The Intersection of Karuk Storytelling and Education

Acknowledgements
Much of this thesis comes from interactions that I’ve had with members of the indigenous
community of northwest California and of academia. It’s impossible to mention them all
here, but the ones that have had a major effect on the trends and theories reflected in this
thesis deserve mention. First, my own mentors, Richie and Kathy McClellan, help make
the Karuk Mountain Dance possible. It forms the heart of my own Karuk identity, and as
such, is at the heart of this thesis. Their own non-academic approach to education gave
me a useful alternative to consider as this thesis germinated. Jack Norton, Jr., in our
numerous conversations at the Mountain Dance camps, has been an inspiration in terms
of being both a High Dance person and an academic. Amy Jensen, a colleague at Stony
Brook, turned me onto the concept of Native theater, a synthesis that I should have been
aware of, since it brings together two of the worlds I walk in. Maxine Kern’s Production
Dramaturgy class was the inciting incident for my own current work as a dramaturgstoryteller.
Julian Lang’s patience and willingness to share made that first foray into my
current work, Stories of Our People, a possibility. For David Tripp’s faith and excitement
in Julian’s and my project got us up in front of people, and he and his wife Jan’s tireless
work to make Mountain Dance a possibility, I owe him a “yôotva.” I owe a huge debt of
gratitude for my parents for their indefatigable support in my efforts to be a professional
Karuk dramaturg-storyteller – I need all the support I can get, because it’s not exactly a
paying proposition. All of my friends and relatives in the Indian, academic and theater
communities form a loose network of individuals whose creativity and persistence in
viii