The worlds of readers and writers on the one hand and listeners and speakers on the other differ in many ways. What happens when the stories, beliefs, or histories of North American Native people, many traditionally communicated orally, are transferred to paper or other media? Why do tellers, teachers, editors, filmmakers, and translators undertake this work? What do the words mean for different audiences? How can they be most effectively and responsibly presented and interpreted? This collection of essays confronts these and other issues that arise in attempting to record oral cultures for a visual society. The book contains an introduction by the editors, and papers by Nora Marks Dauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer, Kimberly M. Blaeser, J. Edward Chamberlain, Victor Masayesva Jr., and Julie Cruikshank.