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Traditional Folktales in the Classroom

The Oral Tradition, Folk Stories,
Writing Resources, Folktale Collections,
Story Arts, Fakelore
and Processed Folk

Cowboy and Cowgirl Stories, Black Cowboys, Black Seminole Indians
Folk Heros, E-books

THE ORAL TRADITION

Historians are great at telling linear stories and written narratives that have a specific point of view, and an agenda. Historians try to define a moment in time with a certain set of facts while they leave out others. Now with the advent of web 2.0 pictures might prove to be history's next frontier. The Internet uses pictures to show off the natural social process that history actually is.

What historians really do. "History in the archives is not rational inquiry," he writes, "and it is seldom disinterested. It is disorganized, messy, and obsessive, much like junk-road scavenging . . . We are suspicious of other people's narratives, but we always assemble our own stories out of the flotsam and jetsam we find." ~ Nelson

Legend scholars and other folklorists need to comment of comedian Stephen Colbert's concept of "truthiness".

RESOURCES

The Fairy Tales That Predate Christianity

Using techniques from evolutionary biology, scientists have traced folk stories back to the Bronze Age. Stories evolve. As they are told and retold to new audiences, they accumulate changes in plot, characters, and settings. They behave a lot like living organisms, which build up mutations in the genes that they pass to successive generations. This is more than a metaphor. It means that scientists can reconstruct the relationships between versions of a story using the same tools that evolutionary biologists use to study species. They can compare different versions of the same tale and draw family trees—phylogenies—that unite them. They can even reconstruct the last common ancestor of a group of stories.
“Most people would assume that folktales are rapidly changing and easily exchanged between social groups,” says Simon Greenhill from the Australian National University. “But this shows that many tales are actually surprisingly stable over time and seem to track population history well.” Similarly, a recent study found that flood “myths” among Aboriginal Australians can be traced back to real sea level rises 7,000 years ago.
Many of the Tales of Magic were similarly ancient, as the Grimms suggested. Beauty and the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin were first written down in the 17th and 18th centuries respectively, but they are actually between 2,500 and 6,000 years old—not quite tales as old as time, but perhaps as old as wheels and writing.

The Man Who Did Not Wash for Seven Years
Folkstreams director Tom Davenport has put his old fairy/folk tale films online for free streaming. The series includes a language arts teacher guide to encourage the use and understanding of folktales. Also included is a video series about “Making Grimm Movies” showing how to make low budget films in your neighborhood. Popular in schools and public libraries, these films have become children's “classics”. Davenport set the old stories in locations near his home in Delaplane, Virginia and drew from local American Folk traditions to make these adaptations “American”. A good short film to start with is “Bearskin or The Man Who Didn't Wash for Seven Years” http://www.fromthebrothersgrimm.com/

 

Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) Award

The Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) biennial award will be presented for the first time at the OHA 2010 Annual Meeting in Atlanta. The award honors outstanding achievement in the collecting and use of oral histories of individuals and organizations whose work has contributed to change for a better world. The award is co-sponsored by The Stetson Kennedy Foundation (www.stetsonkennedy.org), a non-profit foundation dedicated to human rights, racial and social justice, environmental stewardship, and the preservation and growth of folk culture.

Folktale Collections

  • Folklore and folktales collected by Charles E. Brown, 1921-1945
    Charles E. Brown (1872-1946) was curator of the Museum of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and secretary of the Wisconsin Archaeological Society. He also collected a substantial body of folklore on Wisconsin Indians, lumbering, steamboating, local history, and related topics which he published in pamphlet form. Brown created these pamphlets for the Wisconsin Archaeological Society, the Wisconsin Folklore Society, courses he taught during University of Wisconsin summer sessions, and simply as privately published booklets for the amusement of his friends and colleagues. Most are only 4-8 pages long.
  • Jamaica Anansi Stories BY MARTHA WARREN
  • THE KUMULIPO A Hawaiian Creation Chant translated with commentary by Martha Warren Beckwith
  • JAMAICIAN STORIES
  • Encyclopedia Mythica - find 70 Folktales to read
  • Puppetry Homepage
  • Eldrbarry's StoryTelling Page - How to improve your storytelling technique
  • Bind children together, give them something in common using our own fabric of Folktales. Choose one of the 50 states to see the folktale from that state.
  • Tapes, Articles, Links and a Curriculum Ideas Exchange
  • List of Story Links maintained by Sherri Johnson
    Storynet is the homepage for the National Storytelling Association.
  • Popular Folk Tales & Related Resources Introduce your students to the wonder of folk tales. Your class will be so surprised by how much they can learn about the traditions of different cultures by reading their stories. Whether you are looking to include African folk tales in your Black History Month unit, Chinese folk tales in your study of East Asia, or American tall tales to complement your lessons on U.S. history, we have the resources you need to encourage your students to learn more about this fascinating genre of literature.
  • Aesop's Fables includes a total of 655+ Fables, indexed in table format, with morals listed.

