So'oh Story Time: Stories for Our Grandchildren w/Shannon LaRance

In this episode we are joined in conversation by Shannon LaRance (Dine'/Hopi/Assiniboine).  Founder of Indigenous Empowerment, Indigenous Empowerment's mission is to ensure culturally sensitive counselors and social service agents are accessible to those in need. Their goal is to train human service organizations across the nation on the complexities, nuances, and beauty of Indigenous people. Social Worker, Counselor, So’oh Story Time.

So'oh, meaning "Grandmother" in Hopi, embodies the essence of our storytelling traditions. It reflects the nurturing and educational atmosphere created on her Youtube channel - “So’oh Story Time”. LaRance reads books for our children and grandchildren - with an emphasis on books written or illustrated by Native American/Indigenous authors and illustrators.

Date of interview: September 6, 2024
Host(s): LaRee Dominguez & Joan Vigil
 
Additional Info. & Links:
https://linktr.ee/SoohStoryTime
So'oh Story Time - YouTube

Transcript

LaRee Dominguez:

Hello and welcome to Overdue, a podcast produced by the Oregon Library Association's EDI and Anti-Racism Committee. My name is LaRee Dominguez. My pronouns are she/her, and I'm a librarian living in Oregon. I'm joined today by a committee member and co-host Joan.

Joan Vigil:

Hello, I am Joan Vigil. I am the Assistant Director of Public Services at Jackson County Libraries.

LaRee Dominguez:

Our guest today is Shannon LaRance. Shannon, would you like to introduce yourself?

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, of course. Thank you so much. My name is Shannon LaRance. I am Dine ’on my mother's side or Navajo, and Hopi and Assiniboine from my father's side. I'm going to introduce myself in Navajo. [Navajo/Dine’ language 00:00:48]. That is who I come from.

I was born in Tuba City, Arizona, and left the res when I went to college. I am the matriarch of my family, a licensed clinical social worker and counselor. I am also the founder of Indigenous Empowerment that is based in Phoenix, Arizona, the creator of the YouTube channel called So-oh Storytime. But I do want to say that my biggest and most coveted title is grandmother or so-oh.

LaRee Dominguez:

That's awesome. Thank you, Shannon. Here's an icebreaker for all of us. Shannon, where is your favorite place to cool off on hot summer days? I know this is fun living in Phoenix. It's fun. The monsoon was always nice in the evening, but what's your favorite?

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, I was going to say yes, I do live in Phoenix, Arizona, so hot summer days are definitely very, very hot. Yesterday was 116 degrees and my favorite place to stay cool is inside. I go from my air-conditioned house to my air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned store, and so I basically live inside. I just can't handle the heat the way some people can, but if I do want to get some relief and go outside and be in nature, I head up north to Flagstaff or the San Francisco Peaks.

LaRee Dominguez:

Awesome.

Joan Vigil:

Shannon, please tell us about yourself.

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, so I am Hopi and Dine’ and I grew up in Arizona and have lived here almost all of my life. I am a social worker by heart, so I really do enjoy helping people, advocating for those who cannot advocate for themselves and trying to improve my community as much as possible. The reason that I wanted to start my So-oh Storytime was to be able to give children access to books that they may not have otherwise had access to, and also to just show them the diversity of our world, and also to read them stories that their parents might be a little bit too busy to be able to read to them and just make sure that they have that early learning in their younger years.

Joan Vigil:

That's wonderful. Thank you. I enjoyed listening to your storytimes and saying them, and I can imagine when my daughter was little, just having her listen to them and she would've loved them.

Shannon LaRance:

Good.

Joan Vigil:

Thank you for doing that.

Shannon LaRance:

Of course.

LaRee Dominguez:

Shannon, do you remember a favorite story from childhood that you could share with us?

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, actually I do. One of the stories that I remember from my childhood and some of the memories around just stories and reading is just wanting to read everything I could get my hands on. I used to read as many books as I could check out from the library and I would talk to my librarian. There were several of them who would always recommend books for me or they would have them on the side and we would talk about the stories. I love that they actually read the stories that I was reading as well, so we had a lot to talk about. They had a very influential impact on me and my love of reading, and so they were able to suggest books that I would just gobble up.

