(gentle music) - Here's my grandma.

You can barely see her.

Blends in with the truss.

And then her sisters.

So this is Cerese.

So she's pregnant with Cerese in that one.

And then here's Cerese and then my grandma.

And then this is her mom.

And then this is Suspere.

And I always think she really looks tired 'cause she was in, you know, during the war she, there's a whole story about her in the book about how she fled from soldiers shooting at them when they were up in the Red River Valley going to Canada.

But anyway, that story really had a big impact on me that made me think about this maternal line of resiliency.

(gentle music) Once you know who you are, where you come from, no matter where you go, you belong.

So that's part of the healing journey I feel like I've been on, reclaiming all of that.

Even all of the struggles that our ancestors and relatives went through have teachings and values and just the fact of them surviving, the resiliency that I like to hope or believe that is somehow threaded through our DNA.

But you learn about that.

You learn about that resiliency through those stories.

(upbeat music) I didn't hear stories growing up.

So that's kind of the irony about all of this.

(upbeat music) You know, I asked my mom one time.

I was kind of working on a school project, and I asked her about stories and her education and schooling and all of that.

And she told me that she primarily heard stories when she was sick in bed.

And one of her younger sisters said they would also hear stories from their dad when they would drive over to Sisseton to see relatives.

So I suppose it was a long drive.

And then some time ago I was listening to a recording and reading the transcript of my grandpa, Walter Waubay, who was born in 1900.

And he shared that he heard stories just as an everyday thing growing up.

So they didn't have television and all the things that we do today, so that was their form of entertainment.

And he talks about how he would be in bed with his ma and she would tell him stories, stories about long time ago, you know, history stories and then our Unktomi stories, our trickster stories.

Unktomi is a mean spider.

(peaceful music) The thing about Iktomi stories is they kind of if you read "Grasshopper Girl," it's like the next time they're gonna tell a story, it'll be another thing that Unktomi does.

So it just goes on and on, flows into, it never ends.

The Unktomi story never ends.

So Unktomi, trickster, Unktomi means spider.

And how I've been told is that he kind of shows up as a man, but he can shapeshift and the Unktomi stories are kind of like Aesop fables.

They always have something to teach you.

So those were the stories to teach young people about how to be and how not to be.

And most of the time, Unktomi does how not to be.

(Teresa laughs) Yeah, he's always doing goofy things.

Maybe the worst characteristics in humanity is kind of how they show up.

(peaceful music) - [Walter] They call him Unktomi There must be a crown.

Unktomi means a spider.

In those Indian ways, they always have some funny stories to tell, and it's gotta be a funny, funny thing like spider that is funny in all kinds of ways.

So they call Unktomi.

So here's the story again.

- Doesn't he have a distinct voice?

- [Walter] Unktomi, he's a lazy man.

Beautiful music, power singing.

(Walter laughs) (indistinct) There was always a buffalo skeleton, no meat, just the bones laying there.

That's where they were singing.

- [Audience Member] Oh.

- [Walter] He stopped and (Walter hums) called out to his friends.

(Teresa hums) - Called out.

- [Walter] What a beautiful music you're singing.

"Hey, I heard that way back," he said.

"I'm a good singer too," he said.

"I wanna join you.

Can I come in?"

he said.

"No, you can't come in.

You're too big.

You can't come in."

Unktomi said, "No, I wanna come in.

I wanna join you."

- So all these Unktomi stories have little things.

So this one was about, you know, not being lazy, listening, and then the telling of all the different trees, the names of 'em.

(upbeat music) For that research, I ended up just writing a big long adult version of "Grasshopper Girl."

And I wanted to include not just the unktomi story but a story about storytelling and the importance of it and when it occurred.

And so that's where my mother's story comes in about when she heard stories when she was sick in bed.

And so "Grasshopper Girl" is in bed with achy legs 'cause a storm is coming.

And "Grasshopper Girl" is my mom's Dakota name.

Psips’icadan Wicinyanna That's her Dakota name.

(upbeat music) So then eventually, that became my research and a dissertation and all of that.

And then at some point, one of my mentors and professors, Dr. Tom Peacock and his wife Betsy, started Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing in an effort to have more Dakota and Anishinaabe stories, children's stories, told by Dakota and Anishinaabe people.

(peaceful music) When that call came out, then I was like, I sent it to Tom and he said, "Yes, yes, you can do it.

Let's do it."

And he said, "You'll have to decide what grade level you wanna make this."

And of course it has to be shortened 'cause it was several pages long.

So I decided on second grade and then I learned from him how you can use different tools to make it at a second grade level.

And then I went back in and then added the Dakota in there, sprinkle it in.

So that's how "Grasshopper Girl" came about.

(peaceful music) Jordan Rogers, who is Lakota, which is this fantastic young person, agreed to do the illustrations for this.

So what I did is I sent her the long version because that has all of the description in it that she can pull to create the illustration.

And then I sent her photos from my family of long time like what my grandma and grandpa looked like in the sixties and some photos of my Aunt Deb, who's now passed away, when she was young.

So "Grasshopper Girl," she modeled her after my Aunt Deb.

(peaceful music) She did a fantastic job.

And there was one thing I had said to her was, "The one thing about Unktomi is no one really knows what he looks like."

His face is never really revealed 'cause it doesn't matter.

What's important is what he does.

His actions are what's important.

So, and I love the way that she made him out to look like.

(piano music) You know, when I was growing up, you know, Dick and Jane and whatever, you know, I couldn't even relate to that.

So you know, how do we inspire and fuel that interest and spirit of being curious and creative?

Well part of that is how things are presented.

People have to connect to it, have some connection to it.

(piano music) You know, they say this when an elder passes away, a whole library goes with them.

And you know, all of the problems and issues we have in our world aren't going to be solved by just one view, one perspective.

We all have something to contribute.

So it's important that we really hold up and value diversity.

(piano music)