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The big publishers are currently suing the Internet Archive, trying to shut them down. The judge will hear oral arguments on March 20. I hope there will be a decision in favor of the Archive; I don't know what I would do without them! You can find out more about the court case here: Hachette v. Internet Archive.

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I share trickster books and resources from the Internet Archive pretty much every day at my blog: Tricksters at Internet Archive. I also post those at Twitter with the hashtag #TricksterChaos.

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You can browse through my students projects at this archive: eStorybook Central.
Also, I was a keynote speaker for the OERxDomains conference in 2021, and the focus was all on student projects. You can view the presentation here: OERxDomains.LauraGibbs.net. There's a slidedeck, a video recording... and you can get your own bingo card if you want to play bingo during the presentation.

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Keynote: #BeyondLMS: Open Creativity, Randomized

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Writing with Wisahketchahk: Trickster Tales and Creative Writing Prompts

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Writing with Wisahketchahk: Trickster Tales and Creative Writing Prompts

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I am excited and honored to be presenting at Manisha Khetarpal's microlearning continuing education project for Maskwacis Cultural College on Monday, March 13 2023, Noon-1PM Mountain Time.
To view this Padlet as a presentation, click here to switch to Slide view (or, on your phone, just expand a post to full-screen view).
To register for the event, use this registration form.

And please feel free to add comments or ask questions here at the padlet before, during, and after the event. Each post/slide has its own comment box. You can also contact me by email laurakgibbs@gmail.com or find me at Twitter @OnlineCrsLady (Online Course Lady). The conversation can go on beyond the scheduled workshop: I hope it will! :-)

The wallpaper for this Padlet is a Cree languages map from Wikipedia.

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If you are curious about the THREE previous presentations I've done as part of this series, here are the links:
Tiny Writing for Microlearning ... which was about 100-word stories along with stories shorter than 100.
Padlets: A Fun and Powerful Writing Space ... so if you are curious about this Padlet, you can learn more there!
6-Word Stories: So Much to Say! ... which was focused on the tiniest stories, just 6 words each.

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I'm always glad to brainstorm about about creative writing activities! You can find me at Twitter, @OnlineCrsLady, or email me at laurakgibbs@gmail.com.

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A spreadsheet with 175 Wisakhetchahk stories just a click away at the Internet Archive.

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There are SO MANY STORIES. This is a word cloud made from titles of the stories at the Internet Archive. Thanks to all these stories at the Internet Archive, it is basically a giant book of Wisahketchak stories that you and your students have access to, just a click away. No need to buy textbooks. You can make your own textbook using Internet Archive links. Even better: students can make their own textbooks, choosing to read the stories that they are the most curious to read.
In my Myth-Folklore class, I created an "Myth-Folklore UnTextbook" with 100 different reading units. Students picked what they wanted to read each week, and then shared with other students the stories they wrote, inspired by what they had read that week.
Now I am working on a "Trickster UnTextbook" ... and I am starting with Wisakhetchak!

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You will find many different versions of the "same" stories. For example, there are so many versions of how Wisakhetchak created the earth. This is an analysis by Jennifer Brown and Robert Brightman of those stories.
Sometimes this is confusing for students. They might think there is an "official" version or a "correct" version, in the same way that in school there is often just "one" textbook or one "right" answer.
In the world of traditional storytelling, there are many versions of stories over different times and places and from different storytellers.
And the Internet has room for all the different versions, instead of the maybe one or two stories that would be put into a textbook.

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Stories can be short or long or in-between.
They can be in formal written language, or they can sound more just like someone speaking. Just look at the example above, which is Louis Bird telling a story. The way it is written out, you can get a sense of just how he sounded.
They can have lots of dialogue. Or not.
Lots of description. Or not.
A moral to the story. Or not.
If you have students write their own versions of the "same" story, everybody's version will be different.

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When life gets complicated, choose to create.

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One of the best things about Wisahketchak stories is that they ARE stories of creation.
Yet so many students will say "I am just not creative."
We need more opportunities for creativity in school.
Here are some things my students said about the importance of having opportunities to be creative in school.

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In 1929 Edward Ahenakew, the grand-nephew of Chief Thunderchild, published Cree Trickster Tales in the Journal of American Folklore. These are stories that Chief Thunderchild told to him in the 1920s before he died in 1927. This is an amazing set of stories which covers a whole range of Wisahketchahk adventures: hero stories, comical stories, monster stories, animal stories. So many stories.
More about Chief Thunderchild, who was born in 1849.
The Internet Archive also has the book Voices of the Plains Cree, which contains more stories from Chief Thunderchild that were published after Edward Ahenakew's death in 1961.

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When students read in order to write stories, that means they can be creative in their notetaking too.
That's very different than cramming for an exam, where you are trying to take notes to answer questions on a test.
Taking notes for the story you (might) write is very different. You look for details that spark your imagination.
Questions you want to answer in your own way.
Meaningful things that are important to you.
Ideas that you want to explore.

