The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative

Every chapter but one begins with King telling the story of turtles holding up the earth. King argues that each time the story is told, it changes slightly for the speaker and the listener. What the turtles represent, then, is something permanent that does not change in the story. Every time the story is told, the ending is the same. What changes for the speaker and listener or reader are the details that lead to that ending. This suggests that stories both do and do not change.

Additionally, the turtles relate to the book’s larger project. The creation myth that ends with the earth being held up by turtles is different from the Judeo-Christian creation myth. King does not advocate for one over the other but indicates that we should imagine both as stories, not truths, and then choose to believe them or not. We can take from each creation story what we will, but we should wonder what impact such stories have on us and the world around us.

Photographs dominate several chapters of The Truth About Stories. King writes of the artificially constructed photos of Indians taken by Edward Sheriff Curtis and Richard Throssel, and the effect those images have on other Indians.