New Line of Audiobooks on Native American Subjects
Panther’s Lodge is pleased to announce the appearance of its first audiobook, Red Man’s Origin, by Donald N. Panther-Yates, narrated by Shandon Loring. It went on sale July 25 on audible.com, where its nonmember price is $6.95 and where it is free with a new membership. Shandon Loring is a traditional Irish seanchai (trained storyteller).
Of seanchais, Loring says, “The infectious tones that we hear from their lips allow us to momentarily slip away from the modern day and very real world and conjure up images of the rich and yet simplistic life lead by our ancestors, to escape from the hustle and bustle of the post-modern world and into the world of traditional Ireland.” Loring’s rich and subtle voice brings alive in unforgettable fashion the Cherokee origin story that was once learned by every young tribe member at the Great Moon or Cherokee New Year festival.
Here is the blurb for Red Man’s Origin, which is also available in print and ebook editions:
In the world of Native Americans, oral communication takes the place of the written word in preserving their most valued texts.
By a miracle of transmission, here is the earliest and most complete version of the story of the Cherokee people, from their origins in a land across the great waters to the coming of the white man. In olden times, it was recited at every Great Moon or Cherokee New Year festival so it could be learned by young people. It was set down in English in an Indian Territory newspaper by Cornsilk (the pen-name of William Eubanks) from the Cherokee language recitation of George Sahkiyah (Soggy) Sanders, a fellow Keetoowah Society priest, in 1892.
We do not have anything anterior or more authentic than Eubanks and Sanders’ “Red Man’s Origin”. Mystic and plain-spoken at the same time, “Red Man’s Origin” tells how the clans became seven in number, reorganized their religion in America and struggled to maintain their “half-sphere temple of light”. You will hear in Cornsilk’s original words about the true name of the Cherokee people, the totem Uktena serpent, divining crystals of the Urim and Thummin, the terrible Sa-ho-ni clan and other Cherokee storytelling subjects. The brief narrative is here reprinted with an introduction by Cherokee author Donald Panther-Yates.
Coming in September will be the audible audiobook version of A Memoir of Chief Two White Feathers, by Donald Panther-Yates, narrated by Richard V. Dalke, produced by Deerhawk Enterprises. This portrait of a spiritual practitioner was No. 2 in the Cherokee Chapbook series.
