Table of Contents

Turkey Girl

Nora Naranjo Morse

with Nora Naranjo Morse

Nora Naranjo Morse: There is this story called Turkey Girl. And it is of this young woman who was orphaned at a very early age. And she made her way through life in the village by doing things for other people and working hard.

Arlie Neskahi :
Tewa Pueblo sculptor and storyteller Nora Naranjo Morse shares the traditional story of the Pueblo orphan girl who was honored by the wild turkeys she watched over.

Music:
Tewa Indian Women’s Choir
Ange’in
Heartbeat: Voices of First Nations Women
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Morse:
Poor Turkey Girl, she didn’t have anyone to look after her. So she had to learn the hard way how to be strong and how to be forthright. And she didn’t learn or have anyone to tell her how to take care of herself so she was quite scraggly. She didn’t take care of herself and the way she looked, because she was so busy working and always doing for others so she could make her way through life.

People would make fun of her, and of course the young men didn’t even pay attention to her because just looked like she was all worn out and dirty and not a beautiful young girl. Because she was so hard working, she never felt sorry, had no time to feel sorry for herself. She was always busy from sunup to sundown. And she would haul wood for people, especially the older people and she would help people mix their clay and sift their clay and she would help people do the farming.

And Turkey Girl would chop wood and gather wood and help in the fields and plaster the mud homes in the village to make her way though life. And when she was maybe, at the verge of blossoming into a young woman, she went one day into the canyon of the village closer to the mountains where there is water coming from a stream. She walked into that area and she was, um, taking care of the turkeys in the community.

Music
R. Carlos Nakai
Tapestry V, for Native American Flute, African Per
Spirit Horses (Concerto for Native American Flute and Chamber Orchestra)
Canyon Records

And the Turkey People started talking to her because they were her friends and they wanted to make sure that she was doing well and they asked her, “How are you doing?”

And she said, “I am feeling low and I feel sad that I have no one to take care of me or no one to dress me for the ceremony that is coming up.”

And so they said, “We’ll help you. Come with us.” And so they walked further and further into the canyon. And she didn’t know and she was afraid because never before, even though she had taken care of these turkeys, she had never before trusted them. She was always taking care of them. And today, for some reason they were offering her what they could give her.

And so Turkey Girl was not quite sure where the turkeys were leading her. And they took her further into the canyon.

Music:
John Trudell
Undercurrent
Bone Days
Daemon

And before she knew it, she was in this sacred place. And the sun was shining. And she felt safe. And the turkeys were all around her. And they started pecking at her hair and pulling out the leftover pinions that had fallen on her hair and they were trying to clean her hair.

And they had come out with a Manta, which is a ceremonial dress of the Pueblos. And they wrapped it around her. And they also brought out a belt and they put the belt on her. And they were dressing her in the most finest of clothes, ceremonial clothes.

And she was so surprised because this was such magic to her. No one, no human being had ever taken such interest and care for her and she was very touched in her heart.

And the turkeys washed her. And they washed her hair with yucca and they made sure the sun dried her hair perfectly. And they just pampered her and she felt so loved. The turkeys washed her hair and dressed her and made sure she looked very beautiful. And turkey girl was very touched simply because no human being had ever taken such care in the way she looked. And she was very excited because she was going to go back into the village and be part of the ceremony and look beautiful.

And right before they started walking out of the canyon, the oldest turkey said to her “come to the side of the river and look into the water and see yourself, Turkey Girl. See what it is that you have become. And know this is truly who you are.”

Music:
Robbie Robertson
Broken Arrow
Robbie Robertson
Mobile Fidelity

Turkey girl looked into the water and she was surprised. She didn’t recognize herself because staring back was this beautiful woman who had been cleaned and washed by these turkeys. And now they had taken great care in making her and transforming her into this beautiful woman dancer.

So Turkey Girl looked, thanked them all very much, told them, “I will always remember this. I will always care for you because you have given me so much today.”

Music:
Ed Lee Natay
Tewa Turtle Dance
Navaho Singer
Canyon Records

So Turkey Girl, after having looked at herself in the water and realized that she was not ugly or unkempt, she walked into the village with such confidence. And she began to dance. And everybody was whispering in the crowd, “Who is this beautiful woman who is dancing? Who could she possibly be?” Nobody even recognized her. And all the young men in the village looked at her with new interest. And that is the end of the Turkey Girl story.

Neskahi:
Nora Naranjo Morse is a noted potter, sculptor, poet and writer. She lives and works in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico.

