- The Good: Native wisdom and Cherokee elder stories
- The Bad: Dense; best read slowly
- The Literary: Combination of myth, language, and worldview
Together with Cherokee elders Hastings Shade, Sammy Still, Sequoyah Guess, and Woody Hansen, Cherokee scholar Christopher B. Teuton captures a collection of conversations, stories, and teachings that promote community and a way of “living in the middle”. The Turtle Island Liars’ Club calls themselves liars because the Cherokee word for storytelling, gagoga, literally translates as “he or she is lying.”
This collection of conversations feels like the reader is sitting around a campfire with a group of old friends, and you’re not sure how you snagged an invitation. The storytellers take turns telling stories quite casually. Any topic is allowed, and they typically range from traditional tales that their grandmothers told them to newer stories from their own lives. They feed off one another, one story reminding the next storyteller of something similar, so the narratives flow organically in the way of natural conversation.
Like many indigenous oral traditions, the Cherokee art of storytelling is evolving. The storytellers insist that there is no authoritative version of traditional tales. Stories are alive. The act of telling a story changes it, and each storyteller adds or subtracts something that is intrinsic to them. They admit they even tell different versions of the same story to different audiences, depending on the situation.
But in contrast to other collections of folklore, this one is personal. You get to know the liars, what they personally think of many of the stories, what they spend their afternoons doing, their love of hamburgers and fries, their dry humor, and how often they run errands for friends and family. In addition to traditional origin and animal stories, they tell personal stories of their lives growing up in rural Oklahoma.
Because the book is quite personal, it’s limited to the viewpoint of these four men. Though I’ve never met them, they seem familiar to me, to my own family members, or other teachers I’ve met at powwows. They are individuals, and don’t necessarily agree with one another. As the elderly do in general, they long for the old days. It’s an honor to hear their stories, but I wish there was at least one female storyteller. The liars admit that traditionally most storytellers were female, and it’s just coincidence they’re all male, but it would still have been nice for that female perspective.
The Cherokee language is a direct gift from the Creator, and the importance of stories is a large part of the Cherokee worldview. Most stories are told in conversational English. Some are told in the form of an oral poem meant to mimic the structure and style of the Cherokee language. Four of the stories are told in Cherokee with translations. The literal translations are fascinating, particularly in rhythm and sentence structure.
Cherokee identity is deeply rooted in community but also finding one’s own path. The stories are meant to bring people together, to learn from one another, and find what it is that you offer. Everyone has a story to tell.