Utilizing Traditional Storytelling to Promote Wellness in American Indian Communities

Abstract

Utilizing storytelling to transmit educational messages is a traditional pedagogical method practiced by many American Indian tribes. American Indian stories are effective because they present essential ideas and values in a simple, entertaining form. Different story characters show positive and negative behaviors. The stories illustrate consequences of behaviors and invite listeners to come to their own conclusions after personal reflection. Because stories have been passed down through tribal communities for generations, listeners also have the opportunity to reconnect and identify with past tribal realities. This article reports on a research intervention that is unique in promoting health and wellness through the use of storytelling. The project utilized stories to help motivate tribal members to once more adopt healthy, traditional lifestyles and practices. The authors present and discuss the stories selected, techniques used in their telling, the preparation and setting for the storytelling, and the involvement and interaction of the group.Four men among the people happened to be standing, one to the east, one to the south, one to the west, and one to the north. The One Who Made the Earth spoke to one of these men, telling him, "Everything on earth has power to cause its own kind of sickness, make its own trouble. There is a way to cure all these things." Now this man understood that knowledge was available. Then those four stood there. On the first night, the one standing on the east side began to chant a set prayer all by himself. On the second night, the one on the south started to drum and sing lightning songs. On the third night, the one on the west chanted a set prayer. On the fourth night, the one on the north began to drum and sing lightning songs. They did not conceive this pattern in their own minds; it was bestowed on them by The One Who Made the Earth. It was as if the knowledge of what they should chant or sing had suddenly been transmitted to them from outside.Then, The One Who Made the Earth said to these four, "Why don't you go to the two sick men and say some words over them and make them well?" So those four went to where the two sick men were and worked over them, and they were cured. From that time on, we had curing ceremonies and knowledge of the different kinds of sickness that may be caused by various things. That is the way all curing ceremonies started. (Erdoes & Ortiz, 1984) This story tells how American Indian curing ceremonies began. It is an origin story emphasizing the concept that for every illness there is a curing ceremony. In addition, it suggests that curing comes from internal knowledge offered to people through a creator. The story emphasizes the value placed on believing in oneself, looking inside oneself for insight, and finding the strength there to cure illness. Knowledge is available in the world; it needs only to be identified, accepted, and utilized. The method of obtaining this knowledge can be found in stories or oral histories passed down through triba...

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