Wisdom of the Elders 2026 Summer Newsletter

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Greetings, Friends of Wisdom,

The summer season has a way of moving fast, and this season has been no exception. Between fieldwork, new partnerships, and the everyday work of listening and preserving, our community showed up for each other and for the land we share.

We're grateful for every hand that helped make this season count, and we're glad to share a bit of it with you here.

Our Wisdom of the Elders archive continues to grow, with new conversations from our tape collection making their way online – elders speaking in their own words, no interruptions, no filters. There is something about hearing a story the way it was actually told, at the pace it was actually told, that no summary has ever managed to hold.

We've also been out in the field this summer with our Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK) crew, capturing the land stewardship and ecological knowledge work that grounds so much of what we do.

We spent time with Stephanie Craig, a 7th-generation Kalapuya weaver and an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, documenting her basket-weaving practice for an upcoming series, Seven Generations of Knowledge, carried in a pair of hands.

Watch The Featured Video

It Takes Many Hands

We're also proud to be part of the BRANCH Coalition, a group of organizations working together on invasive species removal, native plant restoration, watershed stewardship, and care of urban green spaces across the Portland area.

Our partners in this work include Portland Parks, Urban Forestry Project, Connecting Canopies, The Blueprint Foundation, Depave, Friends of Trees, Verde PDX, Columbia Slough, POIC, APANO, BPI PDX, and the City of Gresham. It takes many hands to care for this land well, and we're grateful to do so alongside organizations that share the same commitment.

Multimedia: Putting 30+ years of Archival footage on the Map

Behind the scenes, we're preparing our full video library for a larger public home so more people can access this work. Our web team is also building out a major piece of our Digital Archive Initiative: an interactive online story map that will let visitors explore our archive by place, connecting oral histories, video, photographs, and traditional ecological knowledge directly to the land they come from.

The stories will no longer live in a list. They will live where they happened so that someone can open the map, find a place they know, and hear an Elder speak about it. It's one of the more ambitious projects we've taken on, and we can't wait to bring it online.

Board of Directors and our Wisdom Radio Program

We're also working closely with our Board of Directors on a full relaunch of our Radio Program, with plans to bring it to every major platform, making it easier than ever to listen wherever you are. Stay tuned; this one's been a long time coming, and we're excited to share more soon.

Fall 2026 Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge Internship Enrollment is Now Open!

We're excited to announce that enrollment is officially open for our Fall 2026 ITEK Internship, and we can't wait to welcome our next cohort! We're accepting applications from anyone passionate about Environmental Conservation & Restoration and how Wisdom integrates Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK) into our work.

This paid 12-week program combines hands-on fieldwork with partner organizations, along with in-person and online sessions covering ITEK, STEAM-related concepts, and Native American cultural arts and plant knowledge. Interns earn $19.00 an hour. It's a hands-on, heart-forward opportunity to build real skills while deepening your connection to land and community.

Spots are limited, so don't wait!

Questions are always welcome. Contact

dawn@wisdomoftheelders.org and carmelina@wisdomoftheelders.org

We can't wait to see who joins us this Fall!

ITEK VIDEO

Save the Date

Wieden+Kennedy: Dec 5, 2026

Seeds of Wisdom Event

There's one more thing we've been building toward, and we're glad to finally share it.

Later this year, we'll gather in person for Seeds of Wisdom, our end-of-year fundraiser, hosted at Wieden+Kennedy here in Portland. Wisdom of the Elders is creating an event centered on Indigenous storytelling, environmental stewardship, and workforce development the same three threads that run through everything you've just read. It felt right to bring them into one room.

We're looking for partners who want to support meaningful community impact while helping amplify Native voices and leadership in Portland and beyond. If that sounds like you, or like an organization you're part of, we would love to hear from you. We're building our partner roster now, which means there's still real room to help shape what this evening becomes.

***As a note for those who have supported us through Willamette Week's Give!Guide in past years, we're not part of Give!Guide this season.

We've Joined Earth Gives

Earth Gives is a nationwide platform connecting donors with organizations advancing solutions for people and the planet.

It is a natural fit for us: our work has always lived where cultural preservation and ecological stewardship meet the archive and the watershed, the storyteller and the seed, and Earth Gives puts that work in front of people across the country who care about both.

Our end-of-year giving runs through Seeds of Wisdom and Earth Gives and we hope you'll join us there instead.

If you've been looking for a simple way to support what you've read about here, this is it.

Want to stay closer to what we're up to day-to-day? Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube; more is coming there soon, including TikTok and Threads.

There's more coming this fall. Thank you for being part of it.

Wisdom of the Elders, Inc.

Portland, Oregon

wisdomoftheelders.org

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