It was really disheartening during the summers because the libraries that I accessed books from were my school libraries. During the summers when school was closed, I didn't really have access to books like I wanted. I would just read newspapers, magazines, maybe they were a little bit too old for me, but I still would read them. I would read cereal boxes, ingredients on the back of shampoo bottles, just whatever I could find just so that I could continue to read.

I would also read to my younger sisters and brother as well, just because one of my sisters didn't really like reading as much, but she would listen to the stories, which was really great. I have just found that reading has opened up my imagination. I was able to visit far-off places that I had never been to before, read about little girls who were picking blueberries when I had never really tasted a blueberry at that time in my life. I just have to say that that's what I remember about stories from my childhood is just the ability to have access to them.

LaRee Dominguez:

Thank you. That's always fun when you have something in front of you that can spark your imagiNation. It's wonderful.

Joan Vigil:

Shannon, what inspired you to start a YouTube channel highlighting Indigenous authors and reading books to children?

Shannon LaRance:

Yes. Well, So-oh Storytime. So-oh means grandmother in Hopi, which is one part of who I am. I created that initially as a placeholder for me to read stories to my grandchildren as my grandchildren do not live with me, they live with their parents. We still live in the same city, but I don't get to be part of bedtime rituals like I'd like to, I really wanted to be able to read them bedtime stories because it was a special time that I had with my own children.

For me to be able to do that, I just started recording myself reading stories and I've collected children's books since my children were little, especially Native authored books so I had lots to read from. I recorded these stories for my grandchildren and that my children would read it to them or show it to them. I started sharing this with some of my friends and they said, "Oh my gosh, I love that idea. I should do that with my own children or grandchildren." They said, "Can I use some of your videos for my own family members?" I said, "Sure."

I started sharing some of the videos and as I got a little bit more interest from other people, not just close friends, I decided that I was going to go ahead and make it more visible on YouTube because I was recording the readings on YouTube. I was just making it private and people could access it through a link. I decided to just go ahead and open it up to more and more people, and also open up the types of books that I was reading to more diverse books, books about different cultures, books about different holidays, and just anything that I could get my hands on.

Then it evolved itself into my reading. Half of the stories that I read are by Indigenous authors or Indigenous illustrators, and half are non-Indigenous authors and illustrators because I just wanted to be able to highlight those books, especially because my own grandchildren and children are Indigenous and I really wanted them to have that connection to our culture.

Joan Vigil:

That's amazing. That's wonderful. Do your grandchildren have a favorite that they love the most or... ?

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, they do have one, and it's funny because it was a story where I said something and I mixed it up. I made a mistake and then I laughed and redid it again, and my editor, who is my husband, left it in there. They just find that to be so funny whenever that happens because it's a little mistake that I made and then I laughed at it and they love that story. They'll even mimic it sometimes that it's just really cute and I think that there's a lesson in there that you could still make a mistake and still keep moving forward, and I really like that lesson and I'm glad that they picked up on that.

Joan Vigil:

Sweet. I bet they'll treasure those forever.

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, yes, and that's the hope as well is leaving some sort of legacy for my children and grandchildren.

LaRee Dominguez:

Shannon, can you share with our audience the integral role storytelling plays within Indigenous cultures?

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, of course. Indigenous people have strong storytelling traditions. These traditions are shared orally. Histories, religious rights and memories are passed down from one generation to the next through the spoken word. There are a lot of stories that are not written down. A lot of them are only told through oral representation, so I do think that it's so important to be able to have the space and time to be able to listen to some of those stories because they will get lost if we don't continue to share them.

I believe that this oral tradition connects our past, present and future, and it tightens our familial bonds because we understand a little bit more about where we come from and what our future holds for us.

I believe that the oral tradition connects our past, present, and future and strengthens our familial bonds because some of these stories help us to understand how we should behave, how we should act as adults, especially if we're talking about coming of age stories and ceremonies. We can learn about the creation stories, culture, beliefs, and some of the other experiences our tribal members and our ancestors have had to endure.

They definitely are sacred, so it is really important for us to be able to have a way to be able to preserve those in some sort of way. I think that storytelling also helps our children to not only develop their imagiNation, but develop their listening skills, memory, and helps to support their emotional learning as they continue to develop and they continue to grow.

