Well, one thing I try to do with folk tales from other Native traditions than those of the Northeast is to make sure that I have gotten the story right, one. Two, that I acknowledge it properly. Where is it sourced? Where does it come from? Three, that I’m telling a story that people from that tribal nation will appreciate my telling and will not criticize me for doing it, not that there’s not always the possibility of criticism. That could always happen, and I accept that criticism may come. But if by and large it’s accepted and those who have shared the story with me want me to share it, then I feel that I’m doing the right thing.
I know of so many children’s books – in fact, I would say virtually almost every children’s book that is a retelling of a Native American folk tale has been told in the absence of any Native advice, of any living Native input. And that is the one thing I feel is the great mistake because it means that things may be misinterpreted or also that stories may be told that are inappropriate, that are stories that are restricted.
To give you an example, I did – some years ago I helped put together a series at Symphony Space in New York City called “Coyote Walks Around.” It was performances of dance by Native dancers from different tribal traditions interwoven with traditional stories, and I did the storytelling. And the dancers were from various regions of the North American continent.
And in putting each one together I’d work with them. “What should I tell? How should I tell it? When should I tell it? Where should it be told?” And in one case a Cheyenne grass dancer, Mr. White Man, said to me, “I’d like you to tell the story of the grass dance.” I said, “I don’t know it.” He said, “I will teach it to you, but you have to tell it right, and you have to promise me you’ll only tell it when a grass dance is going to be done.” And so I’ve only told that story three times in my life, and it’s always been when a grass dancer has said, “I hear you know the story of the grass dance as we tell it. Could you tell it before I do the dance?” That to me is an example of a very, very real connection between the tradition, the story, and the proper telling of it.