Tales From the Longhouse - Native American Winter Storytelling Festival

please join me in giving a very warm welcome to mr. Perry ground all right oh thank you so much thank you so much very nice thank you so much and thank you to the National Museum of the American Indian for inviting me back here to come and share some stories with you again I was loved to come down to this museum and share my stories just in case any of you don't know this this museum is part of the Smithsonian Institute which of course made up of 19 different museums and not only is there this building that is part of the National Museum of the American Indian but there is another facility up in New York City where they have exhibits and programs as well so if you're ever in New York City you'd like to learn more about Native Americans you can visit the sister facility up there if you turn in wave at the camera we'll say hello to everyone watching us on their web site NMAI ASI edu and like Vinnie was just saying if you'd ever like to see more about the storytelling or if there's parts that you don't see today you can go to the website and some of this material is being archived so you can either see it again or see it for the first time one or the other okay all right my name is perry ground and i am a turtle clan member of the Onondaga Nation and the Onondagas are part of a larger group of people that join together about 1,000 years ago and today most people know us by a name that was given to us not the name that we have for ourselves most people know us by the name Iroquois or Iroquois how many people have heard this word before Iroquois lots of hands go up yeah well the Iroquois lots of people get confused they think that it is just one tribe but that's not true the Iroquois are really a union or a confederacy of originally five tribes that join together later on we added another one so today we have six tribes that are part of our union and these six tribes include the mohawk the Oneida the Onondaga which is where I come from the kyrgyz and the Senecas which is where my dad comes from have we heard any of those names before how many people some of those names okay there's more hands yeah well most people call us the Iroquois or Iroquois and that name comes to us from another group of Native Americans that spoke a completely different kind of language usually today we call them Algonquin and those Algonquin people they called us in their language Eirik walk here AK walk and in their language that word means rattlesnake people rattlesnake people because a long time ago we didn't get along with them very well so they called us snake people so when you call us Iroquois or Iroquois like the english-speaking people say you are calling us snake people not a very nice name to call us in our own languages we call ourselves ho Dino Sony ho Dino Sony which in English translates to the people who built the longhouse or sometimes we just say people of the longhouse and that call ourselves much better than being a snake person don't you think yeah much better than that okay so the stories that I want to share with you today come from the people who built the longhouse that collection of originally five tribes and then when the Tuscaroras came and joined us at six tribe we included some of their stories in the ones that we would tell so these two come from all of the people of the longhouse so let's have a story the first story that I want to tell you today is a very very fun story to tell it's actually one of the very first stories that I ever learned to tell years ago and it's about two animals that live in the forest so we have to know what these animals look like okay so the first animal we're going to learn a little bit about is the Apple does everyone know what an owl looks like yeah this I will have little squinty eyes or does he have big round eyes which one yeah he's got big round eyes big round eyes sometimes we call this Howell got big eyes now another animal that we're going to learn about is the rabbit does everyone know what a rabbit looks like yeah does it a bit have little short ears or big long ears which one yeah big long ears you got it yeah sometimes we call this how rabbit got long ears so let's have this story about the owl and the rabbit well we say this story happened a long long time ago back when the great turtle island was brand-new and that is what ho dinos only people call this place that we live on we call it great Turtle Island well back when the great turtle island was new suck we Indies Oh which is our word for God or the Creator sock Rio deso came down onto the Turtle Island and he was looking around at all of the beautiful things that were here but as he was looking around at these beautiful things he got a thought up in his mind and he thought you know these animals they did not have the choice of how they wanted to look maybe someone wanted a longer nose maybe someone wanted a shorter nose maybe someone wanted big muscles well whatever it might be he decided to give them that choice and he said about the Turtle Island changing the animals too however they wanted to look now imagine if you had the choice of how you could look forever that would be pretty exciting don't you think oh yeah and animals that live in the forest oh they love to talk to one another and word of this changing it got around the forest very quickly and the animals became very excited many of them gathered together in a big clearing in the forest Socrates oh the Creator he came into that clearing who he saw all the animals there and he knew there would be a lot of changing