Ebook: Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars’ Club

On a chilly autumn evening we gather at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Park Hill, just outside of Tahlequah in northeastern Oklahoma. I am meeting with Hastings Shade, Sammy Still, Sequoyah Guess, and Woody Hansen, a group of Cherokee storytellers who call themselves the Turtle Island Liars’ Club. The Turtle Island Liars’ Club is an institution—its members have performed together for nearly twenty years and are known throughout Cherokee country and nationally for their mastery of Cherokee oral performance and traditional teachings. The club and I are collaborating on the first collection of Western Cherokee storytelling published in over...