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SeveRAL YeARS AGO, my mate Lety told me an old Mayan story about the bitter fruit of gossip. The tale has been passed down for generations in her family, who are Indians of Maya, Olmec, Mixtec, and Popoluca descent. I have since heard the same story (found in this book under the title “The Woman and the Talking Feathers”) in places as seemingly unrelated to ancient Mesoamerica as Ireland, Billy Graham’s pulpit,12 and an old rabbinical story.13 Whispers of the Ancients is a collection of stories for all people, because they are known to people of all cultures and creeds. eminent mythologist Joseph Campbell is renowned for his exhaustive work showing that stories past and present are based on themes common to the human experience.14 Essentially the same stories can be found in nearly all of the world’s diverse and far-flung cultures. Whether in a Bedouin tent, a Navajo hogan, or a movie theater, you’ll hear stories of anger’s curse and the trickster’s wit, of creatures who stalk the night and demons who protect the enchanted farther places. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung identified the source of these stories as the collective unconscious.15 It is known as the Dreaming by Australian Aborigines16 and as the universal mind in popular culture and some academic circles.17 In Whispers of the Ancients you’ll find representations of the major universal story themes, including several never-before published versions, regional Ojibwe forms of origin stories, and a unique variant of the human origin story. Most story descriptions identify the story’s universal theme. A demonstration of the multicultural nature of the stories and the collaborative foundation of the book occurred in June of 2007 when the fifth and sixth graders of Ogden Community School in Thunder Bay, Ontario presented a stage version of “How Bear-Heart-Woman Brought Truth Back Introduction AStoryto InvokeAllStories to the People.” The students, half of whom were Native, and half of whom were non-Native, performed the play six times to over 1000 people in Native and non-Native communities, along with a special presentation to a group of Ojibwe Elders. The play has received nothing but praise from Elders, the public, and the press. Lila Cano, director of Community Arts and Heritage Education Project, which sponsored the play, summed up its spirit with these words: “[The tale] really spoke to me because I think it was a story that everybody needs to learn again—all cultures, all people.” Whispers coauthor Moses (Amik) Beaver, who worked with the multiracial staff as the play’s artistic director, had this to say in a post-performance interview: “To me, kids are like colors. When I teach, I see different kids all the time. There are a lot of colors in this world, [and they are] my inspiration.” There may be no more appropriate way to introduce a story collection than with a story. Here is a classic tale of the hero’s journey—a story theme to invoke all stories. It takes place far to the North in a mystical place where the ice cracks like thunder and Bears* wear coats that look like thick white frost. Whale and Walrus play in the waves, while White Fox and Raven scavenge the beach. There, in a snug stone-and-sod lodge on a rise overlooking the Water, lives an ageless Elder known as Bezhig (Paddles-Alone). Some say he lives by himself; however, he will tell you that he lives with the buffoons, the tricksters, and the heroes in his stories, and that they keep him good company. On many a long winter’s night, the ancient storyteller’s family, who are of the White Bear clan, come to visit him and listen to his tales of the Long-ago. His voice travels like words on the Wind, because like the Wind it sails in from places unknown, fans the fires, and then travels on to find the future. This happens to be one of those storytelling nights, so let us join Bezhig in his lodge. * * * One day before your parents were born, I walked out to the edge of the ice in front of the family Lodge to spear some Fish. I was a young Man with mate and Children, we were nearly out of food, and I was anxious to try out a new lure I had just made. “It’s a lazy day,” I thought to myself when I...

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