Native American Stories of Washington - Jack Straw Cultural Center

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Curtis DuPuis tells a story in the Jack Straw studio

Native American Stories of Washington was a project designed to document and preserve stories and legends (with professional quality recordings), as told by some of Washington state’s important Native American tradition bearers from the Lummi, Yakama, Jamestown S’Klallam, Chehalis, Skokomish (Twana), Quinault and Squaxin tribes. It was coordinated by Northwest Heritage Resources, in partnership with Jack Straw Cultural Center and the Longhouse Education and Cultural Center at The Evergreen State College.

Native American elders and storytellers from Washington state who were recorded for the project in 2008:
Virginia Beavert – Yakama; Pauline Hillaire – Lummi; Curtis DuPuis – Chehalis; Delbert Miller – Skokomish; Elaine Grinnell – Jamestown S’Klallam; Harvest Moon – Quinault; Cecil Cheeka – Makah & Squaxin.

The recordings made by Pauline Hillaire as a part of this project were released as an album, which includes 6 traditional Lummi legends as told to Pauline by her father, kwul-kwul’tw (Joseph Hillaire).

Purchase Lummi Legends by Pauline Hillaire

All sales of Lummi Legends go to help support the production of future recordings for the Native storytellers, the preservation of Native languages in Washington, and the Native storytellers themselves.

This project was funded in part by the Folk & Traditional Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts, and we also wish to extend our thanks to the Washington State Arts Commission for ongoing support.