Turtle Gets a Black Eye, by Ruby Harner

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The late Ruby James Harner (1939-2023) tells her mother Mary James’ version of the traditional Shikonno’pa’ about why Turtle's eyes are the color they are. In Mary James’ version, Turtle gets a black eye, instead of red eyes. Ruby tells this story to Lokosh (Joshua Hinson), who interjects at a few points in the story. Ruby was a long-time resident of Fillmore, Oklahoma and attended Sandy Creek Church all her life. She was a wonderful speaker with a unique connection to nature and irresistibly cheerful spirit.

Transcriptions: If what was said cannot be heard well enough, it is marked as being (inaudible). In some instances, a speaker may go back and correct themselves, and these are marked like \this\, to indicate that \this\ replaces the previous word or phrase. Sometimes we are unsure what the speaker was saying but we give a best guess using a star *. If a speaker is shortening a word, we give the fuller form in (parentheses) next to it.

Translations: The English translations were done with guidance from native speakers. Sometimes, some clarifying words were added in [brackets], although this information is not part of what was actually said in Chikashshanompaꞌ (the Chickasaw language).

Recording: This audio was recorded on December 14, 2023, as part of the Chickasaw Elder Interview Project.

Image: Photograph by Jacquelyn Sparks.

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Keywords: Chickasaw, Chickasaw language, Native language, Indigenous Language, Traditional Narratives, American Indian, Native American, First American, National Science Foundation