Native American folk stories focus on nature and animals rather than humans, said Lee Osterhout-Kaplan, director and co-founder of Debut Theatre Company, a theater company for young people by young people.
Debut's latest effort, "Coyote: Tales of a Trickster," combines many of those tales from Native American and Mexican folklore.
Also, there's the potential for stereotyping here. I get the impression that all Native cultures are the same and similar to Mexican cultures, according to the Debut Theatre. That all Native stories consist of simple homilies about the sun, moon, and animals. This makes the rich, varied oral traditions of thousands of tribes into kid stuff, on a par with Aesop's fables or Kipling's Just So Stories.
I can only surmise that these people are non- native as they refer to to Indian sacred traditions as "Native American folk stories".
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse
Right. That's part of what I was referring to. A typical Native story has more depth and meaning than "Paul Bunyan" or "Johnny Appleseed."
ReplyDeleteThey seem a little cavalier about mixing stories from different cultures. Perhaps they've even modified or invented tales. If I were them, I'd be more cautious about appropriating Native traditions.
Of course, maybe they did everything right and the reporter didn't report that aspect of it. It's hard to say without investigating further.