STORYARTS -- Resources for writing

Storytelling in the Classroom, Lesson Plans & Activities, Story Library, Storytelling Books & Tapes, Articles, Links and a Curriculum Ideas Exchange

ORAL HISTORY

Black History Month

  • Anansi, Tekoma, and the Cow's Belly Folktale
    A Brother Anansi and Brother Tecoma
    Stories spoken in Standard English and Negerhollands English.
    Stories of the people, often passed from elders to the next generation. Help your students learn through the oral tradition.
    The Virgin Islands Dutch Creole folktale was collected by a Dutch anthropologist, J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong, who visited the Virgin Islands in 1923.
    Download, read, and hear each story narrated in both American Virgin Island Creole and Standard English, plus find out how these stories survived in tact from the original storyteller.
  • Origin of "The Tales of B'rer Rabbit" first collected on the Laura Plantation
  • Gullah Tales - folktales, listen to the words.
  • Uncle Remus Tales
  • Remembering Slavery: Those Who Survived Tell Their Stories
  • In the First Person is a free, high quality, professionally published, in-depth index of more than 4,000 collections of personal narratives in English from around the world.
  • Caribbean Indian Folktales ISBN 976-95049-2-0
    Written as a textbook is the first and largest collection of its kind to be written in the original English dialect of the storytellers. Each tale is also accompanied by a Standard English version which has been sensitively written so as to retain the spirit and rhythm of the original narration. The book consists of a collection of 25 stories which have been passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth from India to the Caribbean over a century and a half. The tales were tape-recorded from tradition-bearers in Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, and Grenada since 1980.
  • The Legend of John Brown by Jacob Lawrence
  • Hear The Voice of Booker T. Washington
    In this noted address to the President and visitors to the Atlanta Exposition, Washington speaks of improved race relations and economic conditions in the South. He states, "in no way, has the...value of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized than by the vantages of this magnificent exposition." For Washington, this collaboration served to "cement the friendship" of the two races, and here he calls for camaraderie among not only white and black Americans, but also understanding for the experiences of the new immigrants currently entering the country.
  • Twenty-six audio-recorded interviews of ex-slaves have been found. This collection captures the stories of former slaves in their own words and voices.
  • Oral History Association Home Page
  • American Memory Learning Page Using Oral History Library of Congress
  • Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History © Judith Moyer 1993, Revised 1999 Oral Tradition story links Sites with Extensive Links to Storytelling Resources.These sites do not contain story texts but contain links to other sites that do.

MYTHS AND LEGENDS

The 6 Types
of Folk Stories

Objectives: Students will be able to identify some key elements of folktales, fables, fairy tales, legends, myths and tall tales, and be able to differentiate between them.
Materials: Selections from each genre, chart paper, markers.
Procedure: Define genres (7 minutes). Say, "Today we're going to play a game to learn the differences between these six genres of literature, called folk stories. They are stories that were told aloud, passed
down by communities in every country of the world. Each of these six genres are pretty similar, but there are some important differences."
Go over each genre:

  1. A fable is very short, with a moral at the end. Characters are usually talking animals.
  2. A folk tale is a story, also usually with talking animal characters, which uses a pattern (numbers, repetition).
  3. A fairy tale is similar to a folk tale, but the characters are people. There are obvious "good guys" and "bad guys," and magic is usually involved.
  4. A myth is a magical story about how natural forces work (death, creation, weather). Sometimes myths have gods, goddesses, or heroes.
  5. A legend is similar to a myth, but it is based on actual historical events or people.
  6. A tall tale is a story about a heroic person who did completely outrageous, impossible things.

Ask students to suggest examples of each type as it is described.
Describe the game (3 minutes). Divide the students into teams and give each team a genre. Say, "On the floor are some books. Each book is a kind of folk story. You have to look through the books and try to find all the folk stories that fit your team's genre. Bring the book back to your team's table when you think you have one that fits. Then you have to explain why you think the folk story falls into that genre. It's not enough to just say 'The cover says so!' Use the reasons we have listed here on this chart. In ten minutes, your team will present one of the books you chose to the class. Any questions?"
Do it (15 minutes). Assist the students as they browse the books. Listen to their discussions and offer suggestions if they seem stuck. Wrap up when most books have been brought to the tables, then go around and have each table present a justification for the books they selected.
Maggi Rohde, Library/Media Specialist maggi @ intranet . org
Allen Elementary School, Ann Arbor, MI

"Fakelore" and "Processed Folk"

