Choctaw Traditions : Stories of the Life and Customs of the Mississippi Choctaw

There are thousands of books that record the oral traditions of Native peoples, documenting their myths, legends, folktales, and tribal histories.Yet, there are almost none that pay the same attention to the oral traditions that make up the other 95 percent of Native American storytelling: the personal, familial, humble stories that convey the depth of cultural knowledge, traditional practices, and lived experience of Native peoples today. Choctaw Traditions: Stories of the Life and Customs of the Mississippi Choctaw draws on over 1400 stories from interviews with over one hundred tribal members, past and present, from all of the nine Choctaw communities in Mississippi and Tennessee.This breadth creates a collection of stories capturing the rich detail and complexity of Choctaw customary life.Archival stories offer a glimpse into the past, but the vast majority of the stories were recorded over the past three decades, a collaboration between Choctaw youth, Choctaw elders, Choctaw leade