Teaching Stories

Learn About Native Cultures Through Stories

These tools and resources enhance the teaching power of Thomas Doty's stories while serving the needs of teachers and students, alike. They align with Common Core State Standards and Oregon's Senate Bill 13. For centuries, native people have learned about their own cultures through stories. Here, this indigenous tradition continues.

Thomas Doty is an award-winning native storyteller. His Doty & Coyote stories are set in his native homeland of Oregon and northern California. These original narratives include history, traditional myths and cultural knowledge -- some passed to him by native elders who have been his teachers, and some based on decades of research. Thomas Doty lives in southern Oregon where his family has lived for generations.

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All Night Salmon Leap the Falls

Key Cultural Concepts

All Night Salmon Leap the Falls is set along the Rogue River in the Takelma homeland of southwest Oregon.

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Passageway into Mythtime – In a magical walk through the night woods, Doty, Coyote and Lampman enter Mythtime, a Takelma time of ceremony and myth. Time travel is common in native stories and nighttime often provides the passageway that makes it possible. Mythtime is ever-present in the hearts and imaginations of the Takelmas, tightly woven into day-to-day life, and made vivid in dramatic performances of stories that last all night during the winter storytelling season. Ceremonies are perceived to be myths acted out and so they also happen in Mythtime. "Each step is a step out of time and into the depths of nighttime as it has always been." (Page 5).

Taking Care of Each Other – Traditionally, Takelma homes are multi-generational. Everyone is cared for. This concept of caretaking extends to all People: Animal People, Tree People, Rock People.... A long time ago at Ti'lomikh Falls, Salmon People agreed to provide Human People with food. In turn, they would ensure that the salmon species endured. This agreement is renewed and honored yearly at the Sacred Salmon Ceremony. As Lampman begins to tell the story of Salmon Boy, he says, "The stories -- even the tragic ones -- teach us to remember all of our relations and to care for them ... and what can happen if we forget." (Page 8).

Old and New Native Stories – Takelma storytelling is both an ancient and a living art. Myths are kept alive by telling them. Then, as they are created, new stories are added to the mythology. This has been happening for centuries. At the old house, Doty and Coyote find a box of Lampman's writing. Later, at the Sacred Salmon Ceremony, Lampman not only tells the native myth of Salmon Boy, he also shares snatches of his own stories and poems. All Night Salmon Leap the Falls is itself a new native story added to the Takelma basket of folklore. "As the old storyteller stands up and starts to walk away from the story chair, he turns and says, 'Does anyone else want to share a story?'" (Page 8).

Two of Everyone and Everything – In Takelma culture, there are two directions, upriver and downriver. The center of the universe is the two Table Rocks, once giant dragonflies. In All Night Salmon Leap the Falls, dualities abound: Morning Star and Evening Star, two chairs in the old house, two voices in the room, two story chairs at Ti'lomikh, Elder Dragonfly and Younger Dragonfly, Human People and Salmon People, old stories and new stories.... Dualities -- in their sameness and their opposition -- provide stability and balance. "The old man describes how Elder Dragonfly, one of the culture-bringing brothers, pinned the two stars to their present places in the sky and made the salmon free to all the people." (Page 7).

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Sacred Salmon Ceremony – Background on the Takelma ceremony, including concepts of duality and reciprocity, and much more.

Sacred Salmon Ceremony (Videos) – Takelma elder Agnes Baker Pilgrim and storyteller Thomas Doty talking about the Sacred Salmon Ceremony.

Ti'lomikh - Native Village – Detailed description and history of the centuries-old home of the Sacred Salmon Ceremony. Includes photos and sources.

Agnes Baker Pilgrim - Takelma – For many years, Grandma Aggie was Keeper of the Sacred Salmon Ceremony. This page has a biography with photos, descriptions of Aggie's work around the world, and links to audio and video interviews.

Our Takelma World – In this audio recording, Thomas Doty describes the Takelma view of The Great Animal that is the World. The Rogue River is its lifeblood.

The Oracle of Gold Hill – The character of Lampman is based on Ben Hur Lampman, a poet who lived along the Rogue River near Ti'lomikh.

Making the Salmon Place – An essay about Ti'lomikh, from Mythtime to now.

Sacred Trust – An Old Time agreement with the Salmon People.

The Duality of Daldal – In Takelma mythology, Daldal (Dragonfly) has a split personality.

Two Stone Chairs – At the Rogue River site of the Sacred Salmon Ceremony.

Raven Steals Salmon ... Again – At the 2007 Sacred salmon Ceremony along the Rogue River.

Sources – Many of the sources Doty has used in his writing and performances are here. There are over 250 free PDFs of accurate materials dating back into the 1800s.

Index – All Titles – Here are links to over 300 stories, poems and essays by Thomas Doty. This Index has a description of each, or if you know what you're looking for, you can Search Doty's Writing.

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Go Gather Seeds and Eat Them

Key Cultural Concepts

Go Gather Seeds and Eat Them is set in Ashland, Oregon and in the nearby Siskiyou Mountains. Though this territory is seasonally shared between the Takelmas and Shastas, this story focuses on Takelma culture.

