American Indian Legends by Allan A. Macfarlan

'They have no input, they have no identity, they have no place, and they have no one there with them.' In American Indian communities, as long as the stories are being told, that identity will exist, that sense of knowing who you are and where you came from. He says that when the children of today watch television, they get only oneway interaction.

Cherokee storyteller Freeman Owle says that storytelling is 'two-way interaction' between the listener and the storyteller. Storytelling also allows people to get to know one another. When someone ceases to tell a story, part of the cultural knowledge is gone. The stories of an Indian group make that group unique, but stories will be known only as long as they are told. Stories also help to explain the supernatural and peculiar aspects of animals and the environment. Often stories are told to educate children about cultural morals and values. They tell these stories for many reasons: to recount the history of the people, to tell where they came from, or to relate the exploits of a particular hero. In American Indian communities, people tell legends, folktales, and fables. When passed down from parent to child to grandchild, this story affirms Coharie cultural identity. This story uses the environment to tell us part of the history of the Coharie people, but the story also has another meaning. To this day, when the wind blows through the trees, Coharie people hear two things-the wind and their past. The 'shhhhhhhh' sound is also the sound of wind whispering through the pine trees of eastern North Carolina. The Coharie were trying to stay on the fringe of European settlement, maintaining anonymity from the larger outside community. 'Shhhhhhhh!' Legend has it that Coharie Indian mothers would make that sound when outsiders would approach their village, hoping to quiet their children until the strangers passed. Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History Reprinted with permission from the Tar Heel Junior Historian, Spring 2002.

American Indian Legends by Allan A. Macfarlan