About Stella Long
Stella's (Fichek is her Choctaw name; Estella is the English name she likes best) mountain path was one of beauty as she walked alone at the age of six, talking with her friends, the creatures of the wild in the Choctaw language. The mountain was her playground. There were times when she’d forget to go home until the night musicians, the insects, began tuning their instruments.Her life made a sudden change when at the age of ten years old, she was sent away to an orphanage. She lived there for seven years until she became ill with pulmonary tuberculosis and was hospitalized for five years. Stella tells of how she coped with having to watch her friends die from the disease or from the complications of surgery. There was a time when she wanted to die rather than to watch her friends being carried out of the hospital to the funeral home. She describes the emotions, fear, hope and thoughts of the patients.
Stella (Fichek) writes children’s stories, getting her ideas from the animals and birds as she sits for hours in the solitary quietness of the lakeside observing animal behavior. She weaves a part of her life into these stories combined with Choctaw songs and sounds of the flute. Before she leaves the lakeside, the creatures are honored with a special melody from the flute for their help with the stories.
When it is convenient, she likes involving the audience at the end of her session with the Choctaw Snake Dance. She has performed at festivals, powwow's, churches, schools, universities, various Native American functions and most recently at the Native American Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
Trained in the art of storytelling as a student in Oral Literature through the University of Oklahoma Continuing Education, Summers in Santa Fe.
Awarded Contemporary Storyteller of the Year, 2002, by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers & Storytellers. Wordcraft is a national organization that promotes the works of Native American authors.
Story styles
Stories for all agesOriginal and adapted
Stories for character building
Stories that heal
Stories of the supernatural
