A Choctaw with stories to tell
by Lisa Reed
Music man …teacher… author … educator … ’teller Ralph Williston of Dearborn, Missouri, is spending his “retirement years” continuing a legacy handed down by his father.
One of his favorite stories is of his father.
“My father, Henry S. Williston, was known as the ‘music man’ in high school because he could play any instrument,” Ralph said. “My twin brother and I were born when he was teaching music at Chilocco Indian Boarding School near Ponca City, Oklahoma. As children and teenagers, our home was always filled with music.” Like his father, Ralph is known as the “music man” at his church and, also, like his father, Ralph is a teacher and ’teller.
“A full-blood Choctaw, my father was born in Indian Territory on an unknown date around 1906 or 1907 in a log cabin outside of Broken Bow, Oklahoma. His parents died when he was a child. His only memory of his father was hearing him playing the violin as he was coming home after playing for a dance. Dad ended up at Chilocco Boarding School where he turned to music to overcome the oppression of those days. One of the reasons that Choctaw was spoken ‘very little in our home’ was the result of his experience in boarding schools … as he said, ‘I would get my fingers hit hard with a ruler if I talked any Choctaw word so I had to learn and speak what was called English’.
“Dad ran away from Chilocco with a friend, Harrison,” Ralph tells as he weaves a pattern in the fabric of his heritage. “Dad and his friend hopped trains until they got to Bacone Boarding School near Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he finished high school. My middle name is Harrison, named in honor of his good friend. ¬“Dad, as a high school student orphan, sold his land allotment on his home land because he was told that he had not paid his back taxes,” Ralph said. “He saved his money so that he could attend Northeastern Teachers College (now Northeastern University in Tahlequah) where he earned a bachelor’s degree in music education. He became one of the few Choctaw with a college degree and this was during the late 1930s, the depression years. Dad served in the National Guard in those days and remembered that he was part of a circle of guardsmen around a plane that had a strange name …Spirit of Saint Louis!
“As a teacher Dad returned to the same boarding school (Chilocco) where he had so many memories and taught music to natives of all grades. He would spend 25 years teaching thousands of children, youth, band and vocal music in public schools in Wyandotte and Fairland where he fell in love with Mable, my Mom. Dad also taught in Quapaw, Commerce, and Webbers Falls, Oklahoma. He taught in Pamona, Kansas, where I graduated high school third in my class of 13. Dad went back to school in Mexico and then taught Spanish for another 10 years. He earned a master’s degree from Pittsburg State University Pittsburg, Kansas, where I would also earn my master’s in science education years later.”
While growing up Ralph and his twin brother, Rolland, hiked and visited homes in the small Oklahoma communities where they lived. Ralph’s love of ’telling grew as they absorbed memories and stories handed down through the ages. Rolland eventually became the Native American Specialist for a World Church and invited Ralph to visit a number of native tribes.
“I would sit all night and listen to the native storytellers,” Ralph remembers. “When I came home from these trips I would first tell some of these stories to our young children. I discovered that the magic of those old stories actually held their attention. Then I went to an elementary class, a library event, then a church and church camp…and watched the children as I shared some of these stories. They didn’t move! The rest is history … that started over 30 years ago.”
After collecting several stories, his adult children encouraged him to put the “Great Spirit” stories into books. He began the “Little Eagle” series of books in 2000 and now has nine self-published books including seven large-format books for children – “Catch A Rabbit,” “Attacked by an Eagle,” “Follow the Trail,” “Fur From a Bear,” “Corn Seed Test,” “Lost,” “Swim the River” – and two chapter books, “Trapped on a Cliff” and “Snake Bit.”
In them, a young boy, Little Eagle, is given challenges by his grandfather and often finds himself in trouble. He remembers that his grandfather always said, “Ask the Great Spirit for help.” He listens and follows the guidance and passes his tests toward becoming a village scout. Ralph has now collected 40 stories including those of a young girl, “White Dove,” and her native adventures which he hopes to get into books someday, he says.
“Former Councilman, historian and storyteller Charley Jones was an inspiration,” Ralph said. “I remember when I shared my father’s story of ‘How the Great Spirit Created Man’ with Charley, his eyes just glowed. “I shared with Charley how Dad had told that story for 35 years to thousands of children and adults and how I now get to tell that story to another generation in his honor. When I sit down with the children, I sometimes wear the same necklace that he wore when he sat down with the children.”
One story always leads to another and Ralph enjoys remembering Charley asking, “Did you hear how the Choctaw would get their plants to grow tall?” Part of that story became the basis for the “Corn Seed Test” book.
Ralph believes every story has a “deeper meaning” and it is this “deeper meaning” that makes it a tradition.
“The Choctaw of the past adopted the good around them and one was the importance of education and books,” Ralph said. “Now, the oral stories are coming alive again and can be remembered because of both the oral and written traditions. Children of all ages need these stories about how the natives taught their children.”
So, like he has done for over 30 years, Ralph continues to sit down on a blanket, looking the children in the eye and telling these old and now new again stories to children and youth in schools, libraries and churches. If a child asks, “What is the Great Spirit?” Ralph tells them that is just one of the Native names for the Creator known as God.
“Trapped On a Cliff” has been reprinted and the classic “Catch A Rabbit” is now out of print. Two favorite stories, “Fur from a Black Bear” and “Follow The Trail,” are stories that children want to hear again and again and have told Ralph that they now tell their children and they hope that they will tell their children’s children.”
In his retirement, Ralph visits 15 to 20 schools annually. Along with his captive storytelling ability, he also teaches writing workshops, gives motivational presentations called “The Challenge” and “Super Science Goodies…making wise healthy choices” to all ages. The challenge presentations are aimed toward sharpening the listening and visual skills of middle- and high school-age youth. The multimedia presentation includes the “4 T’s” of writing short stories along with the “Ralph Williston Writing Contest.” All students are provided the beginning of a story and they compete by writing the best endings. The writing workshops are for third- through 12th-grade level and sometimes include as many as 300 students a day.
Over the years, Choctaw Storyteller Tim Tingle and Councilman Ted Dosh have invited Ralph to share stories at the festivals and schools in their areas. “When this man speaks, the children listen,” said Councilman Dosh when he had introduced Ralph once at a council meeting. In February and March, Ralph will begin a tour of 15 schools in Texas, then Colorado, then Kansas, then … Now this is a Choctaw who has stories to tell.