MY RELATIVES SAY

What could possibly be more "spoken word" than the oral traditions of Native Americans? One feels a seriousness of purpose in these recordings. Wilson, a Dakotah elder and traditionalist born on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, has used exquisite production values to preserve her grandmother and mother's tribal tales and fables. Each of the eight stories features a different animal, from a confused great blue heron to a prideful snake, and is underscored with wonderful flute music and subtle naturalistic sounds of birds, wind, and water. Wilson's voice displays a gentle mix of warmth, humor, and a bit of sadness. Besides its first-rate audio production, this CD offers an "enhanced" CD-ROM featuring captioned photographs and illustrations of the animals and plants that inhabit both the Great Plains and these Dakotah stories. B.P. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 02/ JAN 03]