Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Katherine Ahern

Second Advisor

Daniel Radus

Third Advisor

Teagan Bradway

Abstract

Storytelling is a centerpiece within cultures to remember the past, find faith, and establish comfort within a community setting. This thesis will explore how storytelling has become a means of entertainment and much more. This paper will focus specifically on how storytelling works for the inner workings of Elders in Native American communities, as well as how multifaceted storytelling can be understood in the importance of its culture and people. Further, we will see how these stories create moral lessons for communities and act as guidance for individuals. We will look at the way storytelling has evolved and changed with time, finding new ways of distribution. Followed by the idea of storytelling to find various identities and kinships, such as community and self-identity. In the end, a small essay will be dedicated to a self published creative novel focusing on self-identity and community while showing the inner workings of these stories and the moral lessons of Native stories in a fiction novel. In this thesis, I hope to provide convincing evidence on how storytelling is an essential part of native life and how it is an important marker and need in Native American culture. the importance of its culture and people.

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