that day so he bent down and he picked up the little rabbit to get started with her and he stroked mrs. rabbit from the top of her head right by her little short ears all the way down to her bushy tail rabbit loves it when you do that to her mrs. rabbit said the creator how is it that I can change you how is it that you would like to look oh well rabbit gets to thinking about this this is a big decision how does she want rabbits to look forever and while she is thinking about it there is someone up in a nearby tree branch and he knew how he wanted to look so he called out so will Dino creator over here over here over here oh and I know how I want to look I want huge powerful wings like the eagle has so I can go up very high in the sky but I would also like to have a long and beautiful neck so I can look around and see everything going on around me well the Creator is holding on to that rabbit and he turned over to the owl and he said no owl it's good that you know how you want to look but you need to wait your turn rabbit is getting changed first I'll change you next Oh the hollow was excited to hear that he was going to get changed next well just send the little rabbit turns up her face and she looks up at the creator and she says I know how it is that I would like to look I have four short stubby little legs I cannot run very quickly whooping coyote are always nipping at my tail trying to eat me up for dinner I would like nice long legs like the deer has then I could run quickly stay away from wolf and coyote Oh rabbit that's very wise of you said the creator and I can do that No and then he turned to all of the other animals that were there and he said I need you all to close your eyes come up your faces turn your heads away I'm using very special magic no one is allowed to look so all those animals they tuck their faces away and they closed up their eyes all except for one it was that owl up in the tree he knew he was going to be changed next and he wanted to see what was going on so that all oh he made a big show of putting his wings up over his eyes and then he spread out his wing feathers so he could peek through to see what was happening well uh community so he thought all the animals had turned their faces away so he grabbed ahold of that rabbit right by the top of her head right by her little short ears and then he reached around and he grabbed on to her little short back legs don't be afraid mrs. rabbit this isn't going to hurt you he said gathered in all of his magic he started to pull and he was pulling and pulling and pulling and those legs started to get longer and longer and longer just like the rabbit wanted but we know that when we pull on one end of something we're pulling on the other end also and suck we know Diesel was holding on to the rabbits ears and all of a sudden they started to stretch out that they were getting longer and longer and longer oh oh by look at this left the Creator rabbit is getting long and floppy ears oh I'll have to push those back in before I'm done rabbit wants a long legs not long ears well he's pulling and pulling and pulling and those wigs are getting longer and longer and those ears are getting longer and longer when all of a sudden he gets the feeling that someone is looking at him have you ever had that feeling that someone is watching you and you look around to see who's there oh some your diesel looked around and what did he see but all up in the tree peeking through oh that I will try to cover up like he hadn't done it but the Creator had seen him and he was very angry oh he was so angry he dropped down that rabbit and he runs up oh are you looking at me and he got right up into the Owls face and just like our young friend here oh I will became very afraid and his eyes got big with fright and because the Creator had all of his magic gathered in Owls eyes got stucked that way and he has big round scared looking eyes right to this day oh but suffering a diesel he's angry so he grabbed ahold of that hour he plucked him out of the tree he gave him a shakin she pushed his head right down into his shoulders and he's a tall as a punishment for what you've done instead of a long beautiful neck now you'll have no neck and as I'll have any neck right to this day oh no but then inter said oh oh I'm so angry with you I want you to fly away I don't want to see your face anymore so the owl flew off and he started to live in dark places like caves or hollow trees maybe today in barns he only comes out at night doesn't want anyone to see his face but now suck we don't need his Oh turns around to finish stretching out the little rabbit but when he turned she was gone all the animals were gone when he had yell there was louder than thunder they had all become frightened and run away even the rabbit even though she wasn't done getting stretched out he looked all around for her but she was way down in her burrow and she would not come out so he decided all of the animals will have to stay the way that they are I can't take the chance of anyone looking at by magic and that's why to this day rabbit has little short stubby front legs and long stretched out back legs just to hop all around it's also why rabbit has long and floppy ears because she ran away before the creator could tuck them back in and I will say to you Donahoe when you hear me say donning all that means I am done or those are my words it's like the end Donoho that story is done oh thank you thank you so much thank all right Fanta we didn't scare you too much did we no you see and never know what's going to happen when their storytelling when