The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative (Massey Lectures)

“Stories are wondrous things,” award-winning Canadian author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. “And they are dangerous.” Stories assert tremendous control over our lives, informing who we are and how we treat one another as friends, family and citizens. With keen perception and wit, king illustrates that stories are the key to, and the only hope for, human understanding, He compels us to listen well.

The Precious Gift: A Navaho Creation Myth

A drop of fresh water must be retrieved in order for First Man to create a stream or lake in his parched homeland, and the members of his village are unable to do so, but, through an unexpected twist of fate, their doomed destiny may be saved.

Adventures of Rabbit and Bear Paws: The Voyageurs

Set in the 18th century colonized North America, we follow the story of two mischievous Ojibwa brothers as they play pranks and have amazing adventures using a traditional Ojibwa medicine (spirit powder) that transforms them into animals for a short time.

Chicora And The Little People

“Listen!” Chicora pleaded. “Last night, I opened my eyes and saw tiny hands reaching through the lodge flap. I screamed, ‘Leave me alone!’ and the little hands disappeared.” The legend of Chicora and the Little People: The Legend of the Indian Corn, begins long ago in the time known as the Moon of the Turning Leaves. Chicora, a young Lumbee girl, is awakened from her sleep by gruff giggling and little hands reaching through the flap of her home lodge. She attempts to tell the villagers of the appearance of the little people and the new corn. How can Chicora convince her tribe of the truth?

Loving Me

Whether it is a gentle kiss from mom, a hug from dad, a playful romp with an older brother, or reading with grandpa, babies and toddlers will discover the importance of family relationships in these photographs of Native American families.

In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse

Jimmy, a young Lakota boy, struggles with fitting in on his reservation because he does not look like the other Lakota boys; he has light hair, blue eyes, and his father is of Scottish decent. Grandpa Nyles sees an opportunity to introduce Jimmy to another Lakota who had fair hair and light skin—the famous Crazy Horse. Over the course of their trip, Grandpa Nyles recounts history and stories about the life of the Lakota hero and the events that shaped him into a powerful leader, including famous battles and standoffs against the white settlers.

It Had To Be Done

In early 1942, during the darkest months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a group of 29 Navajo Marines, young and fresh out of boot camp, were taken into a room with bars on the windows and a guard at the door. Their task: devise a top-secret code that would thwart the sharpest cryptanalytic minds in Imperial Japan. And they succeeded.

Bears Make Rock Soup: And Other Stories

A collection of stories inspired by paintings that depict the special relationships betweens the Plains Indians and such animals as bear, deer, moose, crows, and loons.