Including stories from the 1700s to today, Choctaw Tales showcases the mythic, the legendary and supernatural, the prophecies and histories, the animal fables and jokes that make up the rich and lively Choctaw storytelling tradition. The stories display intelligence, artistry, and creativity as Choctaw narrators, past and present, express and struggle with beliefs, values, humor, and life experiences. Photographs of the storytellers complement the text. For sixteen tales, the Choctaw-language version appears in addition to the English translation. Many of these stories, passed down through generations, address the Choctaw sense of isolation and tension as storytellers confront eternal, historical, and personal questions about the world and its inhabitants. Choctaw Tales, the first book to collect these stories, creates a comprehensive gathering of oral traditions from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Each story brings to life the complex and colorful world of the Choctaw tribe and its legend and lore. The shukha anumpa include tall tales, jokes, and stories of rabbits, turtles, and bears. The stories of the elders are populated by spirits that bring warnings and messages to the people. These tales provide a spectrum of legend and a glimpse of a vibrant, thriving legacy.

Choctaw variant of Aesop's fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, in which Turkey assists Turtle in defeating Rabbit.

"Chukfi is a trickster worthy of the name, and this fresh, funny tale makes an excellent addition to the genre." (starred reivew, Kirkus Reviews) Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2014 Silly kids, tricks are for rabbits! Chukfi Rabbit, that is. The laziest—and hungriest—trickster rabbit there is! Deep in Choctaw Country, Chukfi Rabbit is always figuring out some way to avoid work at all costs. When Bear, Turtle, Fox, and Beaver agree on an everybody-work-together day to build Ms. Possum a new house, Chukfi Rabbit says he's too busy to help. Until he hears there will be a feast to eat after the work is done: cornbread biscuits, grape dumplings, tanchi labona (a delicious Choctaw corn stew), and best of all, fresh, homemade butter! So while everyone else helps build the house, Chukfi helps himself to all that yummy butter! The furry fiend! But this greedy trickster will soon learn that being this lazy is hard work! A classic trickster tale in the Choctaw tradition. Greg Rodgers is a storyteller and writer. He is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and tells stories in schools, libraries, festivals, and tribal events throughout the country. He is currently completing a PhD at the University of Illinois, Urbana. Leslie Stall Widener lives in north Texas in a one-hundred-year old farmhouse with her husband, also an illustrator. When she was a child, she explored every inch of her grandparents' Oklahoma farm, an allotment her grandmother received for her Choctaw ancestry. Leslie's latest book, a collaboration with her sister, is an illustrated history of fashion.

In the 1800s, a Choctaw girl becomes friends with a slave boy from a plantation across the great river, and when she learns that his family is in trouble, she helps them cross to freedom.

When it was first published, Crossing Bok Chitto took readers by surprise. This moving and original story about the intersection of Native and African Americans received starred reviews and many awards, including being named an ALA Notable Children's Book and a Jane Addams Honor Book. Jeanne Rorex Bridges' illustrations mesmerized readers--Publishers Weekly noted that her "strong, solid figures gaze squarely out of the frame, beseeching readers to listen, empathize and wonder." Choctaw storyteller Tim Tingle blends songs, flute, and drum to bring the lore of the Choctaw Nation to life in lively historical, personal, and traditional stories. Artist Jeanne Rorex Bridges traces her heritage back to her Cherokee ancestors.

They Say the Wind Is Red is the moving story of the Choctaw Indians who managed to stay behind when their tribe was relocated in the 1830s. Throughout the 1800s and 1900s, they had to resist the efforts of unscrupulous government agents to steal their land and resources. But they always maintained their Indian communities—even when government census takers listed them as black or mulatto, if they listed them at all. The detailed saga of the Southwest Alabama Choctaw Indians, They Say the Wind Is Red chronicles a history of pride, endurance, and persistence, in the face of the abhorrent conditions imposed upon the Choctaw by the U.S. government.

This informative study helps to complete the saga of the Choctaw by documenting the life and culture of those who escaped removal. It is an account that until now has been left largely untold. The Choctaw Indians, once one of the largest and most advanced tribes in North America, have mainly been studied as the first victims of removal during the Jacksonian era. After signing the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, the great mass of the tribe—about 20,000 of perhaps 25,000—was resettled in what is present-day Oklahoma. What became of the thousands that remained? The history of the Choctaw remaining in Mississippi has been given only scant attention by scholars, and generally it has been forgotten by the public. As this new book points out, several thousand remained on individual land allotments or as itinerant farm workers and continued to follow old customs. Many of mixed blood abandoned their ancestral ways and were merged into the white community. Some faded into the wilderness. Despite many obstacles, the remnants of this Mississippi Choctaw society endured and in the modern era through federal legislation have been recognized as a society known as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.