February 1^st, 2003

On Saturday, February 1st, 2003, the Spurlock Museum’s Knight Auditorium was packed as visitors of all ages attended Winter: A Time of Telling, the Museum’s first event in a series of annual American Indian performances planned in honor of Reginald and Gladys Laubin, donors of the Laubin Gallery of American Indian Cultures. The program, an afternoon of Native American trickster tales and celebration of Grandfather Drum, was presented in collaboration with the UIUC Committee for Native American Programs.

Members of the Cricketthill Drum, an intertribal group of Chicago-based singers, opened the event with a drum circle and singing. A member of the circle explains the importance of Grandfather Drum in the following words: “Our Native culture centers around the drum. Without the drum Native America ceases to exist.”

Tellers for the event shared stories of the trickster, an important character in American Indian traditions and in the folklore of many cultures. Both hero and anti-hero, the often clever and sometimes foolish trickster teaches and amuses, whether causing calamity or good fortune.

Quicktime Movie Clips
Drum Circle	Grandfather Drum
Larry tells a story about Raven helping a woman to face an evil monster by offering her his magic pearl.	Andrew ends the story of why his people believe that tobacco must be put down whenever an animal is killed for food.
Florence sings a hymn that she learned in her Mohawk language as a child attending church with her grandmother, a clan mother of the Bear Clan.

Larry Lockwood, of Northern Cheyenne heritage, opened and closed the storytelling with the singing and drum. His stories included the trickster Raven.

Florence Dunham, The Rising Sun, was born on the Six Nation’s Reserve in Ohsweken Ontario, Canada. Today she lives in Chicago and performs widely for audiences of all ages, sharing stories of her childhood.

Andrew Favorite, of the Ojibwa White Earth Band, is a Pipe Carrier and teacher of Indian studies and the Ojibwa language. He shared stories from the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota where he lives.

This program, Winter: A Time of Telling, originated as part of an annual series offered at the Newberry Library in Chicago with support from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. Red Path Theater, The American Indian Center of Chicago, Native American Educational Services College, and the Library's D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History helped to organize this year’s event. It was produced by Kelly Gilbreth of Red Path Theater, with organizational assistance from The American Indian Center of Chicago, Native American Educational Services College, and the Library's D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History.