Storytelling supports Native culture and learning, educators say

Educators gathered in Bismarck last week for the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction’s Indian Education Summit, according to the North Dakota Monitor. Speakers highlighted storytelling as a key method for teaching Native culture and values. In a video shown Friday, Standing Rock Sioux citizen Gladys Hawk described how childhood stories from her grandmother in Lakota helped teach life lessons. “We have to listen to what our elders have to say, because usually they’re teaching us something important,” Hawk was quoted as saying.

Sharla Steever and Scott Simpson presented the video as part of the Teachings of Our Elders project, which now features more than 350 interviews with tribal elders. Steever said storytelling fosters connection and memory in classrooms. The project supports North Dakota’s 2021 law requiring K‑12 schools to teach Native history. Youth speaker Haiden Person of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe emphasized that education is key to addressing anti‑Indigenous racism.