all of a sudden the storyteller might come flying into the audience I was going to run up to the people that were just coming in but I was afraid they'd turn around and go right back out so I thought I'd better not do that one this guy seems like he's pretty settled in right there so yeah and last year actually I was telling a different story about a bear and he was running around and he goes running and it's very slippery up here and I start to slide and I kept sliding and kept sliding and I was like I think I'm going to end up on these people over here fortunately I caught myself toes hanging right off the edge but it was a closed thing so that time I came down on purpose okay all right so he never know what could happen when you're telling stories and actually we got a little microphone twisted on there we go one time I was telling that story I was out in Ohio and I was telling that story at a festival and it was a young boy and he was playing on some hay bales that were close by and he was listening sort of half paying attention half not paying attention and when I got to that part of the story I went rushing up to him over on those hay bales and he turned at me and he looked like this and about one second after that he was about a hundred yards down the festival I don't think his feet hit the ground for quite aways he was gone and I'm yelling stop come back it's okay he kept going and Festival had probably about five hundred yards to the end of it he didn't stop until he got to the end so he got in quite a workout that day I guess never know what can happen when you're telling these stories okay all right so again for those of you just joining us my name is perry ground turtle clan member of the Onondaga Nation and these stories come to us from upstate New York and so when we think about sharing our stories we have people today from a bunch of different parts country I'm from upstate New York thurzo who will be up here with me later at three o'clock and maybe you saw her earlier at 11:00 she is from Minnesota and sort of the Great Lakes area and is part o Jib way sharing stories from that tradition as well and Jean who is out in the atrium just a bit ago is from Alaska and so you're hearing stories from all these different parts of the country and some of the stories are very very different but I think something that's important to know is that all of these Native people are telling stories that's something that's the same about all of us every place I go all around this whole country whenever I meet Native American people one of the first things they want to do is they want to share with me one of their stories and I love to sit down and listen to them so I think that that is something fantastic that we all have in common is the way that we like to share our stories these stories that we have inside of us that oh they just want to come out and we just love to share them so I'm happy to be here sharing these stories with you from the people of the longhouse as you go around the museum today you're going to see all kinds of artwork and artwork is another way for us to share our stories if you've been around you might even have seen one of these already right here in my hand I have what we call a wampum belt wampum belt and wampum these little bee kids in purple and white are made from the shell of the Quogue clam and the quoi hog is a clam that lives in the atlantic ocean so knowing that the Haudenosaunee people where I come from live in upstate New York you would know that we didn't live next to the ocean so the only way that we could get these clam shells was to go to the ocean and trade with the Native American people that lived there and so we would get these clam shells from them we also got stories and songs and dances and all kinds of things from them but here's one thing we got and then when we would take them home we'd string the clam shells together to make belts and these wampum belts are not something that we wear this down here is a belt it holds up my pants that's what that belts for this belt over here is a belt to tell a story and each wampum belt has a pattern or a picture in it that we would use to tell a story or to convey a message this belt right here is a treaty belt a treaty that we made with the Dutch people in the year 1634 and it was the very first treaty made between hojin Oh Sony people and people that had come across the ocean and the Dutch people asked us if they could live here with us and we said yes this river will be for you and you can have all of your things in it your boats your clothes else your language your religion your government all of your ways of life your doughnuts because the Dutch people brought doughnuts here when they came across the ocean this other river will be for the Haudenosaunee people and we will travel in our canoe in that river and we'll have all of our things we'll have our language our songs our stories our religion our government all of our ways of living and that the two rivers would never interfere with one another they will travel next to each other in parallel so what this treaty was all about was about peaceful coexistence between two very different cultures of people the Dutch people and the Haudenosaunee and that we could live next to each other and share the things that we have with each other because one of the things we said in this treaty was that if someone wanted to step from one river over to the other and get something from the other group of people or learn about the other group of people because believe me I love Donuts okay we could step over to that other