The Intersection of Karuk Storytelling and Education

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Indians: the United States, as a settler colony, cannot exist without appropriating indigenous lands and negating the original inhabitants’ title to the land. (Jacobs 84) After the Civil War, national policy shifted from a focus on wholesale slaughter of Native peoples (some have called it “ethnic cleansing” or “genocide,” c.f. Norton) to one of assimilation. In the infamous words of Richard Henry Pratt, founder of the Indian boarding school system, “Kill the Indian to save the man.” But before we can talk about the imposition of Euro-American education on our people, we have to consider classic Káruk education, and the ways in which storytelling inhabited it. 7
Chapter 2: Classic Káruk Education Classic Káruk education, as I have received it, is predicated by two beliefs or “knowledges.” The first is that we all came into this world with a purpose, and it’s our responsibility to find out what that purpose is and to pursue it. We existed before we came here, and did so for a specific reason. The part of us that enters this world is our real self, and it is this that education is meant to develop. The second belief is that we can do that by learning about and practicing the teachings of Ikxaréeyavs, or the spiritual beings who inhabited the world before human beings and continue to do so as landmarks, plants or animals. One of the ways that we can begin to learn about the Ikxaréeyavs is to tell stories about them. These stories are called pikvah, or “creation stories,” and constitute a significant learning tool in classic Káruk education. An important outcome of this worldview is that a person is ultimately responsible for his or her own education, his or her own well being. Thomas Buckley, in his discussion of Yurok education (the Yurok’s are, literally, the “downriver” neighbors of the upriver Káruk people, and are virtually identical culturally), phrases this concept in terms of Indian Law by saying that over-explanation is stealing “a person’s opportunity to learn, and stealing is against the Law.” (1979, 31). His research, and my own experience with classic Káruk education’s modern incarnations, indicates that “overexplanation” constitutes practically any explanation at all. According to Buckley, “…a young child is actively taught very little; it learns by watching and copying when it has enough interest. Most things are not explained, since people can only learn by and for themselves, learn to sort out facts, to draw conclusions about what works and what does not.” (30-31) In modern parlance, you “earn to learn.” That is to say, you have to work 8
Page 1 and 2: Stony Brook University The official
Page 3 and 4: Copyright by Waylon Conrad Lenk 201
Page 5 and 6: Abstract of Thesis The Intersection
Page 7 and 8: Dedication Page This thesis is dedi
Page 9 and 10: List of Figures Fig. 1. The Hover C
Page 11 and 12: making the world a more beautiful p
Page 13 and 14: seven minutes, three-quarters of th
Page 15 and 16: am a Káruk-ára from the villages
Page 17: The Káruk-aráara have lived on th
Page 21 and 22: made at Weɫkwäu at the mouth of t
Page 23 and 24: wealth. A key to understanding indi
Page 25 and 26: activity between menstruating women
Page 27 and 28: structure. As such, it would be cou
Page 29 and 30: 19 th century American theorist Lew
Page 31 and 32: mainstream American life, the feder
Page 33 and 34: Or, more to the point, “I am the
Page 35 and 36: pedagogically linked to both Arnold
Page 37 and 38: movement that coincided with the re
Page 39 and 40: precursor to his later book with Gi
Page 41 and 42: second books is merely a continuati
Page 43 and 44: Chapter 5: Modern Era Public school
Page 45 and 46: University who hoped to excavate gr
Page 47 and 48: Language Program at Hoopa High Scho
Page 49 and 50: were selected from received oral an
Page 51 and 52: Chapter 6: Conclusion Educational f
Page 53 and 54: Bibliography Adams, David Wallace.
Page 55 and 56: Kroeber, A. L. “Elements of Cultu

The Intersection of Karuk Storytelling and Education

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