The Importance of Stories and Storytelling By Georgiana Sanchez A long, long time ago, People all over the earth were given a language. At that time, stories were born. Stories mirror our world. At the same time, they are like rays of sunlight illuminating the dark places so we can see more clearly. As human beings we have an innate need to tell the stories that define our lives. How many times have we called up our friends or family to relate some event we had experienced? It seems that in the telling of the event—what happened, how it affected us, the lessons we learned—we are trying to articulate and make the event more “real” so we can better understand what it all means. In the Native American tradition, stories are sacred and powerful. Leslie Marmon Silko, a Laguna Pueblo woman, one of our great writers and storytellers says, “Stories aren’t just entertainment, don’t be fooled. They are all we have, all we have to fight off sickness and death. We don’t have anything if we don’t have the stories…” Among Native Americans the oral tradition of the tribal community was its most important method of teaching and passing on the sacred and everyday knowledge needed to survive as a people. Among the many diverse Native American nations there is the universal concept that words, stories, shape our perception of reality. We were taught to be careful of what we said, because our words, once spoken, resonate throughout the cosmos, affecting the universe for generations to come. Linguists, Benjamin Whorf and Edward Sapir developed a hypothesis known as “linguistic relativity” that expresses, in a scientific way, what Indigenous Peoples have known since the beginning of time on this earth. Sapir says, “The fact of the matter is that the ‘real’ world is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group…the worlds in which societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.” So, the question we should ask ourselves is—what kind of stories, what kind of language are we using to shape our student’s perception of reality?
16
Several years ago, I was at a conference in
Spokane Washington, where a wonderful woman, Anne Schaef , was asked to be the Keynote Speaker at this gathering of Native American educators and students. She had been asked to comment about what she had written in her book, When Society becomes An Addict. Anne Shaef talked about a system of thought that believes in the “myth of objectivity.” It is a system of thought that says we can remove self from self, remove self from others—that the world can somehow be objectified—and that we are separate from the rest of creation. With this system of thought, everything outside of ourselves—a tree, a bird, a mountain, a person—becomes an object, a thing, that we need to contend with or ignore. She said, “In time, we lose the ability to participate in self and the universe.” Anne Schaef talked about our collective need to get back to the legends, to the sacred stories. I believe that stories are an important way to the mystical knowledge that lies hidden within us and all around us. I always tell stories to my university students at California State University, Long beach. There is a story I tell my students in the opening session of my American Indian Philosophies class. I call it “The Wisdom Story.” Here is a brief summary of the story: Long, long ago, we were all one people. We all spoke the same language, but even in that long-ago-society, there were people with special gifts. Those with good memories were The Keepers of the History; others were The Keepers of the Songs, The Keepers of the Ceremonies, or the Keepers of other special duties. The Keepers of the Wisdom were Elders, men and women, who taught The People how to live life in a Sacred Manner, with respect for all of life. In time, some of The People stopped listening to the Elders or would take only part of the Wisdom stories and twist them around to suit their ideas. The society began to fall apart, people began to argue and vie for power. The Wisdom stories began to be distorted and the way they were being used was dangerous. This troubled the Elders so they decided to take The Wisdom away from the people.
One night, while the people were sleeping, the Elders took The Wisdom away from each and every person and brought the shining energy back to their lodge. They decided to hide The Wisdom and thought of all kinds of places to hide it, but nothing seemed right. Finally, one of the Elders had an idea; this Elder was so old it was difficult to say if it was a man or a woman. (I am positive it was a woman.) This Elder said: “I know where we can hide The Wisdom and they will never think to look for it there.” The Elder started to chuckle. “Tonight, while The People are still sleeping, let’s go back and hide The Wisdom deep inside each and every one. They will never think to look for it there.” And that’s what they did. I am still amazed at how university students react to this story. I tell them I count on the truth of this story, the truth that reminds us that hidden deep inside all people is The Wisdom needed to help us live lives in a good way, in relationship with, and respect for, all of Creation. From the Native American perspective this is living life in a “Sacred manner.” Every time our consciousness is raised, every time we reach an epiphany of understanding, every time our whole being responds to the beauty of a sunset or the sunlight glinting off the ocean, our own Inner Wisdom flares forth and for a moment we know. (continued on page 36)