LaRee Dominguez:

Yeah, it's so important the oral traditions and how much it brings to families and family bonding. I can remember being surprised when I started grade school that you could read all these books with no pictures and it was exciting. I loved spending time with my grandmother because she would tell me all kinds of stories about the family and about our creation story and people of the river and things.

But my dad would tell us stories on long drives to visit at the res, and that was always so much fun to listen to his stories from him because they were so different than those that my grandmother told me. Thank you for sharing that.

Shannon LaRance:

Yeah, I think that it's really interesting how different family members can have and share their own stories. When I was a little girl, I loved hearing stories of when they were little and some of the experiences they had with some of the same things that I might have dealt with as well. My grandmother used to talk about how she would have her socks and if she got a hole in it, she would put a light bulb inside of it and then she would sew her socks, and here I am thinking if I get a hole in my socks, I just throw it away and get a new pair of socks.

But it just really showed how things are much easier to come by now than they used to be, but how she really loved her socks and she wanted to make sure that she didn't have holes in them and she took pride in keeping them nice and neat.

Other stories of my other family members who would talk about when they were younger too, just hiking and climbing the rocks and herding sheep and all of these other things. It was just really interesting. It was a different time, but it didn't seem like they were lacking in anything that I felt like they might have been lacking because they still had so many fun stories. It was great.

LaRee Dominguez:

Yes, thank you.

Joan Vigil:

Shannon, how were Indigenous histories recorded in the past versus the present, and is there anything Oregon libraries can do to help record and preserve these oral traditions?

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, I would say that we had a lot of different ways that we recorded histories. There's a lot, of course, the different pictographic paintings that are on sides of rocks or on bison hides. There are a lot of different art forms that people utilized. Pottery where they would tell stories and they would have different lines or different images that would represent animals, represent maybe different crops, different seasons and things like that.

You can also see those in Navajo weaving as well. I am a weaver, so we like to depict different types of imagery in there that also tells a story. I also feel like there's just so many different other ways through artwork and things like that where people are sharing the histories and stories of our past.

I do think that there is one way to preserve these oral traditions, and I would say that is to learn about the Nations and tribes in your area. I believe there are nine Nations tribes in Oregon, and I think just understanding those tribes and building a relationship. I think that there's one way to do that and that is to maybe have someone as a coordinator, somebody who you could call your cultural coordinator, who can build those relationships based on respect and based on trust, and be able to be let in to be able to hear some of those stories.

Because some of those stories are only told to members of the tribe, and I think that it is important though, as we continue to grow and continue to move forward in this world, some of those things are going to get lost and I think it would be great to start building that bridge now and letting them know that the only reason to do this is just so that we can make sure it doesn't get lost. Because some of those stories are going to stop being told and the only way to preserve it is to actually write it down or to put it in some sort of art form, having a space to be able to do that.

Joan Vigil:

Thank you. I think you're absolutely right. We don't want any of those stories to get lost. We want to keep them for generations to come.

LaRee Dominguez:

You just talked about this a little bit, Shannon, but what advice would you give to local libraries who want to begin or foster relationships with the Indigenous communities in their area? You talked about this a little bit, but can you expand on that for our listeners?

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, of course. I do have a couple of things that I think could be implemented. I would say one of the things is to have an area that is dedicated to Indigenous peoples or to the tribes in your area. This place can depict artwork, books by Indigenous authors, and I would say to have this space available all year round. A lot of times I've seen libraries or different stores have this space open during Native American Heritage Month in November, but we are here all the time, not just in November. I would say just having a safe space where someone can see themselves represented in a space in your library, and know that they are honored and respected, is a great way to bridge those gaps.

I would also say to have Native American and Indigenous authored books as a searchable field in the library. I'm not sure about the Oregon libraries, so please correct me if I'm misspeaking. But in my own library here in Phoenix, Arizona, I go to look for Native American books and I'll get books about Native Americans, but I won't necessarily get children's books that are created by Indigenous authors or Native American authors. I've tried searching in so many different ways, using different keywords. Unless I know the name of the author or the name of the book that I'm searching for, it is very difficult for me to find.

