Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with award-winning Oklahoma Choctaw storyteller and author Tim Tingle during his performance Saturday, November 15 at 4:15 p.m. at the George W. Hawkes Central Library. 101 E. Abram Street.

Bring the family to hear captivating tales performed in traditional style at 4:15 p.m. Prior to his performance, Tingle invites adults and teens to a writing workshop at 2 p.m. in the Community Room. Children can attend a special story time at 2 p.m. in the children's area. It will feature stories and a craft project with a Native American theme. There will be a book signing opportunity following the program. Admission to all activities is free of charge.

Tingle is an Oklahoma Choctaw whose great-great grandfather, John Carnes, walked the Trail of Tears in 1835. His paternal grandmother attended a series of rigorous Indian boarding schools in the early 1900's. Responding to a scarcity of Choctaw lore, Tingle initiated a search for historical and personal narrative accounts in the early 1990's. He retraced the Trail of Tears and traveled to Choctaw homelands in the east, locating remaining Choctaw communities and recording the stories of tribal elders.

Each year, Tingle performs a Choctaw story before Chief Gregory Pyle's State of the Nation Address, a gathering that attracts over ninety thousand tribal members and friends. In June 2011, Tingle spoke at the Library of Congress and presented his first performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. From 2011 to the present, he has been a featured author and storyteller at "Choctaw Days," a celebration honoring the Oklahoma Choctaws at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Tingle received his Masters Degree in English Literature at the University of Oklahoma in 2003, with a focus on American Indian studies. He holds numerous awards for storytelling and for his writings, from scholarly studies of Native American heritage to books for teens and children. He was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2012.