Kansas Storytellers
Reubin Kent
Rueben Kent is a member of the Buffalo Clan with the Iowa Tribe of Kansas. An ancestor, St. Joseph Roubidoux, was the founding father of St. Joseph, Missouri. The Iowa tribe at one time was called Ioway. They were situated on lands from Wisconsin to Louisiana first and then up and down the river roads of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. They are considered an offshoot of the Siouan people, also referred to as Winnebago. The tribe is located midway between Kansas City and Omaha in a picturesque part of Kansas along the Missouri River along the old Lewis and Clark Expedition Trail. Some of the best farmland in Kansas can be found in the hills and bluffs overlooking the floodplains of this region.
Jimm GoodTracks
An oral historian, tribal scholar and storyteller, Jimm GoodTracks is Ioway/Otoe. His Grandfather was Hartico of the Bear clan. His mother was from the Pigeon clan. His Mother was married to a Pawnee who was one of the leaders of the Native American Church.
Deborah Dee White Eye
Deborah Dee White Eye is from the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe located on Isabella Reservation in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Originally the tribe was located around the Great Lakes where they relied heavily on the water’s plentiful bounties, but later relocated to the middle of the state of Michigan. Her family are descendants of Chief Pontiac. Emma Wabinaw is her great grandmother. Elizabeth Hindman Denman (Wawgahtonoquay), her grandmother, named her Nagumoodbinayshe, or Singing Bird, because she was always singing songs to bring joy to others.