Dovie Thomason is an award-winning storyteller, recording artist and author, recognized internationally for her ability to take her listeners back to the “timeless place” that she first “visited” as a child, hearing old Indian stories from her Kiowa Apache and Lakota relatives, especially her Grandma Dovie and her Dad.  From their voices, she first heard the voices of the Animal People and began to learn the lessons they had to teach her.  For these were teaching stories that took the place of punishment or scolding, showing her the values that her people respect and wanted to pass on to her.

Her love of stories and culture set her on a path to listen and learn and share the stories---to give people a clearer understanding of the often misunderstood, often invisible, cultures of the First Nations of North America.  The product of a “mixed” background that is urban Chicago and rural Texas, Internet and ancient teachers, elders’ teachings and university classrooms —Dovie began telling stories “publicly” while teaching literature and writing at an urban high school in Cleveland.  So, she began telling those first-heard old Indian stories---stories about making choices---stories that could become a blueprint for a personal value system.

In the twenty years since then, she has shared stories throughout North America and overseas:  with NASA and Indian Education programs on reservations, Shakespeare’s “Globe Theatre” and the National Geographic Society, NPR’s “Living on Earth” and the BBC’s “My Century”, cross-community programs in Northern Ireland, powwows, conferences, schools and libraries from Belgium to California.  She has been a featured teller at major festivals from The National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee to the Cape Clear International Storytelling Festival in County Cork, Ireland.  She has shared her stories and her love of the spoken word to captivated audiences at extended engagements at the Smithsonian’s Discovery Theater, Wolf Trap, The Kennedy Center and The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poetry Festival.   As a storyteller, teacher, lecturer and author, Dovie establishes a rapport and bond with audiences of all ages, creating a climate where laughter, learning and respect come together.  She gently dispels false images of the First Nations People of North America, replacing them with traditional stories.  Her storytelling both transmits the oral tradition of Native Americans and transforms it for today’s world.

Her commitment to traditional cultural arts and education as a Master Traditional Teaching Artist has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and numerous arts organizations across the United States.  Her workshops on ethics and cultural integrity have been featured at colleges and the National Storytelling Conference and the Society for Storytelling’s Gathering in Manchester, England.  Her workshops for educators, “Finding Your Own Voice” and “Through Indian Eyes”, are popular offerings at festivals, conferences and universities nationwide.

As a winner of the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, Storytelling World Honors Award, the Audiofile Award and the American Library Association/Booklist Editor’s Choice Award for her recordings of traditional Native stories, Wopila: A Giveaway and Lessons from the Animal People, Dovie has been described as a “valuable resource for multicultural education” who “skillfully portrays story characters in a way that is so vivid it creates animated pictures in the listener’s mind.”  Her latest recording,  “Fireside Tales: More Lessons from the Animal People”, features the singing of, Micky Sickles, (Oneida) in stories and songs of the Iroquois and Eastern Woodlands, and has recently been chosen for an ALA Notable Recording Award and Pegasus Award. 

She has been featured in documentaries about the Native people of Southern New England in “Honor The Earth” and “As We Tell Our Stories” and in a new public television project about the Pequot War. She is one of six respected storytellers featured in the documentary, “The Call of Story”, on PBS in the Fall, 2002.  Her children’s book, The Animals’ Wishes, from Rigby Literacy (UK, US, NZ) is the first Native story to be a part of their highly regarded early reader-literacy series.  She is featured in the Storytelling World award-winning anthologies More Ready-to-Tell Tales, from August House and Tales from Across the Ocean, a collaboration between Irish and American storytellers to benefit traditional arts in Ireland.  She has contributed essays on stereotypes, cultural values and appropriation and stories for The Broken Flute, the long-awaited sequel to Through Indian Eyes, from Oyate Press in Berkeley, California, an essential resource for teachers, librarians and parents.