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Thomas Doty – Storyteller

First Performance

Note from Doty

My first performance of native stories was to a packed house on May 10, 1981 at the Vintage Inn in Ashland, Oregon. I was joined by Robert Casebeer who read his Indian poems and Paul Tipton who read his Bear poems. The title of the program, "Starting from Stillness and Water," is a line from "The Tillamook Burn," a poem by William Stafford. A few years later I told stories in one of Stafford's classes at Lewis and Clark College. Afterwards Bill told me, "I suspect you'll be doing this for a while. It's your calling." Paul Jenny drew the flier. I traded him my Olds Recorder trumpet for graphic design work. He still plays that trumpet and I'm still telling stories.