River and we could get those things and then we could step back to our own River I will always be on a dog no matter how many Donuts I eat okay I'll never be a Dutch person but we can always learn those things from each other and we can step back and forth from one river to the other so the idea was to share but to exist peacefully coexist peacefully with each other that's right here in this wampum belt so that's a story belt right there okay we have lots of wampum belts that tell our stories like the ones that I'm sharing with you today and I got another story that I want to tell you right now that is a very very fun story to tell but what a lot of our stories do for us is that they teach us lessons about the proper way to behave should that owl have waited his turn yeah he sure should have otherwise he wouldn't have ended up with no neck we don't want to end up with no neck do we know so we'll wait our turn yeah unlike that owl so we can learn those lessons in our stories like that this story I want to tell you right now is a lesson story yeah well he's got big eyes yeah we have another story that we tell about dolls if you go upstairs on the third floor you'll see some big cases and you'll see some dolls made by Seneca people like I said that's where my dad is from the Seneca people make their dolls with no face and we make those dolls that way because of a story that we tell about the no face doll absolutely so you can learn about that upstairs in the museum we got all kinds of stories that explain those things and explain things in the world around us did you ever wonder why rabbit had long ears well now you know they got stretched out okay all right so I want to tell you a story about some birds right about some birds and who can tell me what is something that birds like to do yeah well you I don't know as she's gotten used to her long years I think yep she's accustomed to them yep how about some birds Oh what do birds like to do they like to fly that's one thing anything else that birds like to do they like to eat fish and eat worms anything else that birds like to do how about they do hatch eggs but what's something else that birds like to do I'm giving you a hint they like to sing yeah birds love to sing but a long long time ago the birds didn't know how to sing they could only talk like we do so I want to tell you a story about how the birds learned how to sing let's have this story who we say this story happened a long long time ago back when the great Turtle Island was brand-new and back at this time soap Rio diesel came down onto the Turtle Island and he was looking around at all of the beautiful things that were here but Elsa Queenie's oh the creator was looking around at these beautiful things elder brothers the Sun was starting to poke his head up over the eastern horizon and as elder brother the Sun was poking his head up sorry Oh diesel heard a man come out of his longhouse and he faced off to the east and he lifted up his voice in a beautiful beautiful song it was the morning song and he was saying thank you to his elder brother for coming up and shining his light down on the Turtle Island making us all warm and letting life come forth on this world oh that made the Creator very happy to hear the man sing that song but as he was sitting and listening to the man sing he noticed that in the trees all around this village there were hundreds and hundreds of birds and they had come to listen also and they were straining their ears to hear the man sing that song well suck we know diesel looked around all day and after a time had gone by elder brother started to go down in the West and he was laying down to go to sleep for the night and once again some oil diesel heard that man come out of his longhouse and he faced off to the west and he lifted up his voice in another beautiful song it was the evening song he was saying thank you to the Sun for doing his job that day and asking him to come up again tomorrow we still sing those songs right to this day but again suck we do saw hundreds and hundreds of birds in the trees around the village and it was then that he realized something was missing from the forest the birds did not know how to sing they could only talk like we do so this gave him a good idea Sabri Oh deeds oh he called all those birds together in a big council and when everyone had gotten together he stood up on the council Rock and he said all of your bards listen to me I have seen you listening to the human beings sing their songs would all of you like to be able to sing like the people do yoga birds we would love to be able to sing and this made the Creator very happy that the birds wanted to sing those songs of Thanksgiving oh so he said to all of them tomorrow morning when elder brother pokes his head up over the horizon I want all of you to lift off into the sky jump up as high as you can flap your wings as high as you can go and when you can go no higher turn and glide back down to the Turtle Island on your way down you will hear a song in your ears listen to it remember it because that will be your song you will sing it until all the end of all the days all the birds they were overjoyed to hear this they were each going to get their own song but then some yuneisia said something else to make sure they would go up as high as they could go he said whichever one of you goes the highest into the sky you will get the best song all of us were very very excited to hear this and then he left them to make their preparations oh the birds were all talking about how great their songs were going to be and how high up they