Sometimes a Person Needs a Story

Over a decade ago in his best selling book Crow and Weasel, Cheyenne author Barry Lopez summed up the core of his Native American philosophy on living. He wrote: "It is good to be alive. To have friends, to have a family, to have children, to live in a particular place. These relationships are sacred." Lopez also added a thought-provoking piece of advice, "Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive." The various writers in this book respond to the down-to-earth wisdom of Lopez and other Native writers in an effort to pass on Native gifts to their own children and loved ones that might otherwise be lost. The resulting collection of stories and lessons is a feast of personal connections to America’s Native heritage, to the goodness of the earth, to people who’ve been loved and lost, to people who’ve been loved and not lost, and to some of the best parts of the human story as it has been lived and is now being lived in America.