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Story audiocassettes & CDs

Beardslee, Lois (Ojibwe): Leelanau Earth Stories, More Leelanau Earth Stories, Leelanau Earth Stories, Too. 2005, 1 hour each, all grades.

Lois Beardslee intended these Woodland Indian stories for an elementary school audience, but like most well told stories, they are for everybody. These are, as she says, “updated” traditional stories. In one, “The Story of the Frog’s Teeth,” the frogs were originally busted for stealing nuts from the squirrels; in this version, they’re busted for stealing, among other things, potato chips.
Three CDs, 15.00 each

Bruchac, Jim (Abenaki), Northeastern Native American Animal Stories. 1998, 48 minutes, all grades.

Jim may or may not consider it a compliment to have it said that he sounds a lot like his father. His rendition of these traditional Abenaki and Iroquois stories gives lie to the belief that you have to have brightly colored illustrations or fast-moving images to capture a child’s attention. Youngest listeners (and adults, too) will tune right in to these, especially when they hear the animal sounds. Jim Bruchac makes a great Red Squirrel, also ants....
CD 17.00

Bruchac, Joeseph (Abenaki), Iroquois Stories. 1988, 47 minutes, all grades.

Here are six traditional Iroquois stories, including “Creation,” “How Buzzard Got His Feathers,” “Turtle’s Race with Bear,” “Raccoon and Crayfish,” “The Wife of the Thunderer,” and the very scary “The Brave Woman and the Flying Head.” In the two stories about women, Joe Bruchac clearly demonstrates the significant and respected place that women have in Haudenosaunee society.  He has a wonderful voice for stories, and knows exactly how to use it—just the right pacing, this perfectly timed pause, that lowering of pitch. And he makes a great Bear.
CD 14.00

Lacapa, Kathleen (Mohawk), and Michael Lacapa (Apache/Hopi/Tewa), Antelope Woman and Less Than Half, More Than Whole. 1995, 23 minutes, all grades.

This tape complements the two books of the same titles. Antelope Woman is a traditional story that tells how the Apache people were instructed to honor all things around us, great and small. Less Than Half, More Than Whole is especially for children of mixed parentage who feel or are told they are “less than half.” In this story, Tony’s grandfather tells him that, like the combination of colors in an ear of Indian corn, he is really more than whole.
Audiocassette 5.00

Moses, Johnny (Tulalip), American Indian Voices presents Johnny Moses. 1992, 72 minutes, grades 4-up (younger for some stories).

An incredibly talented storyteller, Johnny Moses accompanies himself with a hand drum, and his interpretations of the ways the animal people communicate with each other—including Octopus Lady, Crow, Bear Man, Ant Woman, Mosquito Man and even Slug Man—are hilarious. Whether it’s Bear Man and Ant Woman competing over the length of the day and night, how know-it-all Crow realizes—too late—that he should have listened to his friends, how a traditional elder outwits a proselytizing missionary, or how children suffer the consequences of not heeding the advice of their grandparents, the stories will appeal to listeners of all ages. Teachers might want to preview and select stories for content.
CD 17.00

Tehanetorens/Ray Fadden (Mohawk), The Gift of the Great Spirit: Iroquois Lesson Stories. 1988, 50 minutes, all grades.

The traditional stories included here were recorded in the late 1980s at the Six Nations Indian Museum in Onchiota, New York, and are typical of the stories still told there by three generations of the Fadden family. With music by the Six Nations Singers, these lesson stories, told by the beloved Mohawk elder Tehanetorens, teach about kindness and generosity, courage and fortitude.
CD 14.00

Lessons from the Animal People. 1996, 90 minutes, all grades.

Dovie Thomason writes about these stories: “My Grandma Dovie told me stories... because I needed them. They are the traditional way to guide young (and not so young) lives without punishment or embarrassing confrontation. Through the mistakes, bad choices and often unruly antics of the Animal People, we are shown human weaknesses and are gently reminded to look at our own.” These are traditional teaching stories of the Animal Nations, alternating with songs by Ulali (Tuscarora, Apache/Maya).
CD 17.00

Fireside Tales: More Lessons from the Animal People. 2001, 90 minutes, all grades.

Recorded right before Midwinter, which is the traditional time for such things, these animal teaching stories were selected by Dovie’s daughter, Samantha, with Iroquois social songs sung by Samantha’s father, Micky Sickles (Wolf Clan, Oneida). Stories include “Bear and Chipmunk,” “Frog’s Teeth,” “Mice Make Peace,” and “Why there are Bats.”
CD 17.00

Wopila, A Giveaway: Lakota Stories. 1993, 60 minutes, grades 3-up.

These are traditional stories, with music by Lakota flutist Kevin Locke. The stories on Side 1 are cautionary tales to protect our children—“from danger, fear, monsters, and anything that threatens their well-being or self-worth.” Of these, “Iya, the Camp Eater” is especially frightening for the message it carries, as much as the story. Side 2 contains three stories of the foolish one, Iktomi—“Iktomi & the Buzzard,” “Iktomi & Ducks & Rock,” and “Iktomi Changes His Mind”—teaching us how not to behave.
CD 17.00

Walking the Choctaw Road: Stories from Red People Memory. 2003, grades 4-up.

These stories tell of magic bringing healing, shape shifters testing bravery, tragedy leading to courage and true friendships developing in the worst of places. Choctaw women make magic so that enslaved people can cross to freedom. The wisdom of an elder woman—“keep working to the good”—give a boy courage to defeat a shape-shifter. A youngster carries his mother’s bones on the Trail of Tears. A woman with a healing stone shows a boy that you don’t have to be blood to be family. A child at an Indian residential school finds that “wherever you are, you can always find one decent person.” A 20-year war between father and son is resolved, and when Mawmaw regains her sight, there is no more Saltypie. Written in a down-to-earth, accessible style, these stories will appeal to cynical young people who don’t especially like to read.
CD, four-disc set, 25.00