were going to go but there was one bird that was excited most of all and his name was eagle an eagle is a tall bird that has very very big wings his wings go apart at least 6 feet like my arms do and that eagle was sure that he was going to go up the highest he was so sure that he was going to go the height that he unfold his wings he puffed out his chest and he started to stomp around and strut around now I'm going to go the highest he would say I'm going to get the best song look at these powerful wings they will carry me up very high look at you little Robin with your little wings oh no match for my powerful wings and you little sparrow all those wings won't take you anywhere my wings are much better than yours and he was making everyone feel very bad inside well there was one bird that felt bad most of all a little small bird only like this tall wings only go this far apart and his name is thrush and that little thrush with his little tiny wings he looked up at the eagle and his big powerful wings and he thought there is no way I can go up that high and he felt very bad but the next time that Eagle came walking around bragging and boasting about how high he was going to go the thrush saw that there was a little pocket of feathers right under the Eagles wing and that thrush thought to himself you know Eagle is so busy bragging and boasting that if I jumped right up under there he wouldn't even notice me and I'm so small I bet he would carry me right up into the sky sure enough the next time that Eagle came walking around waving his wings talking about how high he was going to go thrush jumped right up under there he tucked himself in and he got himself nice and comfortable eagle was so busy going on about how big he was he never even noticed that thrush he got himself so comfortable in there he put his head down he fell asleep well after some time had gone by the birds noticed that the sky in the east it was starting to get bright elder brother was getting ready to come up for the day and everyone was very excited oh they started stretching themselves out and getting themselves ready and flexing their wings and all of a sudden they heard the man come out of his longhouse he lifted up his voice in that beautiful morning song and they got more excited and just then but the Sun poked his hand up over the hills and the buzz jumped up into the air as high as they could go they started to flap the wings as hard as fast as they could and up and up and up all the birds went hundreds of birds so many birds it looked like it was nighttime again covered the whole sky now there are some birds that can't fly up into the sky very high some birds like the chicken can't go up very high so that little chicken went up a little ways and came right back down and that chicken got that kind of kind of song is that a very beautiful song it is to the chicken another bird they can't go up very high mr. turkey went up a little ways and he can't go up high she started to come back down and that turkey got that kind of kind of song is that a very beautiful song it is to the turkey yeah yeah and all the other birds started to come down soon the sparrow came down and the Finch in the hummingbird and the duck in the goose and all the birds of the forest came down until soon there were only two birds left up in the air it was the hawk and that great eagle oh they were straining their wings as hard as they could but soon ha Hawk could go no higher and so he turned and started to glide back down to the Turtle Island and as he was coming down he heard a very powerful song in his ears it's the song that he sings right to this day but now it's just the eagle up in the air and he's flapping his wings and he starts to brag and boast to himself I know what he said I knew I could go the highest I'm going to get the best song and he flapped his wings even more but soon even the Eagle ah could go no higher so he turned and started to glide back down to the Turtle Island on his way down he heard the wind in the clouds rushing by his ears oh it mixed together to make a very powerful song and that Eagle sings that song right to this day but there was somebody else that heard that song too it was that little thrush up under the Eagles wing oh he heard that song and it woke him up and he looked out from under the Eagles wing and he said Oh almost missed this contest I have to fly up into the air so he jumped out from under the eagle wings and he flapped his wings even more and he went up even higher the Eagle saw oh gosh what are you doing how did you get up here into the air and that thrush turned and said hey mr. eagle thanks for the ride now I'm gonna go higher and I'm going to get the best song and he turned and flew up even higher oh that ego he was very angry but he was too tired to chase after the thrush so he went back down to the Turtle Island and he told all the other birds what thrush had done well thrush is going up and up and up and soon he comes to the top of the SkyDome that blue dome that's up above us and he finds a little hole in the sky dome he decided to fly through that hole and when he did he came in to the sky world or the spirit world it's kind of the Haudenosaunee people's idea of heaven well when he flew into that world he listened and he heard the sky people singing their songs he heard the wind going through the trees he heard the grasses rustling back and forth the water going through the brooks it all mingled together to make beautiful music that will be my song said the thrush he listened to it he remembered it and then he flew back down through that