author
Mabel Powers
A lively early-20th-century storyteller, lecturer, and activist, she is best remembered for sharing Iroquois stories with young readers. Her work grew out of years of interest in Native American history and culture, especially among the Haudenosaunee.
1 Audiobook
Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children
by Mabel Powers
About the author
Born Ella Mabel Powers in Hamburg, New York, in 1872, she became an American writer, lecturer, feminist, and pacifist. As a teenager she was already writing newspaper and magazine pieces about Native American life, and her later work focused especially on Iroquois history and tradition.
Sources about her life describe a close connection with the Tonawanda Seneca community; in 1910 she was invited to take part in a ceremony there and was formally adopted into the Snipe clan, receiving the name Yeh Sen Noh Wehs. That experience shaped the work she became best known for, including Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children (1917), a collection that introduced many readers to traditional tales.
Powers also spent many years speaking at Chautauqua, where she appeared on programs for decades and became known for combining storytelling with advocacy for peace, citizenship, and respect for Native cultures. She died in 1966, leaving behind a body of work remembered for its energy, conviction, and desire to teach through story.