that would suddenly it would go this way. It emerges in this culture as performance
art and the like. It's really just the nature of storytelling to shift, change
and adapt to the culture that it serves. As more storytellers perform, the consciousness
of how important storytelling is resurfaces in our collective, cultural consciousness.
How do you choose your stories?
It depends on where it is and what season it is. A lot of stories deal with
specific changes in the world that you see around as the seasons change. A lot
of my material will be the leaves are changing color all around me and I tell
the story of why the leaves change color. The first wildflowers means I need
to tell the story of where the first flowers came from. Some stories are just
a natural part of my repertoire anytime I go someplace I've never been before.
I want them to understand Cherokee culture. So I'll probably always start with
a couple of Cherokee creations that explain who the Cherokee people are, because
if you're going to know who I am you've got to know who the Cherokee people
are.
What advice would you give a beginner storyteller?
Don't short-circuit the development of your own voice. Trust that if you are
dedicated to becoming the best storyteller you can be, that means you are going
to grow into your voice.
The way to start is in your selection of material. Take a real honest, deep
look at those things that are uniquely yours to share – whether it be from a
geographical point of view, where you are, who you are, an ethnic or cultural
background that is uniquely your own, a time in history perhaps that really
speaks to you. You start looking at the material you select and making that
as true to you as it can be.
The best advice I can give to a beginning storyteller is to listen to their
own strengths and begin to try to find material or write material that reflects
their own goals, and practice. Some people will tell you never volunteer services
for free, but if you're a beginning storyteller, that's your best opportunity.
Volunteer to go to schools, volunteer to daycare centers—wherever you can find
an audience. Tell and tell and tell until you are truly telling, not just acting
like a storyteller. At some point, you will cross that line and you will be
a storyteller.
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