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Thomas Doty: Storyteller

Since 1981, Thomas Doty has traveled the countryside performing and teaching Stories from the Native West. A lover of journeys, he saunters through the places stories come from. He listens to folks tell their stories. He composes stories. Thomas Doty participates in a living oral tradition.

A skilled and experienced teacher of storytelling, Doty is Storyteller and Author in Residence at Dragonfly Place, A Center for the Study of Storytelling, Literature and Performance in the Siskiyou Mountains near Ashland, Oregon.

He is also the author of a series of Doty and Coyote books, and many of his stories have been broadcast on Public Radio. He has received several awards, including a Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from the national American Indian Program.

Recent projects include returning the Sacred Salmon Ceremony to its original native site on the Rogue River in 2007 and the installation and dedication of We Are Here, a 20 foot tall native carving in downtown Ashland in 2006. Doty also co-directs Reading the Rocks, the Takelma Language Project, and serves on the international Board of Directors of CIRCLE, the Centre for Indigenous Research, Culture, Language and Education located at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

"My stories are for people of all ages," says Thomas Doty. "Children delight in the mythic adventures of Coyote and Bear and Crow. Adults look beyond the narrative to see what the stories offer a world searching for solutions."