Joel Bresler writes: "Folklorist Richard M. Dorson coined the term "fakelore" and defined it as "a synthetic product claiming to be authentic oral tradition but actually tailored for mass edification." Fakelore "emphasized the jolly, cute, and quaint, and contrived a picture of American folksiness wholly false to social reality." Dorson placed Botkin's regional folklore treasuries along with "Paul Bunyan books, and children's story collections" squarely in the fakelore category, and said of the Treasuries that they "shaped the general conception of American folklore to this day."
Leaving aside complete fabrications, "fakelore" seems a harsh term for works that, however altered, still retain a folkloric basis. Professor Elliot Singer has offered a more nuanced definition for what he terms "processed folk." This manipulated folklore may be non-representative, or may have undergone extensive rewrites. These materials often dovetail with or describe "traditions" that fit the beliefs and wishes of their advocates, and these advocates often use the manipulated folklore for ideological, educational, or commercial purposes. Manipulating folklore is a common practice with a very long history indeed."

Follow the Drinking Gourd - Is This Song 'Authentic'? It is not "traditional." The signature line in the chorus, "for the old man is awaitin' for to carry you to freedom," could not possibly have been sung by escaping slaves, because it was written by Lee Hays eighty years after the end of the Civil War.

Google Mashup "Follow the Drinking Gourd" Gazetteer From "Follow the Drinking Gourd: A Cultural History"

Oral Tradition Journal is an international and interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of worldwide oral traditions and related forms.

COWBOY AND COWGIRL STORIES

Irish Cowboys use the Irish word Buckaroos:
The first wagon train that headed west was lead by an Irish Scout. Irish cowboys and pioneers sing Irish songs going west. Jesse Chisholm, for whom the Chisholm trail was named, was a Scots-Cherokee, His father was a Scots Gaelic speaker. Chisholm is also reputed to have spoken a number of Indian languages.

Irish / Scottish - Giant Stories Simon Bronner

  • The Giant's Stairs
  • Finn MacCoul the Giant
  • Paul Bunion & Babe the Blue Ox
  • Jack and the Beanstalk
  • Gulliver's Travels
  • The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
  • John Henry - Can Hold 2 ten pound hammers - 1870's
  • Modern Day Giant - Lucy the Elephant in Atlantic City NJ USA - The History Channel Giants appear in every culture throughout history. From David and Goliath to Paul Bunyon to Andre the Giant, they've wrestled gods, conquered empires, and inspired heroes to rise in stature. Why are we average-sized humans so fascinated with larger-than-life characters? In a cyclopean 2-hour special, we consider the origins of these colossal creatures by exploring folklore and legends worldwide, and examining scientific evidence of their existence

America has a rich tradition of folk heroes.

African American Legend John Henry - Negro Legend Steel Drivin Man.
The song is about a terrible kind of accident or crime. It's a mourning song, a hammer song and a work song. Tunnel work in the 1870s was widely recognized as the most dangerous and nastiest job. You needed some sort of force to get people to do that work.

Paul Bunyan - Michigan is recognized as the true birthplace of the legend of Paul Bunyan as first set in ink by James MacGillivray based on the life of logger Fabian Fournier . . . ”


The American Whiskey Trail:

The real Johnny Appleseed was John Chapman September 26, 1774 - March 11, 1845 who spread apples for the purpose of creating cider orchards. John Chapman frequented Western Pennsylvania.


By the mid-1790s, around the height of the Whiskey Rebellion. Origins of Hillbilly Music / Story Roots of Moonshine Whiskey Rebellion and the Amber Waves of Grain. Chapman lived in a cabin on Grant's Hill in Pittsburgh, where he tended an orchard. Inspiration struck after noticing the German cider mills south of the city. He gathered left over apple seeds from the cider mills' pumice stones and sold them to settlers. This idea quickly led to Chapman's nickname of “Johnny Appleseed. "
Chapman's sole purpose in planting apple trees was not for the purpose of supplying the settlers with wholesome snacks along the way. Most of the apples he planted were used in the making of cider and distilling apple brandy and applejack. Apples grown from seeds are usually too sour for eating out of hand and were mainly used for this purpose.

Annie Oakley Occupation: Folk Hero
A renowned markswoman and star who worked for years with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show maiden name Phoebe Ann Moses born 1860.

