The History of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States,

Canada, and Mexico, from their deep origins to our present epoch.

Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating, epic journey through time, focusing on the

compelling, wonderful, and tragic stories

of North America's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders, environment, and geography.

The History of North America podcast series is an incredible historical adventure that chronicles

the thrilling, action-packed tale of a continent.

I invite you to come along for the ride. Well, hello and welcome. Today we have a very special guest. We have Mr. Perry Ground. I wanted to mostly let him talk today, but I'll give a brief short introduction. Perry is a member of the Turtle Clan, who is a member of the Onondaga Nation, and he's been telling stories for more than 25 years as a way to educate people about his culture and beliefs and history of the Haudinashone.

Perry, if you've ever seen him live or seen some of his videos, he's very energetic, he's fun,

he engages his audience and really lets them experience the story together. And he's also a very

accomplished educator working in colleges and grade schools for years. So without further ado, Perry,

thank you very much for joining us today. And why don't you just tell us a little bit more about

yourself. I know storyteller is just part of your life. I know there's so much more to that

than that in your identity. Absolutely. Well, first off, thanks for having me and being part of the podcast, and I'm happy to share

lots of information about Haudino-Soni storytelling. It is so very, very important to me to share

these stories and to educate people about who we are as Haudi no Sony people.

When I started doing this years and years ago, when I was in college at Cornell University,

and then was working at Ganondagan, state historic site right here in the Finger Lakes region,

I really saw how positive stories could be as a way to teach people about our

history, about our culture. And it was a way that for me was the best way to communicate

this kind of teaching and to really engage people. Like you said, I tried to be engaging when I tell my stories, to really draw people into the story and make them want to learn more.

Leave them with a positive impression about Native Americans, and hopefully then they go and learn more on their own, read their own books, listen to podcasts, visit places like Gannondagan

...