“Value judgments about non-Western oral arts, whether myths, tales, poetry or rituals, are irresponsible before published versions of them bridge barriers of sociocultural and esthetic unintelligibility. . . . Perceptive response to a written literature is principally by an audience which is familiar with the language and totality of the sociocultural scene. Today a printed play by Shakespeare must appear with annotations. So must the plays and poetry of classical Greece. Food gatherers’ art forms . . . have to be given even more background and explication” (1962:98).

“It is a sad fact that most of our tribal members born after the 1950s don’t even know these stories. . . . It is important to note that stories such as these are often considered property of specific clans; and as such are to be retold only by members of specific clans. This is somewhat true within Ahtna society. . . . But there is a danger in restricting storytelling among clans. My father’s clan is Taltsiine. . . . Sadly, there are very few Taltsiine Clan members left. Should those stories considered property of Taltsiine be allowed to disappear forever when the last clan member retells a myth for the very last time? Should the stories of any People suffer such a fate?” (2016:xv)

“The materials gathered by early anthropologists and ethnographers and artists are extremely important, obviously. I’m thinking of such field researchers as Washington Matthews, and James Mooney. And I’m thinking, too, of such artists as George Catlin and Edward Curtis. One could mention others. Their work is indispensable. If they had not lived and worked and recorded their observations, we would know far less than we do about American Indian culture before the twentieth century” (1983:69-70).

“Much traditional Aboriginal knowledge is sacred, and can only be given to those who have been properly initiated. Naturally we respect this, and are careful not to intrude where we are not welcome. But Aboriginal elders have encouraged us to learn a little of the knowledge, and pass it on so that others may understand something of the richness and complexity of their culture” (2009:2).

“colonial descriptions of Native Americans are among the few glimpses we have of Indians whose lives were not shaped by the presence of Europe. The accounts of the initial encounters between Indians and Europeans are windows into the past, even if the glass is smeared and distorted by the chroniclers’ prejudices and misapprehensions” (2005:38).

“When our Indigenous stories were hidden from the rest of Canada, they were also hidden from other Indigenous people. Sharing our stories with other Indigenous people is always a treat. Even though we have different cultures, or are from different areas, we have so much in common. We always want to see how other people do things, especially when their lands and waters are similar to our own” (2021).

“It is important to realize that, since White contact, many people have been collecting stories from our area. Hundreds of stories have been told to researchers, and most of them are not available to our own people” (1995:10).

“The oral tradition is a loosely held collection of anecdotal material that, taken together, explains the nature of the physical world as people have experienced it and the important events of their historical journey. . . . Some people have come to believe that oral traditions refer only to religious matters. This description is not true. The bulk of American Indian traditions probably deal with commonsense ordinary topics such as plants, animals, weather, and past events that are not particularly of a religious nature” (1997:36).

“Educational institutions in North America have ventured to teach the literatures of the continent’s invaders, of Greece and Rome too, but not the oral arts of its original inhabitants. It is as if the American occupation forces in Japan had destroyed the native social system and cultural heritage on the uncontested premise that they were savage and inconsequential, and had set up schools which taught solely the outsiders’ superlative heritage” (1962:90).

“The elders I worked with often said that although young people think they do not need stories from the past, there will come a time when these younger people will need their ancestors’ stories to think with. In anticipation of this unforeseeable time, the elders wanted to tell and retell and to record all the oral narratives they knew” (2012:153).

“I offer . . . a braid of stories meant to heal our relationship with the world. This braid is woven from three strands: Indigenous ways of knowing, scientific knowledge, and the story of an Anishinabekwe scientist trying to bring them together in service to what matters most” (2013:x).

“In those earlier days, there were no tape recorders to catch the sounds that make story-telling so exciting and interesting to listen to. Everything had to be recorded in writing. Even so, at least that has helped to keep some of the stories from being lost, as the old people were afraid they would be. They wanted to have their stories put down in writing so that their grandchildren and great-grandchildren would be able to read them. And so here they are . . . for those children and for other children as well” (1979:13).

“cultural knowledge . . . has more in common with a work of art, which is mute if it is not shown, pondered, appreciated, and acclaimed. To admire a work of art—or to appreciate another people’s culture—is not to take possession of it but to gain in understanding . . . . I believe that we are less likely to destroy what we understand than what we are ignorant of” (1990:13).