 

Davy Crockett. King of the Wild Frontier
Crockett, spoke a dialect known today as "Highland" or "Upland Southern" like others from the areas adjoining Appalachia. Historians like David Hackett Fischer, in his landmark work Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, have traced the origins of this dialect to the English and Scots-Irish borderers that immigrated to America in the decades before the American Revolution. Intensely traditional and clannish people, the English and Scots-Irish borderers found cheap land on the very fringes of frontier America. As farming depleted the soil and new opportunities arose in the western frontier, hardy highland Southerners soon began to emigrate further west and populated states like Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. Their peculiar “speechways” ended up becoming an American iconic tradition

  • Wyatt Earp District of Arizona (1882)
    Earp served as a Deputy U.S. Marshal for less than six months. In 1881, Earp and three others challenged the Clanton and McLaury brothers at the O.K. Corral. Popularly viewed as an American hero, many aspects of Earp's life have been clouded by myth.
     Josephine Marcus Earp had helped craft an authentic American legend about her husband Wyatt Earp who is buried in a Jewish Cemetary.
    In 1867, six-year old Josephine Sarah Marcus moved with her observant immigrant German-Jewish parents from Brooklyn, NY, to San Francisco. There, Josie was given the rudiments of a Jewish education, including saying her prayers at home, but she was also exposed to the romance of San Francisco's Gold Rush era. In 1879, when she was 18, Josie went to see the Pauline Markham Theater Company perform Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore" and, with a friend, decided to run away with the company when it left town. When the troupe performed in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, she fell in love with Johnny Behan, Tombstone's corrupt sheriff. Johnny introduced Josephine to Wyatt Earp, at that time a deputy U. S. marshal. Earp won Josie's heart and married her, a relationship that lasted fifty years. Thus it is that Wyatt Earp, legendary figure of the Wild West, today lies buried in a Jewish cemetery.

    Cho.: Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp,
    Brave courageous and bold !
    Long live his fame, and long live his glory,
    And long may his story be told !

    He cleaned up the country,
    The old Wild West country,
    He made law and order prevail.
    And none can deny it,
    The legend of Wyatt,
    Forever will live on the trail.

    Cho. repeat.

    As sung by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir for ABC Television.

E-Books

BLACK COWBOYS

African Americans went westward as workers, both as slave laborers and free men and women laborers between 1870-1885.
  • Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable Built a trading post at the mouth of the Chicago River. It was the first permanent settlement and grew into what is now the city of Chicago, making Du Sable the city's founder.
  • York Slave of Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Helped by befriending Indian tribes and acting as interpreter. Was freed by Clark after journeying with them from St. Louis to the Columbia River and back. Supposedly headed west and became the Chief of an Indian tribe.
  • James P. Beckwourth Frontiersman, trapper, guide, "the most famous Indian fighter of his generation". Discovered the "Beckwourth Pass" through the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Personally lead the first wagon train of settlers through the pass he discovered.
  • George Bonga Fur trapper, Indian language specialist. Bungo township in Cass County , Minnesota bears his name.
  • Nat Love Known as "Deadwood Dick". Autobiographer, cowboy, adventurer. Rodeo roping and shooting expert. "Nat Love was obtained from his public record when he published his autobiography in 1907 entitled, The Life and Adventures of Nat Love, Better Known in the Cattle Country as "Deadwood Dick." When Nat Love retired as a cowboy in 1890, he worked as Pullman porter on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Nat Love died in 1921." Source
     Pioneer study by Philip Durham (who also wrote on Raymond Chandler) and Everett L. Jones, The Negro Cowboys (Dodd, Mead, 1965). This latter title has been reprinted by Bantam with a new title, The Adventures of the Negro Cowboys.
  • Black, Red and Deadly: Black and Indian Gunfighters of the Indian Territory 1870-1907. (Eakin, 1991). http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/essays/blackcowboys.htm
  • African American cowboys has the reminiscences about Will Crittendon http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4934/
  • African American Women and the American West
  • George McJunkin A former slave "Our continent's creation story about the Asian hunter/gatherer crossing the Bering Strait is only about a century old and owes its origin to a black cowboy named George McJunkin. A former slave, McJunkin went out West, taught himself book learning, and herded cattle while pondering the world around him. [IEC Chinese Paleolithic]

BLACK SEMINOLE INDIANS

Many Native Americans welcomed African Americans into their villages. Even as slaves many African Americans became part of a family group, and many intermarried with Native Americans - thus many later became classified as Black Indians.

  • Juan Caballo- Black Seminole warrior from African, Spanish, and American Indian decent.
  • Rosalyn Howard. _Black Seminoles in the Bahamas_. Gainesville:
    ISBN 0-8130-2743-8.
    Reviewed by Alexandra K. Brown, Florida Atlantic University.
    I Never Knew ..."I never knew that there were Black Seminoles in the Bahamas!" (p. xiii) Such has been the near unanimous response to Rosalyn Howard's revealing book, which (I must confess) elicited the same response from the present reviewer. While at one level a curiosity, Howard's historical and cultural analysis of the residents of Andros Island in the Bahamas raises issues concerning identity, ethnogenesis, and race that transcend the boundaries of the tiny island community and widens our present view of the Black Seminole diaspora.
  • Seminoles Story Teller Native Americans have been in Florida for over 12,000 years