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screenshot of Tantoo Cardinal's "Two Tales of Wesakechak"

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I was so excited to find this video from 1984 at the Internet Archive: Two Tales of Wesakechak. This was part of a series of 13 videos, but I have not been able to find the other videos anywhere else. You can watch and listen to these two stories: Why Bees Have Stingers and Wesakechak and the First Indian People.

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I was originally going to build this presentation around the tales told by Coming-Day and other stories in Leonard Bloomfield's Sacred Stories of the Sweet Grass Cree in 1930, but then I discovered another collection of stories in Cree and English that Bloomfield published in 1934, with a whole cycle of Wisakhetchak stories told by Maggie Achenam in Plains Cree Texts.

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Wesakaychak and the Wolves... Beaver... Wild Geese

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Talk about student creativity! These 3 books are have stories in Cree and in English with illustrations by students at the students of St. Andrew's School on the James Bay coast in Kashechewan, Ontario.
Wesakaychak and the Wolves
Wesakaychak and the Beaver
Wesakaychak and the Wild Geese

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Stories by Granny Told Me is a book of "stories, tales, legends, and poems collected by the young people of Fort McKay" in Alberta, with illustrations by the students too, and you will find 6 Wisahketchahk stories here.

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Courageous Spirits: Aboriginal Heroes of Our Children is a collection of student writing about their heroes, and one student, George Bird, chose Wisahketchahk as his hero.
This is how the creators of the book explain the project:
Aided by this book, teachers and parents can communicate to students that everyone has something of the heroic in her or him; that everyone can think deeply and feel deeply about issues of importance; and, as a curricular consideration, that everyone can learn to express those feelings and thoughts in written words.

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Working together with Cree storytellers Abraham Little, Albert Sandy, John Rains, Job Walks, Joby Makinaw, Johnny Davis, and Tommy Pike, , Howard Norman has written a series of seven stories about "Trickster" in a beautifully oral style, along with wonderful illustrations by Tom Pohrt.
Howard Norman has also written a book of Glooskap stories: How Glooskap Outwits the Ice Giants: And Other Tales of the Maritime Indians, along with other books you can find at the Internet Archive.

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Last time I talked about 6 word stories, and of course you can try all kinds of word counts. I like the story of Wisahketchahk Preaches to the Wolves told by Coming-Day.

6-word version:

Wisahketchahk preached.

Wolves perished.

Debts paid!

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There are so many Wisahketchahk stories about the origins of things. Just a few examples: how ermine got white coat, where rabbits come from, why geese fly in V-shape, why moose lives alone, why maple sap is sweet, the origin of the moon, and so many more.

Prompt: You can retell one of the traditinoal stories, or use your imagination to create an origin story.

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Wisahketchahk battles so many monsters, often relying not just on bravery to win, but also on his wits, along with helpers. There's the story of Rolling Head, the Hairy Hearts, the Great Elk, the Water-Lynxes, and on and on.

Prompt: You could retell one of these stories, or invent a new creature for Wesakaychak to confront, or invent a new hero or heroine for your story.

The image above is from a graphic novel, Darkness Calls, by Steven Keewatin Sanderson. You can read an excerpt at the Internet Archive.

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Because so much of Wesakaychak's power is based on the way he uses words, these stories often have fantastic dialogue, which makes them perfect for Readers Theater. I haven't written any Wesakaychak scripts (yet!), but you can see my Readers Theater scripts here, and I have created a Padlet of Readers Theater resources if you are interested in learning more about this art form, which is perfect for collaborating as a whole class.
Prompt. Write a script! As a great model to start from, just take a look at Pushing Up the Sky: Seven Native American Plays for Children by Abenaki storyteller Joseph Bruchac. It doesn't have a Wesakaychak play, but it does have one about Gluskabe and one about Wihio.

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One of my favorite things about the Wesakaychak is the surrealism, like when Wesakaychak and his arms get into an argument, or the many versions of the story where his butt is supposed to stand guard while he sleeps, like in Wi-sak-a-chak and the Berries. The story of the magic headgear is truly surreal, as is the story of the sleepwalking contest, which features all kinds of shape-shifting too: Trickster and the Fainting Birds. (In the illustration above, the Trickster is mending a snowshoe in his sleep!)
Prompt. After reading some stories about how Wesakaychak's body parts take on lives of their own, pick a new body part to tell a story about.

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I found quite a few Wesakaychak stories that had been "framed" inside novels, recreating a storytelling scene from the past. Some examples: Wisahkecahk and Kisemanitow inside Kisiskâciwan (Saskatchewan): Tracing My Grandmother's Foot Steps by Vernon Wishart, or Wesakaychak, The First Person inside Bob Steele's Stories from the Rebellion.
Prompt. A great way to use framing is so that students can write within a fandom that is important to them. For example, I can imagine a Cree character in Star Trek who would tell a Wesakaychak story in the course of some adventure set in the Star Trek universe.

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excerpt from Warren Cariou's An Athabasca Story

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My students really enjoyed modernizing stories, and they might get some ideas from this short story by Warren Cariou: An Athabasca Story.
Prompt. Write a story about Wesakaychak in your work.