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A Balanced Homeland for All People – In Takelma world view, Rock People are as important as Human People or Tree People or Animal People. Balance is maintained by People participating rather than intruding, conserving rather than taking too much, by sharing rather than hoarding. But sometimes things go wrong. In the Panther and the Deer story, Panther and Wildcat get greedy and wasteful in their hunting and tip the balance. The story reminds the Takelmas to take only what they need so all of the People in their homeland live well. "Through the rest of the winter, Panther and Wildcat hunted together. They killed only what they needed and wasted no meat. They had plenty of food, but never too much." (Page 11).

Rich Stories and Good Food – In Takelma culture, there is an ancient connection between stories and food. Both keep the People healthy. At the end of a storytelling, the teller says, "Gweldi. Baybit' lep'lap. Finished! Go gather seeds and eat them." Winter storytelling and seasonal food gathering are integral parts of the annual life cycle, and has been for thousands of years. In the story the woodcarver tells, the woman's food basket is half-full to leave room for her story. And later, a young girl places the woodcarver's carving -- a symbol of his story -- into a shopping bag. "Her mother explained it to her when she was a child. 'After being fed the lessons of the stories, it's time to eat food. Each is a kind of nourishment, and we need both to live.'" (Page 7).

At the Village of the Digging Stick Women – Traditional Takelma culture is matriarchal. The women are in charge! While both men and women pass cultural teachings to their sons and daughters, wisdom and knowledge of stories and food is passed mostly through generations of women. As Doty and Coyote travel into the mountains with the young man and woman, it is the woman who knows the way. It is the woman who finds the home of the Digging Stick Women where she meets Gwisgwashan, the Keeper of Stories, and Acorn Woman, one of several medicine women associated with food. "In this hidden place, the Digging Stick Women protect an ancient wisdom. The way here is a journey toward a knowledge of abundance." (Page 7).

A Good Place to Live – The story begins and ends at the Food Co-op in Ashland, Oregon. Not unlike the Takelma village that once stood there, the Co-op is a social hub, brimming with friends and food and stories. There are paths that lead to houses, and others that follow old Indian trails into the Siskiyou Mountains, and there are several sources of sweet water. A good place to live is exactly that, no matter the century or the culture. Each Takelma village had at least one storyteller -- sometimes several -- and the Co-op is no different. "I gaze toward the old village site and try out the first words of a new story. 'People have always lived here....'" (Page 11).

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The Truths of Trees

Key Cultural Concepts

The Truths of Trees is set in Doty's mountain home in southern Oregon and in the redwood groves of the northern California coast. While the story draws most of its cultural ideas from Tolowa, Tututni and Chilula traditions, many of these concepts are universal among all native people of the region.

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An Ancient Race of One-Leggeds – "The Tree People are our relations," says the storyteller. They are often called by their nickname, The One-Leggeds. Trees provide food and medicine, shelter and warmth. In The Truths of Trees, Tommy and Tippy take refuge in a giant redwood where they discover a medicine that cures the world's sickness. To native people, ancient groves of Tree People are filled with mystery and holiness. They inspired the Old Ones to create the first myths from a time when Tree People and Human People were growing up together. These stories dramatized cultural truths, and still do. "In Old English the word for tree and truth is the same word: treow. We desire our truths to be steadfast and deeply rooted, and outlast centuries." (Page 3).

Monsters In the Depths – Native stories are filled with monsters. In The Truths of Trees, Coyote tells Doty about "giant serpents who nap in the lakes and use submerged redwoods for pillows, and monsters and dark ghosts who give you humans the willies...." (Page 10). Coyote tells the story of a how four brothers fought the two-headed monster that tore up the woods. In native cultures, monsters in the stories are often symbols for the monsters Human People face within themselves. Coyote taunts Doty to face his fear by visiting the battlefield and confronting the monster ... the clearcut. He points out, "Monsters are never far away." (Page 8).

Within the Forest – The redwoods are a misty world of distinct weather patterns and plant life, of rich qualities of filtered light, subtle seasons and deep silence. The native people view each grove as a village filled with their Tree People relatives. Together they evolved into complex cultures. Stories were everywhere ... in the language of the forest landscape and told in the winter lodges. This changed with the arrival of Europeans. The traditional lifeways of the redwoods and the native people are continually threatened. Yet the knowledge contained in millennia of stories gives hope to both cultures. "Though the stories are fractured, there are whispers of monologues that rise out of stumps and dialogues that speak through heaps of broken branches." (Page 10).

Wake Up! – In native cultures, most prophecies are not predictions. They are warnings. When the world gets out of balance, stories are created that say, "Wake up! The world isn't right! And you can do something about it." In The Truths of Trees, Coyote's urging that Doty confront the clearcut is a kind of subtle prophecy, a little wake-up warning. But Minnie Reeves, a 102 year old Chilula elder, tells us emphatically what can happen if we don't take care of the trees. "The redwood trees have a lot of power: they are the tallest, live the longest, and are the most beautiful trees in the world. Destroy these trees and you destroy the Creator's love. And if you destroy that which the Creator loves so much, you will eventually destroy mankind." (Page 10).

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