Linwood Tall Bull is a Northern Cheyenne storyteller and an elder-in-residence this fall at Montana State University Billings. Tall Bull teaches learners in Lame Deer and beyond about traditional foods, plants and culture.
“Our teachings are, the majority of them all, stories,” he said.
Tall Bull says grandmothers carried those teachings through generations.
“They weren’t killed like their sons and husbands were in battle, so a lot of the stories were handed down to the grandmothers,” said Tall Bull. “They’re the ones that kept these stories alive.”
Tall Bull recalls growing up listening to his dad tell stories.
“This is how our children retain that knowledge, because they love a story,” he said.
Tall Bull says he taught alongside his dad as a young man, and Indigenous attendance at the time was low.
“So I told my dad, ‘I don’t want to be a part of it anymore. Our people don’t even want to listen.’ He said ‘It’s gonna take a while,’ and it did, it took a while, but now we have so many people,” said Tall Bull.
Today, Tall Bull teaches with his own son at Chief Dull Knife College in Lame Deer.
“We have foods that me and my son teach our class how to make now. These survival foods of the old people,” said Tall Bull.
Montana State University Billings is in its second year of its elder-in-residence program. Residents spend a week on campus speaking with faculty and students and leading activities. Other residents this semester so far come from the Blackfeet Nation, Crow Agency and Fort Belknap.