hole and he went all the way back down to the Turtle Island when he got back down he stood up on top of the council Rock and he said all of you Barnes listen to me I went up the highest I got the best song let me sing it for you but all of those birds they were looking at the thrush very crossly and they said now thrush Eagle came down and told us what you did how you cheated to go up and get the best song so we don't want to hear you sing at all that thrush she started to feel bad inside he knew he had done something wrong he tried to defend himself and he said eagle he was bragging and boasting he was making us all feel very bad I wanted to show him that someone could go up even higher well the birds they got to thinking about this and they had a little council and then they came back to that thrush and they said now thrush what you say is true eagle was bragging and boasting he should not have done that but what you did was even worse you cheated to win a special prize and because you cheated we don't want to hear your song at all oh that thrush he felt very bad inside he felt so bad he flew off into the forest and he found some very thick bushes he crawled under those bushes and that's where he built his nest that's where that thrush lives right to this day and he hardly ever comes out so today we call him hermit thrush but every once in a while hermit thrush he comes out and he lifts up his voice and he sings the most beautiful song that you could ever imagine oh all the other birds they stopped singing because they know that thrush he has the best song but whenever we hear the hermit thrush sing that song we are always reminded of the lesson that we can learn about how he cheated to get that special price and I'll say Donoho that story is done all right oh thank you so much how are we doing movie we got a hustle hustle okay all right thank you all right I get a little bit of a workout up here when I tell my stories this way but I think what we're going to do is we're going to try to take we have time we got time for one more a short one okay we got a hustle hustle hustle okay all right let's have one more story let's have one more story and I think the story that I want to tell you right now try to think of a quick one to tell you I'm going to tell you a very very short version of a very fun story to tell and some of our stories among the whole you know Sony that we tell are very very long we have one story about how the whole world got created and that one takes three days to tell the whole thing we have another story that talks about how we joined ourselves together in this union well that one takes ten days to tell the whole thing some guys are a little slow and it takes them 12 days to tell the whole story we want to hurry those guys up a little bit so we have lots of these long long stories but they teach us so many important things they teach us about our history they teach us about these lessons about the proper to way to behave which one is worse cheating or bragging and boasting cheating is work they're both bad but cheating is even worse just like we learned in that story so we can learn about values and beliefs that we have like in that story we just heard ok but one other thing that stories do is they teach us about nature now let me ask you this question who knows what a black bear looks like anyone know what a black bear looks like yeah does the black bear have a big long tail or a little short tail he's got a little short tail this is how the black bear got that little short tail blistery happened a long long time ago back when the great turtle island was brand-new and back at this time there was an animal that lived in the forest that had a very long very shiny very puffy very beautiful tail and his name was black bear whoa that black bear loved tail more than almost anything else in the whole world and he loved to stomp around and strut around and wave that tail up in the air and he would say everyone come on and look at my tail oh it's the best around and he would wave that tail up in the air for everyone to see oh the other animals they hated to hear the black bear say these things but everyone was jealous also because everyone had to admit that black bear had the best tail well that bear he loved his tail so much he loved to stomp around and strut around and make fun of all the other animals look at you mr. beaver with your mashed-up tail ah ha ha ha my tail is so much better than yours and you little raccoon Oh what the funny stripes on your tail my tail is much better than yours oh he would make everyone feel very bad inside now there was one guy who felt bad most of all and his name was Fox Fox also has a long shiny puffy very beautiful tail and Fox thought to himself you know if black bear didn't have his tail then I would have the best tail in the whole forest and Fox is a very tricky kind of guy you got to be careful when you're around him he'll make mischief for you if you're not careful well one day the Fox was sitting next to a pond of water and it was wintertime so that pond was frozen over with ice when all of a sudden he heard that white bear crashing through the forest coming down to the pond talking about his wonderful tale and who that just burned the Fox right up so he got one of these tricky Fox ideas up in his head he quick ran out on to the center of that pond and he bent down and he cut a hole into the ice he took his pouch and he took some dried corn and sprinkled it down into the hole all the fish that were down below they came up to get something to eat and so he bent down and he scooped a