(static) (film whirring) (dramatic swell) (suspenseful music) (electric buzzing) (metal clanging) (heart beating) (drumming and chanting) - How did you do that?

That was so amazing.

The ice has opened up for you, and closed.

(bird caws) - Yeah, there's a special way if you want to know that.

(bright music) (flute playing) - I'm gonna tell you a story.

(flute continues) These stories all have a moral or lesson to them.

(music continues) - So you will listen to the story see the elder, and then make a story about the lives.

(music continues) - The stories are very important because they're a part of our history, they're part of who we are, and they're part of where we come from.

- Our history, our language, everything's a story.

- Yes.

- This culture's related to everything, comes from water, land, people.

- At a very young age, he began telling me the story.

- It was my dad that told us the stories, my grandma, my great uncle taught me.

- What has happened to our stories is that each time an elder goes home, leaves here, they took some stories with them.

(rhythmic drumming) (native singing) - The Arapaho Language is an oral tradition.

These stories were passed down to the children by the parents and grandparents.

- Oral story telling is imprecise.

Stories can change depending on the storyteller, or what might have been happening to the tribe or family at that time.

- The stories you are about to hear represent what the individual storyteller heard as a child.

The story is in no way representative of every tribal member's experience.

- Okay, the way I heard these stories is the way it was told to me.

Now these same stories that maybe I told to you, other people out there were told the same stories, but maybe was told something different than the way it was told to me.

But the meaning's still the same, the lesson's still the same.

It could've been variations to my story that, to somebody out there that heard it.

So they are all the same but different people have heard it differently and that's the way they remember it and that's how they tell it.

(flute music) - Arapaho Truths.

(flute continues) - Arapaho truths.

The Northern Arapaho people of the Wind River Indian Reservation of Wyoming are storytellers.

Much like other Native American peoples in the Western Hemisphere.

The stories evolved over generations to instruct the community, especially the children about their relationships, their children, and their natural environment.

Secondly, these truths provided entertainment, and provided instruction for them to live morally grounded lives in their world.

By sharing the Northern Arapaho truths of storytelling, - I'm gonna talk about our children.

- coupled with the artistic interpretations of today's students, we hope to play a significant part in keeping our truths alive.

(cheerful music) - I was raised in a traditional manner by my mother, father, and my sister got hurt very badly and they had to go to Casper, Wyoming to be with her.

I stayed with my uncle and interestingly my uncle had been burned at 10 months so that he never experienced walking or running with other children.

So a lot of his time was sitting with the elders and they gave him the stories and the language and the songs.

He told me stories about, you know, when the animals could talk.

He told me stories about adventure, you know, and from these stories, you know, I found out that our ancestors lived in a world of magic.

- The Bear Who Lost His Tail.

- The Bear Who Lost His Tail is a generationally old Arapaho truth that was shared with young children and more importantly this taught lifelong lessons acknowledging elders and all living things.

- A long, long time ago, way in the past, the bear his name is Wox.

He had a long tail like all the regular animals.

He had a long and beautiful tail.

One wintertime, the bear was walking along the river, ice all around, snow all the way around.

He was hungry, the bear was hungry looking for food.

He would stop and sniff the air, smell food, look around, listen.

Eventually he came around, he seen something sitting on the ice over there.

I wonder what he's doing, he's saying.

I smell fish, he said.

I smell my supper, he said.

He saw this fox get up from the ice, a red fox, we call him Beexou.

On his tail were a bunch of fish.

He cleaned them up, put them on the side, piles coming up.

So the bear went over to the fox.

Hey brother, he said, it's me, it's me, Brother Bear.

I see you have a lot of food here.

Can you share some of the fish with me?

I'm very, very hungry, he said.

The fox, he said Hiiko.

That means no.

It took me all day to catch these fish.

It's hard work, he said.

You can do the same thing I'm doing here.

It's called fishing, he said.

Okay, show me how to fish, the bear told the fox.

Go find a big rock, on the ice, make a hole in the ice.

Once you get a hole in there, put your tail in there, he said, sit down there and be patient.

He went over there and stick his big long beautiful tail in there.

He sat there for a while, the bear, you know, having thoughts of food.

Boy, I'm gonna eat, I'm gonna eat good tonight, he said.

Meanwhile, the fox packed up his fish and went home.

The bear was thinking about his - about the food he's gonna eat.

Pretty soon, he got so tired he fell asleep.

He starts snoring (snoring noises) Pretty soon, stars are coming out, getting dark (twinkling sounds) The bear finally woke up.

Hey, what am I doing here?

What am I doing here sitting on the river here?

He said, oh yeah, I was fishing, he said.

I must have a lot of fish on my tail now, he said, so, I'm just gonna check.

He tried to get up and something was wrong.

He couldn't move.

Something's wrong here, he said.

He started getting scared.

