Stories

All cultures tell stories; stories function as an entertaining and educative means of introducing the listener to the beliefs and practices of a group of people. The role of storyteller is a significant one in cultures that have retained an oral narrative system such as American Indian Tribes. All literature adheres to culturally specific forms and functions. As members of a culture we hear the structures of our own stories as natural and pleasurable. Listening to or reading stories constructed by cultures different from our own can result in confusion and resistance if we do not have any understanding of how and why these stories are organized and presented. Understanding literature in a multicultural world requires that we learn to respond to all stories in terms of the culture from which it sprang. Principles of organization and function are embedded in all stories, recognizing the structure and purpose of stories can enrich the experience of listening to or reading any story. Pleasure in and preference for a particular story form, usually the one we are culturally attuned to, is seldom replaced by a different story form, but understanding and respecting another group's stories can be rewarding and very enjoyable.

Briefly, oral narrative systems or stories differ from written or print dependent stories in several important ways. Rather than comparing and contrasting oral and written texts in an attempt to evaluate the formats, our primary learning focus is on the basic structures and artistic expression unique to stories told by indigenous peoples of North America, specifically the peoples of the Rocky Mountains and the Inland Northwest. Given that form follows function, we will explore the functions of stories in North American Indian culture and then explore the forms of oral narratives. At this point it is essential that we accept the limitations of studying an oral-spoken, performed, 'placed', geographically specific-form within a written format. As a Coeur d'Alene elder reminds us, attempts to convey the power of stories in a written format results in a "secondary " not a primary experience. Only hearing a story told by a tribal elder for a specific purpose at a specific place and time can capture the unique qualities of oral narrations. Please note the absence of spiritual functions in the brief outline, as outsiders who study North American oral narratives, this dimension is beyond our grasp given the brevity and written format of our "secondary" experiences.

• Stories make the world.
• Stories tell us who we are.
• Stories tell us where we are.
• Stories define community and landscape.
• Stories connect the individual to community and landscape.
• Stories are a mingling of breaths, of lives, of identities.
• Stories mingle events, community, place and the individual.
• Stories weave the listeners into a web of continuity and responsibility.
• Stories present an individual's achievements and failings in relation to community and landscape.
• Stories reflect the rhythms of life in landscape.

The following forms are most commonly employed in oral narratives reflect and support the story functions outlined above.

• Stories follow a circular pattern-the circle of life.
• Stories follow a seasonal cycle.
• Stories 'show'-landmarks are significant to the meaning.
• Stories are organic-small details are dropped or added over time.
• Stories are told in different forms by different clans and families.
• Stories follow an additive structure.
• Stories are on going, often part of a larger narrative.
• Stories are often told in a specific season.
• Stories are suggestive, rather than prescriptive.
• A storyteller, not a fictional character, often tells stories.
• Stories often contain multiple 'lessons'.
• Stories reflect wisdom that 'sits in places'.
• Stories often employ a trickster figure, not a heroic figure.