There's not a specific area in the library where I can find Indigenous authored children's books. I've talked to some of the librarians here and they may not even know some of the authors. They've asked me for the author names in order to help me to find the books, and I may or may not know that because I'm looking for anything that I can get my hands on that I can read on So’oh Storytime.

I end up, instead of checking out books from the library, I end up purchasing a lot of my own books because I can go to a store, I don't want to say any of the names, but let's say Amazon. I can go to a store and actually search in the field and say Native American authored books and I find them. I find that to be a little bit disheartening I think, and I do understand the library system. I have much respect for library systems, so I do understand why they are organized in the way that they are organized, but I do think that would be something that would be very helpful.

I would also suggest a mobile library that can be accessible to children in more remote areas so that they have access to books and they can check them out. I know that one of the big hindrances for children to check out books is that maybe their parent isn't available because maybe they're at work or don't have the time to come and meet the mobile library at the time that they're checking out books. Just allowing a child to still be able to check out a book would be really great.

There are a lot of also really great programs that allow freestanding access to books as well, so I think those are really great for more remote areas as well, and I do believe that the libraries can help in that way.

LaRee Dominguez:

I know subject headings is something that we've come across here on the podcast as well, but it is very disturbing and it is a little disheartening that it is taking so many people so long to try and find an easier way for us to search for Indigenous authors.

Joan Vigil:

Shannon, do you have any recommendations for how children, youth and school librarians might create more inclusive storytimes or programming for Indigenous children? For example, incorporating non-dominant cultural ways of tracking seasonal changes such as specific seasonal wheels or calendars instead of, in addition to fall story time?

Shannon LaRance:

Yes. I think that just inviting members of the Nations and tribes that are in your area to come and read a book, inviting Indigenous authors to come and share their books with your young readers. I just recently went to an author signing where they had an interview with an author, and I was able to get the book at the moment, but it was at a bookstore.

I did recently go to a library and was able to see an author who was signing his book, and it was really great because there were so many more people at the library, attendance at the library than they were at the bookstore. It was geared more towards the time when they may have more children in the place, so there was a lot of children there that maybe parents were in the adult section and they were in their section. They were able to listen to this author talk about his story, and then they were also able to get a book for free, which was really great. I think just inviting different authors to your library to read some of their books to children is a really great way to be able to do that.

I also think it's important to understand the tribes and the Nations way that they all track time and seasons, because not all tribes are the same. Maybe just finding ways that they honor Mother Earth and how they are able to do that, if they would be willing to share that information with children. You would be amazed at how many people are willing to do that. I've been doing So-oh Storytime now for three years, and I have not been asked by any library to come and read a story to a child, but if somebody would've said, "Hey, we're looking for readers to come and read to our children," I would definitely be signing up for that just because I think it's so important to have a different representation of different people reading stories to children.

I just think sometimes putting it out there for people and just knowing that that's something that you're seeking out will bring people into your libraries to be able to share their stories with children.

Joan Vigil:

Thank you. I love that. I think there's nothing more important than seeing an author who looks like you and is representative of your culture, read their book, and it inspires children to maybe I could do that someday, which is really cool.

Shannon LaRance:

Yeah, it was really nice when, like I said, when I went to the book signing at the library and the author was there. He was taking pictures with the kids and then also giving his book away to them, and you could just see, they were just holding onto it, and there was just something really special about it that was really sweet.

LaRee Dominguez:

I love that he was taking pictures with the kids or she, and actually was able to give some books away. That's so important.

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, I do have to say authors are really amazing. I have had authors send me their books to read on my channel, which has been really amazing. Then I do giveaways to give some of these books back to the community or other children as well. It's been really great, and I really enjoy that. I do have a little thing on my YouTube channel that basically says, if you want to collaborate, I will give your book the utmost respect and read it to their children. I always say to our children and grandchildren, and then I like to give them back to somebody else as well.

LaRee Dominguez:

Oh, that's awesome.

Shannon LaRance:

Yeah.

LaRee Dominguez:

What do you think one of the biggest concerns affecting youth in Indigenous communities is, and is there a way that libraries can help?

Shannon LaRance:

Yes. I believe that one of the biggest concerns is the loss of language in our communities, and I believe that this is due to the teaching of English in all schools and not necessarily our own tribal languages. There are some Nations that are changing that and making tribal languages the only thing being taught from kindergarten to third grade, which I think is really great, but not everybody is doing that at this moment.