He said, boy maybe I'm gonna starve to death soon.

I'm trapped in the ice and I can't break loose.

Maybe nobody will find me, he said.

Trying all kinds of moves, he couldn't get his tail off, frozen to the ice.

He was struggling for about maybe an hour or so, trying to turning every which way and hurt his tail.

Finally, he said, well, I'm gonna try this one more time.

So with all his strength, he pulled real hard.

Big old snap you heard a mile away.

He went bouncing over and over like that, head over heels.

He finally stopped.

He said, why, he said, I'm free, he said.

He's real happy, smiling around.

Free bear!

Then he said there's something wrong, he said.

I don't know what's wrong.

Turned around I'm missing something, he said, looked around.

Hey, my tail is gone, he said.

I went over there, his tail's froze to the ice.

So the bear, he lost his tail that day, he also lost his supper.

But from that day forward, all bears even to this day have short tails.

The story of how the bear lost his tail.

Hohou, thank you.

(applause) (applause and cheering) (applause and cheering continues) - You know a lot of the stories, they were told in the wintertime, and you know, in the wintertime back then, you know, you were enclosed in your home most of the time because it was cold and you know, there was no technology, no television or anything for entertainment, and the storytelling was a form of entertainment.

But yet, the stories had a, had a meaning behind, behind it that how the person understand life.

- The Moon, Sun, and Wives is a short story which was originally told by the Arapaho chief Yellow Calf.

(tires screeching) (chimes) - This is the history of Chief Yellow Calf.

(drumming) Chief Yellow Calf was born on August 13th, 1861.

He was the last Arapaho chief and served on the business council for 25 years.

He was successful in persuading the federal government to end the ban of the Sun Dance.

He sold some land to establish St. Michaels Episcopal Mission and supported the mission for the rest of his life.

He was instrumental in forming the new community of Ethete.

He was an important traditional leader and founded the Crow Dance, Dog Dance, also known as God's Dance.

He was very well-respected by the tribe and his work kept many Arapaho traditions alive.

(rewinding noise) - The Moon, Sun, and Wives is a short story which was originally told by the Arapaho chief Yellow Calf.

The story utilizes humor to explain to children the dark markings on the face of the moon.

- Sun, Moon, and Wives.

- The Moon, Sun, and Wives.

The sun and moon were married to frogs.

(dramatic violin) (wedding march) (camera whirring) (violin continues) (cheers and applause) One day, the moon and the sun said let us have our wives cook together.

Whoever cooks good will be a good wife but whoever cooks bad will be not a good wife.

So the frogs started cooking.

(cheers and applause) (crowd cheering) Moon's wife cooked good, but the sun's wife didn't cook so good.

The moon criticized the sun's wife, your wife didn't cook good.

The sun's wife said, if you're going to say I did not cook good I will not like you.

For that, I'm going to jump in your face and I'm going to be there forever.

You will see me on your face always as the face of the moon.

When you look at the moon, you see a black scene in there.

It looks like a frog.

If you look at it for a long time, it looks like you're seeing a frog moving its legs, because it jumped in the moon.

- You know it's real neat to wake up, you know, just hearing the old folks in the morning during breakfast talking their native language.

You might come in, and that's when most of the storytelling would take place.

You know, during breakfast time, and, in my house anyways, a lot of it had to do with Indian values, you know, about being honest, having integrity, being respectful and really being true to yourself.

It seems like most of those stories and those creations almost always come back to that one point.

- Okay, everybody's looking at the camera, smiling, and - - The Creation Story.

- The Arapaho creation story is sacred to the Arapaho people.

The entire story can be shared by ceremonial people and the elders during certain times within the year.

This version has been published in books and appears on the internet.

Recognized community elder William C'Hair received approval for this story to be retold.

It has been modified and shortened to respect the wishes of the tribe, and to recognize the sacredness and eternal truths of the story.

(piano music) - In the very beginning of our time, water was everywhere.

There was no land.

(rain falling) Just water.

And on this water, there was an individual that was selected after floating aimlessly for a long period of time.

He was instructed, if he was able to obtain bits of soil, the earth.

He was given instruction as to how land would once again appear and the water would recede.

He was able to communicate with all the birds and he would ask them to help him, he would ask for help.

He didn't know where to go to get the soil or how to get it.

But each time he tried he was unable.

Eventually he come upon a small turtle.

So the turtle went under the water, he got the turtle when he was down there, in the small bitty claws of this turtle, there was pieces of mud.

The person, the deity, the god talked to him, told him, Now, you take bits and pieces of this now dirt and throw it in any direction where you explored, and said land would appear.

So every way that you threw the grains of earth, land appeared.

And then he would walk on the earth and look around, see what was there, vegetation had evolved, creatures had evolved, different species of creatures had evolved.

(animal growling) There was a creature there who was very, very fierce-looking who would chase the leader around, he was afraid of that.

