>>Sequoyah Guess: Now, my favorite were the scary stories. And and that's kind of where
my mind has always been is the is the scary stuff, as evidenced by the novels that I write--
>>Dr. Nelson: Uh huh, yeah.
>>Sequoyah Guess: --and the movies that I make. And so I'm kind of known for my scary
stories or telling scary stories. I've been introduced here and there as the the Cherokee
version of Stephen King, you know, so--
>>Dr. Nelson: [laughing] Right, yeah.
>>Sequoyah Guess: --but if I can just real quick example of of a scary story. My brother
told me this. He passed on a few years back, but we talked about a year before he passed
on, and this is what we we came up with. When we were younger, Mom and Dad had bought this
house in town. And the first day that we came there, Dad stood us at the front door, and
he said, "Okay, boys, go pick out your rooms." So me and my brother, we started running through
the, you know, the house picking out our rooms. I picked a room way in the back. My brother,
he picked a room right in the middle. And it was probably more of a maybe a, I don't
know, a storage room or something, but it was right in the middle of the house. And
he asked me before he passed on, he said, "Did you ever wonder why I picked that that
room?" And I said, "Yeah, why why did you pick that room?"
And this is what he said. He said he picked that room because he was going to put his
bed in a way where he could look out his door, see across the living room and through a window
that looked out into the front yard. That's what he liked about it, that he could see
out into the front yard. Well, that night that first night we stayed there, you know,
he said he woke up in the middle of the night. Something woke him up. And while he was laying
there, he started hearing thunder, and pretty soon he started hearing the rain, you know,
hitting the roof. And then as he looked out the window he noticed that lightning flashing.
And he said in between the flashes of lightning, somebody came and stood at the window. He
said it scared him first. But my brother, he was he's always been sort of a logical
type, and so right away he thought, "That's Dad," you know. So so he he yelled at dad,
"Dad, is that a bad storm coming?" He said Dad never moved, kept looking out the window,
never said a word. So my brother tried again, "Dad, is that a bad storm coming?" He said
Dad never moved, never said a word, kept looking out the window. So my brother said he got
up out of bed, walked to his bedroom door, and tried again, "Dad, is that a bad storm?"
Dad never moved, never said a word, just kept looking out the window. So he walked across
the living room, stood behind Dad, and he was just getting ready to reach up and touch
him on the shoulder when all of a sudden boom! Lightning hit right outside the window, just
lit up everything. And he said in that moment of bright light, that man that he was standing
next to looked down at him like this. And and my brother said it wasn't Dad at all.
It was some old man had white hair, white mustache, white beard, wrinkly face, and there
were just holes were his eyes were supposed to be. And he said as soon as the lightning
flash was gone, that man was gone too. And George, my brother, was standing there in
the living room by himself. See, it scared him so bad he went running to Mom and Dad's
room and jumped in bed with them. The next morning at breakfast table Mom asked my brother,
you know, "What happened last night? You know, why'd you come into our room? Did you get
scared about something?" And so he started telling Mom about, you know, what he had seen.
And I remember this part because I had just come to the table. Mom said, you know, "Well,
what did this old man look like?" And my brother started telling her about the white hair and
white mustache, wrinkly face. And my mom said, "Hmm, that sounds like that old medicine man
that got hit by lightning last night." So we could never figure out if what my brother
saw was like the ghost of that medicine man or maybe he was seeing what was going to happen
to the medicine man, you know. So we could never figure that out, but maybe somebody
can, you know.
>>Dr. Nelson: I don't know, but I may go jump in bed myself. [Both laugh.]
>>Sequoyah Guess: But those are the kinds of stories I grew up with, you know, and I
tell folks that's probably why I'm so demented now but--
>>Dr. Nelson: Well, we're glad you are. [Both laugh.]
>>Sequoyah Guess: But I enjoy I enjoy storytelling. I I like to listen to stories too just as
well as as telling stories, you know so so. There's a book that came out last year. It's
called Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars' Club, and it's it's a book written
by Professor Chris Teuton. And it is about myself and three other guys. I mentioned one
of 'em awhile ago, Hastings Shade, Tsigesv. He has passed on since then and two other
guys, Sammy Still and Wood Hansen, and we kind of formed this small group of storytellers.
And Hastings thought we needed a some kind of a club name, and so he came up with the
Turtle Island Liars' Club. And so anyway this book came out, and it's about us, and it has
some of the stories in it, and it's got traditional teachings in it, beliefs. It's just not a
book of stories, you know. It's it's it's the journey of one man trying to rediscover
his heritage, you know, so and a lot of people have said it's helped them, and I'm glad it
has.
>>Dr. Nelson: Everyone I've talked to talk about how much they love it, so yeah it's
it's a popular one.
>>Sequoyah Guess: I'm glad it is. Oh, it did win an award. I forget what it is, American
Book Award or something like that, you know, from the Before Columbus Foundation.
>>Dr. Nelson: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Well, I wish we could stay out here all night
and listen to 'em.
>>Sequoyah Guess: Oh, yeah.
>>Dr. Nelson: We're about due for a fire. It's getting a little cool here.
>>Sequoyah Guess: Oh yeah, it's getting a little cool out here.
>>Dr. Nelson: But I I guess we better call it a day, and at the very least we can tell
people that when you're around, it's a good time to go hear some stories. Look out for
some national holidays and things like that, and you can find him there sometimes selling
books, sometimes telling stories, but yeah. Well, we sure thank you for coming out. Wado.
Howa. Thanks again.