Walking the Choctaw Road: Stories from Red People Memory

A superb storyteller, Tingle has collected Choctaw tales from his great-grandfather’s account of the Trail of Tears to his own tale of a summer with his father. That summer the two—with contrasting ideas and thoughts—worked side-by-side and came to respect one another. The battle, Tingle says, went on for 20 more years until during the last ten when they became best friends. But the most gripping tale is Tingle’s account of his own youth and the day he realized his grandmother was blind, and the day years later when the family all gathered as his grandmother underwent one of the first eye-transplant surgeries. Poetic language and a compelling but quiet voice honor the Native American traditions for both the native and the non-native reader. This collection may need some advertising, but readers who discover it will come to appreciate the tales. (Short stories. 10-15)

A true talespinner celebrates his heritage with 11 absorbing yarns drawn, recombined, and retold from oral sources. Tales of shape-shifters and healing magic share space with stories about tragedy and miracles along the Trail of Tears and about prejudice, friendship, and incidents that illuminate traditional Choctaw values and cultural practices. In “Trail of Tears,” a child carries his mother’s bones on his journey of forced migration; in “The Choctaw Way,” a killer teaches an orphan a moral lesson by willingly paying the price for his crime. Sophisticated narrative devices and some subtle character nuances give these stories a literary cast, but the author’s evocative language, expert pacing, and absorbing subject matter will rivet readers and listeners both. In a long introduction, which might have been better placed at the end, Tingle pays tribute to his sources and discusses motifs and historical events central to the Choctaw people. — John Peters

In Walking the Choctaw Road: Stories from Red People Memory, storyteller Tim Tingle shares what it means to be Choctaw through 11 moving tales. His subjects range from the "Trail of Tears" to "Tony Byars," one man's account of finding friendship amidst enormous sorrow during his seven-year confinement in an Indian boarding school. Copyright 2003 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

"Sophisticated narrative devices and some subtle character nuances give these stories a literary cast, but the author s evocative language, expert pacing, and absorbing subject matter will rivet readers and listeners both." Booklist
"Poetic language and a compelling but quiet voice honor the Native American traditions for both the native and the non-native reader." Kirkus Reviews
"Written in a down-to-earth, highly accessible style, Walking the Choctaw Road is a joy to read, embracing tribal traditions with wry humor, enhanced with liberal highlights of both energy and excitement." The Midwest Book Review
"Storyteller Tim Tingle shares what it means to be Choctaw through 11 moving tales. His subjects range from the 'Trail of Tears' to 'Tony Byars, ' one man s account of finding friendship amidst enormous sorrow during his seven-year confinement in an Indian boarding school." Publishers Weekly
"Tingle is as skilled a storyteller as a collector. His compilation of Choctaw folklore is a pleasure to read, from introduction to final tale This volume is a fine addition to any library s folklore, storytelling, multicultural history, or literature collection." VOYA
" Tingle is at the top of his order; with the likes of Joseph Bruchac and Gail Ross, Indians whose intuitive grasp of the deep relationship between stories and the land and cultural survival makes their tellings into semi-mystical eventsThere is a luminosity of spirit to all of [the stories]." San Antonio Express-News
"Tim Tingle, a well-known Choctaw storyteller, has selected a variety of stories that reflect Choctaw history and folkloreThis book would be very useful as a resource for history, cultural studies, folklore and storytelling, and might inspire others to collect oral history and family stories." Multicultural Children's Literature
"Love and respect for the family, the elders, pride of heritage and a strict code of honesty are dominant themes throughout the book. Mr. Tingle s writing impressed me. Students and adults alike should read this book. It certainly commands a place in every school library." Plum Creek Almanac
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