And so he would make it back to the water, on the water, and back on track.

(thunder) He was once again given instruction.

He was told that he would cut from a certain tree a piece of that tree and make a stick.

Then he was told when the stick is all done, now you go out, he go out once again.

When these creatures see you, he says, don't run.

Don't run, don't run.

Just stand and hold your ground.

So when the creatures approached him, (creatures growling) he would knock out all of these strange-looking, fierce creatures.

When he had them all down, and then once again, the voice of the creator gave him instructions.

The instructions were, wipe off the creatures to obtain some red paint, and then to paint the faces of these creatures.

What had evolved was now our people.

In the group, there was male and there was female, so as they multiplied, the tribes had started.

After so long, once again, he was told to take this turtle and this turtle would help him to find a place where they would live in peace.

And you know what, he continued down looking for a place where there were animals live on trees, have tails.

It is believed that this area was now South America.

In the meantime, different groups of people in various locations, they would drop off, maybe they were tired of wandering, they would drop off.

That was the beginning of the various tribes.

So they traveled around the continent, once they can't find anything close, and then finally he gets to a top, and that's when he is revealed that the back of the turtle was actually a map to the place where they were to live in peace, live in harmony.

And this is the way the story goes.

- When I was little, I would go over to my grandpa's house.

He taught me a lot of stories.

The way he described, and did the detail, you know, I could like, when I was a kid, I could close my eyes and just picture what he was talking about.

Like my grandpa always told me, these stories tell you who you are, you know.

These stories have a good connection with you because, they not only just words coming out of somebody's mouth but they're our whole culture, you know, they're our whole tradition, and a way of life now.

To me, it's a very strong culture.

It's very unique as well, and I'm very proud to be Northern Arapaho.

You know, it's my identity, it's who I am.

It's shaped me into the person I am today and who I will be in the future.

You know, that's my people and I'm blessed to be Northern Arapaho.

- Star Girl is another Arapaho truth that is beautiful, eloquent, and spiritually connecting.

It is shared to explain the wonders of the universe.

The Arapaho truth Star Girl also foretold the advent of space travel.

- Star Girl.

- My grandma's home was a log house, one big log - one big room log house.

She had no running water, no electricity.

To light the house, she had these old-style kerosene lanterns.

They would burn quicker, and she'd boil the steam for us.

Metal cups, these enamel cups.

Pour the tea in it, and we'd sit there, and she'd tell us these stories.

The story that I really remember being really enthused about was Star Girl.

My brothers and sisters who would all sit around the table and my cousins.

She began telling us this.

She told us, a long, long time ago, this girl would always go out every evening.

She'd leave her teepee, and go outside, and she'd always gaze up into the sky.

She'd become fascinated by these stars.

She was fascinated by the way they blinked, flicker, changing different colors.

She laid back on her back, then her mother called her in to go to bed.

(speaking native language) One evening, she went out, and she became attracted to this one star, every time she'd go out that she'd look for, and she'd find it, and it was on her mind all the time, even during the day when she was awake.

She'd always think about that star, how it would twinkle, how it got her attention, the colors that it would flicker off and on, and the brightness of it.

It stood out from all of the other stars that was up there.

One evening, she went out and did the same thing, she looked up and she found it right away.

She's leaning back and just gazing.

Then all of a sudden, the star that she fell in love with started coming closer and closer, started moving.

It was coming closer and closer to her.

So as it came to her, it was really bright, and it took her.

It took her straight up.

(twinkling noises) She was never heard from or seen from again from her family.

The moral of that story was, when my grandma was done telling us the story, she said, one of these days, she said, they're going to find a way to go up to space.

Which they did!

The United States went up there and circled the earth in a spaceship.

A lot further, they went to the moon.

Now, we're exploring Mars.

But at that time, she said, you're smart.

You're gonna find a way to go out into space, and when they get out there, they're gonna find people like us.

They're gonna find Arapaho people up there.

(emotional music) (flute music) - I think if we lose those stories, we lose a big part of their heritage.

I think heritage, culture, and language are inseparable.

I think we have to preserve all three or we'll lose all three.

- If you have a voice, speak it.

If you got ears, you could listen.

Sit down, talk to your elders, or anything like that.

Then, at least try.

- If we believe, you know, believe that stories can live and carry on, you know, that's the key to carrying on our way of life.

- The way the old people talk, you know, it'll be the end of this world but we have to be ready for the next one.

We're gonna go into the next one.

That's why it's important to keep our knowledge of the land, of the animals, and understand it.

- If we lose this, the world will still turn, but what a precious part we'll lose.

(hopeful music) - It is important that the collective stories and truths remain alive.

By the telling and retelling, each story is born anew.

The Arapaho stories will continue as long as there are community people to share and tell them, and community children to listen.

(hopeful music continues)