Volume VI Special Issue VI September 2026

Name of Author : Dr Theresa Thomas

Title of the paper : Stories as Survivance: The Role of Oral Narratives in the Cultural Survival of Native American Communities

Abstract: This paper attempts to establish that in indigenous communities, orality and storytelling have been the major means of continuing culture and identity through generations. The special reference in the paper will be to Native American culture, society, and writings. Storytelling, which was perceived and crafted as a means of entertainment instruction through entertainment, in Western societies, meant far more to native communities, whether they perceived it as such or not. Narratives were instrumental in transferring and retaining knowledge crucial for survival and in forging identities connected to communal roots. Stories were connected to temporal and spiritual lives, and fashioned the individual’s seamless bond with the community whereby individual identity was subsumed into the collective identity. Women played a major role as culture bearers and transmitters through all kinds of narratives and songs. These primarily ensured an awareness of a sense of place, history, and human standing in the cosmic web of connections.

Keywords : Native American, storytelling, knowledge, identity, culture

DOI :

Page Number : 223-227