I also feel like the trauma from boarding schools that has impacted several generations of Native people also takes a big toll on this. I want to say that for instance, in my own family, my great-grandmother attended a boarding school and she did not want to speak to us in Navajo as she thought it would impact our growth in this new world that we are living in, and she thought that it would impact my ability to be successful.

Even at my age now, I'm 51, I'm taking a beginning Navajo language class so that I can teach my own grandchildren the language as I do believe that is one of the biggest hindrances, and I think when you don't have that connection to your language, you lose a whole lot. You lose a part of the connection to the culture because there are a lot of stories that are only told in the Native language and can't necessarily be interpreted to English, or they lose some of the meaning when they're being interpreted into English.

Then also a lot of our elders only speak our Native tongue, so you're not able to then communicate with some of the older people in your families. I think that that's really a difficult thing too, because you definitely lose that connection as well.

I think that the libraries can help by introducing more books that share the language, having people who speak the language, share stories and incorporate the Native language into their storytelling. I do know that there's a couple of people that have said, I wanted to take your idea of reading stories to children, but read them in Navajo or read them in Hopi for children so that they can hear those same stories and they can see the words, but then I'm speaking them in the Native tongue.

I think that is a fabulous idea, and I do hope that people actually do that. I hope that when I learn Navajo as well as I hope to learn it, that I will start incorporating a little bit more Navajo storytelling in my own channel as well, because it is so important to be able to make sure that our children are given access to learning that language.

LaRee Dominguez:

That's really important, and across the United States, that's a very important issue for all of the tribal Nations. It seems like it's discussed monthly. Thank you for sharing that.

Shannon LaRance:

Of course.

Joan Vigil:

What have you noticed with the younger generation in terms of being more interested in keeping their traditions and culture going?

Shannon LaRance:

First of all, I just want to say that I'm amazed with our younger generation. I do think in this world that we live in right now where they have access to everything, I think it's been really great the way that I've seen them be really creative.

One of the ways that I've seen due to representation in social media, TV, movies, sports, politics, there's an overwhelming sense of pride and connection that I've been noticing, which has been really great. The younger generation is using their own creativity, lend their voice in sharing their traditions through art like stickers, comic books, comic book stories, painting skateboards, sports jerseys, beaded earrings that reflect a character like Hello Kitty, t-shirts with funny sayings, and that's been really great.

I've also seen them really sharing the pride and connection through their voice, through writing stories and also through other means of art such as painting. When you go to different art shows and you see this younger generation that are, I would like to say, making art a little bit more contemporary using different types of materials that we may not have used before.

For instance, in Navajo culture, we have a squash blossom necklace that can be thousands of dollars made out of silver and turquoise. We have a lot of our younger generations that are making Native jewelry a little bit more accessible, so they may be using resin or they may be using some other metals that are not so expensive so that people can have access. Also, really urbanizing it a little bit more so that they still have that connection, but making it a little bit different, making it their own, which I think is really amazing.

I also think that we have a lot more younger authors and illustrators that are taking on not only their traditional characters that they usually have in Native American books, but also having more urban characters. People that are living in two worlds, people that are living in cities, people that may be struggling with keeping that connection to their homeland and things like that, which I think is really great as well. It really does reflect the changes that our community is going through.

I've been really impressed with their continued connection to our culture, but then also living in this new world that we live in. I think that it shows representation of who we are, that we are still here, and that we are not going anywhere, and that we are going to continue to live on and continue to honor and nurture our culture and our traditions through any means necessary. It's been really great, and I think that it's also showing our diversity, but also showing that we still have a connection to one another and to our culture, which I think is really great.

Joan Vigil:

That's wonderful. I love seeing a lot of the books, and like you said, comics and graphic novels. I think it just highlights everything in a different way, but it's amazing, so thank you.

Shannon LaRance:

Yes, yes. They're impressive. Impressive.

LaRee Dominguez:

That is impressive, and I love seeing those things as well, and I love seeing a lot of the art that is coming out in jewelry making, as you mentioned. It's so nice, and you can tie a lot of those in. You see that, and it reflects something that you read by an Indigenous author that's younger as well. That's a great tie-in. Thank you.

