As a child growing up in rural Oklahoma, Donald Fixico often heard "hvmakimata"--"that's what they used to say"--a phrase Mvskoke Creeks and Seminoles use to end stories. In his latest work, Fixico, who is Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Mvskoke Creek, and Seminole, invites readers into his own oral tradition to learn how storytelling, legends and prophecies, and oral histories and creation myths knit together to explain the Indian world.

Interweaving the storytelling and traditions of his ancestors, Fixico conveys the richness and importance of oral culture in Native communities and...