couple of them out he made a little pile right on the ice right next to the hole just then the bear came to the edge of the pond came crashing through the bushes so as fast as he could the Fox he sat down onto the ice but he curled his tail up under him so it wouldn't fall into the water oh hello oh there hello there mr. Fox said the black bear um what are you doing with those delicious-looking for fish because fish is one of their favorite foods well that Fox he's sitting there he puts on kind of a sad face sad boy see he looks around Oh huh good day to you mr. black Bell I'm just sitting here trying to catch some fish but but my tail is not very beautiful it does not make a good fishing line I'm afraid I'm going to be hungry later oh wow that bear his ears they poked right up someone was talking about fish hmm someone was talking about tails Oh so he says Oh mr. Fox I have a beautiful tail best in the whole forest maybe my tail would be a good fishing line and this is just what the tricky Fox wanted to hear so he jumped up and just boom mr. bear that's a good idea come on out here and I'll show you what to do oh that bear he thinks he's going to get some fish so he jumps himself up and he goes running out onto that pond and he gets out there then he looks down and he sees the fish or his belly starts to rumble the Fox is now mr. bear you got to sit down right here on the ice right next to the hole take that big beautiful tail stick it down in the water when the fish eat don't think that it's food they'll bite onto the end and then you jump up and pull them out and then we'll have a great feast oh I don't know mr. Fox said the bear that water looks really really cold well that's the only way I know how to catch fish said the Fox telling a fib and there was only one thing in the whole world that bear loved more than his tail and that was a belly full of fish so he says okay mr. Fox we'll catch these fish together so he goes over to that hole and he fits himself down on the ice and he grits his teeth and he fix his tail down in the water and he's sitting there sitting there sitting there waiting for the fish but do you think any fish ever come no not with his tail down in the water so the Fox he runs around and gets behind the bear and he stands there for a while and he stands there for a while he knows there's no way that silly bear is going to catch any fish with his tail in the water so he gathers up the fish that he already caught and he sneaks away into the forest he takes them back to his own den and he roasts them up and bakes a wonderful meal for himself oh he gets a full belly belly is so full that he lays down and he goes to sleep he sleeps all night long that night in the forest there's a big storm a lot of snow comes down and it gets to be very cold the next morning when Fox wakes up he pokes his head up out of his den he looks around at all the new snow and he thinks well I wonder if that bear is still sitting on the ice and he decides to go and check he goes walking down to the pond like a fox will do he pokes his head up through the bushes and when he looks out he sees a huge mound of snow and from underneath he hears a great snoring sound so he knows that bear has fallen asleep but then he sees something else something that gives him another tricky idea that hole in the ice frozen up again and bear's tail is still down in the water so now as quietly as he can the Fox sneaks out onto the ice and he gets up behind the bear and then as loud as he can he yells now bear now there the fish jump up jump up jump up and that bear is sitting there he wakes up with a circle offici says I got to get up and he knocks all the snow off and he keeps himself up and he feels a great pauline on his tail I must have a giant fish he says oh he start pulling oh he's but finally he falls forward he spins around to see what kind of fish he caught but do you think he sees any fish oh no all he sees is his tail wagging up at him out of the ice that bear had pulled so hard his tail had come right off he spins around to see what's left and all he has is a little tiny stub oho that fox he's laughing and rolling around and holding his belly oho too bad for you mr. black bear now I have the best tail in the whole forest and the Fox ran off to tell everybody what happened oh that bear he was so sad he grabbed ahold of his tail oh but he couldn't pull it out of the ice it was stuck in he was so sad he lumbered off into the forest and he went and he found a cave he crawled into that cave and laid down there and he was so sad that he went to sleep and he slept all winter long and now whenever the black bear sees snow come down he sees ice on the ponds he goes and gets into that cave he stays there all winter he doesn't want to take the chance of losing the little piece of tail that he has left Donoho that story oh thank you so much thank thank you so much that is all the time that we have for stories right now I do hope that you enjoyed them I hope you enjoyed them at home also everybody wave goodbye to the people watching out over there you go fantastic if you like these stories come on back we got I think at 2:30 no three o'clock were in here and then 331 crazy Raven will be out in the atrium so if you're still around be sure to watch him also thanks so much for coming and go the rest of your day [Applause]

Channel: Smithsonian

Views: 78,554

Rating: 4.8425198 out of 5

Keywords: Native, American, Storytelling, Folktales, National, Museum, of, the, Indian

Id: _UbmB6HG1yg

Length: 47min 53sec (2873 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 23 2010