Shannon, what are your plans for the future of the channel?

Shannon LaRance:

Well, one of my biggest plans for myself and my channel is to become an author myself. I'm actually working on a couple of different storylines and trying to see which one is the way that I want to go when it comes to writing a story or writing a children's book. Because I do love the traditional ways of a lot of the Indigenous authored books that I've seen, but I've also really been intrigued by writing about more urban Native kids, or even maybe not even a Native child, but just some sort of book about a character who will continue to grow and have meaning.

As a counselor, I really am a strong advocate of children being able to process their emotions and process grief and process a lot of different changes that they may be dealing with that they don't understand. I do think it's important to maybe write a book about that too. There's a lot of different things that I have in my mind for writing a children's book, but that is something that is on the radar for the future.

One of the reasons that I decided that I wanted to write a book is because last year for Native American Heritage Month, I made a vow that I was going to read a Indigenous authored book every day of the month of Native American Heritage Month. I had a little bit of a difficult time, especially when I was looking for individual authors. I didn't want to keep reading the same author over and over again, even though I did a couple of times. But I really wanted to find authors and illustrators that were Indigenous. It was a little bit difficult because there isn't, I mean, there are many out there, but there aren't as much as there should be that can represent who we are.

I decided that that was something that was going to be really important to me that I could also pass down as a legacy to my own grandsons. That is something that is going to be something I will be doing, but I also will be reading chapter books on my channel. I'm not exactly sure how I am going to incorporate that, but some of my readers are getting a little bit older and they don't want to read the "baby books" anymore. They want to read more books that are more geared towards their age. I'd like to be able to continue to do that.

Plus I've been really seeing a lot of chapter books by Indigenous authors that are really amazing. One that I just started to read is called Dreamweaver by Violet Duncan, and it's been really great. There's also been a lot more adult Native authored books as well that I have been looking into, so it would be nice to be able to give access to all of those books to children who may or may not be able to afford those books or have access to them.

I'm also going to continue to do baby sensory videos. I have one baby sensory video right now that's playing to flute music, and it has stereotypical Native images on it bouncing across the screen, and I will just tell you right now, my grandsons fall asleep to that thing within 15 minutes. It's amazing. It's a nice little soothing, relaxing little video.

Those are just things that I would like to continue to do and continue to, of course, read Native authored books to children so that not only just Native children, but all children have access to those.

LaRee Dominguez:

I'm really excited to have the opportunity to read something or watch the channel and see something that you're working on that will be really wonderful, and I'm really excited about the chapter books. That's going to be so much fun, and I've got to say I'm super excited. I can hardly wait to read Violet's book. Well, this is exciting news all the way around for Indigenous authors and for everyone to be able to listen to So-oh Storytime, really excited about all of the future things that will be happening on your channel, Shannon. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

Shannon LaRance:

Of course.

LaRee Dominguez:

This has been amazing and so inspiring. I hope that everyone gets that.

Shannon LaRance:

I appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. I love sharing about So-oh Storytime, and I hope that all children get to be able to watch it when their parents are busy doing something. They just get to put it on real quick. Yes, I'm really excited about that.

LaRee Dominguez:

No, that's awesome. I shared it with my granddaughter and hopefully she's watching it.

Shannon LaRance:

I appreciate that.

Ericka Brunson-Rochette:

Overdue, weeding out oppression in libraries would not be possible without the generous support from the Oregon Library Association and the State Library of Oregon, whose mission is to provide leadership and resources to continue growing vibrant library services for Oregonians.

We would like to take time to acknowledge historical injustices. We recognize Oregon was established as a white sanctuary state with the intent to exclude African American and Black people on ancestral lands stolen from dispossessed Indigenous peoples. We recognize and honor the members of federally recognized tribes and unrecognized tribes of Oregon. We honor Native American ancestors, past, present, and future whose land we still occupy.

This acknowledgement aims to deconstruct false histories, correct the historical record, and disrupt genocidal practices by refocusing attention to the original people of the land we inhabit, the slave trade and forced labor that built this country, and to the oppressive social systems interwoven into the fabric of our National and regional heritage. We ask that you take a moment to acknowledge and reflect as well.