Turtle Island Storytellers Network
Turtle Island Storytellers Network is the American Indian speaker’s bureau being developed to promote talented American Indian storytellers, tribal historians, and song carriers from the Pacific Northwest and Northern Plains.
A total of 80 individual webpage portfolios will be developed during 2005, each including information on talented oral cultural artists, their biographical summary and contact information, along with audio, transcript and a photo gallery.
These speakers will be available as speakers and consultants. Promotional announcements will be distributed to public agencies, institutions, organizations and the media in the region of the artists. This project is funded by Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, National Park Service, and National Endowment for the Arts.
Wisdom of the Elders: Our Mission
As First Nations people, we are humbled by the wisdom of our elders and the deep connection they share with Great Spirit, the world of nature and family. We regard our elders as rapidly-vanishing and irreplaceable keepers of oral history, tradition and the environment. The values they extol represent an ancient legacy of knowledge which is becoming as endangered as many disappearing species in our fragile ecosystem.
Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. is an American Indian 501(c)(3) not for profit corporation whose mission is the cultural preservation of indigenous elders’ oral history and cultural arts. We record, preserve and share messages of wisdom and guidance, as well as story and song, from exemplary indigenous elders, tribal historians, storytellers and song carriers from native nations throughout North America. Our ultimate objective is to regenerate the greatness of cultural values among today’s and future generations of American Indians. To fulfill our mission of education, and acknowledging the need for reconciliation between Indian and non-Indian, Wisdom of the Elders also shares these rich teachings with all peoples, using public radio production and other educational venues in collaboration with diverse cultural organizations and educational institutions. Our projects include the public radio program, Wisdom of the Elders Radio and its companion website, the American Indian Speakers Bureau at Turtle Island Storytellers Network, educational curriculum and outreach materials, the upcoming biography, The Seven Commandments of the White Buffalo Calf Maiden: Martin High Bear (1919-1995), and The Respect and Honor Documentary Project.
Wisdom of the Elders, Inc.was originally founded in 1992 in Portland, Oregon by the late Martin High Bear, Lakota medicine man and spiritual leader, and Rose High Bear, Deg Hit’an Dine, or Alaskan Athabascan. WOTE is administered by an all American Indian Board of Directors, with membership including MicMac, Lakota, Abenaki, Yupik, Choctaw, Juaneno Band of California Mission Indians, and Dine tribal members. Our Cultural Preservation Advisory Board of indigenous elders has provided cultural guidance for WOTE projects since 1998.
