DUKE ADDICKS STORYTELLER
Duke playing "Indian Blues" on a Conch Shell Trumpet on stage at the Conference of the International Native American Flute Association, August 2006, accompanied by Dr. Michael De Maria on drums.

Last updated on 4/13/07

poster

See Duke tell stories at the National Eagle Center Grand Opening on September 29 and 30. (Click on poster for larger image.) For pdf, click here.

Duke Addicks’ Powerful Storytelling Presentations have fascinated hundreds of audiences of adults and older children.

Bagpipes used by Scottish fur traders and American Indian drums and flutes are often played by Duke as part of his storytelling.

He begins each presentation by playing a conch trumpet in a ceremony calling the Powers in the West, North, East, South, Earth, Sky and the Self to be present.

Invite Duke to tell his stories at your group’s next meeting, special event, festival, campfire or outing.

Contact Duke at
(651) 643-0622
or by email at
dukeaddicks@earthlink.net

Programs open to the public
Recent and upcoming

About Duke Addicks

References

Publications

Wild Eagle Watching in the Twin Cities Area

Native American flute information

See Duke's story Looking Down on the River. Where is the highest blufftop and the highest overlook on the Upper Mississippi?

LINKS

Height Table of Overlooks Above the Mississippi River

Overlook table in PDF format (requires free Acrobat Reader)

Friends of the Minnesota Valley

Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Events Calendar

Friends of the Mississippi River

Friends of the Upper Mississippi River Refuges

National Eagle Center

More Upper Mississippi River information

Mississippi Explorer Cruises

The Raptor Center

Effigy Mounds

Ramsey County Historical Society

For more information about storytelling and storytellers: visit Northstar Storytelling League and Northlands Storytelling Network


Duke plays his Great Highland Bagpipes on the steps of Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.


About Eagles, Thunderbirds, American Indians, Fur Traders, Explorers, Ghosts and More!

DUKE'S STORYTELLING CDS
AVAILABLE NOW !

EAGLE TALES may be purchased from the National Eagle Center. For more information contact them at National Eagle Center, PO Box 242, Wabasha, MN 55981-0242, or call 651-565-4989.

Copies of the CD for resale may be ordered directly from Duke Addicks by email or call 651-643-0622. All profits of the CD sold by the National Eagle Center go to them, and all profits of the CDs sold by Duke go to the Mdewakanton Indian Community of the Upper Mississippi, on whose behalf Duke tells these stories.

THE TWO EAGLE TALES on the hour-long CD are the following:

Burnt Face (also called Scar Face). Centuries ago this young man followed an eagle and built the solar observatory we call the Wyoming Medicine Wheel.

Fawn. This young woman, whose village was on a tributary of the Minnesota River at Kaksiza Sica, or Sica Hollow, near Sissiton, South Dakota, survived the Great Flood and married Big Eagle. They are the ancestors of all of the Dakota Indian people, perhaps of us all. Pipestone is the flesh turned to stone of those who died in the flood. The Thunderbirds who brought the flood waters are the guardians of the Pipestone Quarry in Minnesota.

Duke's next two CDs entitled Who Haunts Here: true ghost stories of the Upper Mississippi River, and Who Haunts Me: personal ghost stories of a ghost hunter, are in production and will be sold by Duke and should be available by May.

Who Haunts Here?

dukeDuke tells true ghost stories selected from the hundreds of hauntings by American Indians, explorers, fur traders, pioneers and the recently deceased, that he has investigated throughout Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin, and also tells about his own encounters with ghosts.

HONOR THE EAGLES!
Eagle and Thunderbird Legends and Lore

Naturalist, master storyteller and environmental educator Duke Addicks' powerful presentation combines the latest scientific knowledge about eagles with American Indian eagle and thunderbird stories and music.

Duke Addicks holding Angel, one of the American Bald Eagles he uses in his programs on location at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota.

Watch Eagle Nests With Duke
Current Eagle Nest Watching programs

Hear Duke Tell his Eagle Tales

  • September 29: Grand Opening of the National Eagle Center’s new building, in Wabasha, Minnesota. See details (pdf)

  • At the Cassville, Wisconsin, Bald Eagle Days, January 26, 2008 (specific times to be announced).

  • Read About Duke and his Eagle Watching and Storytelling in the Park Bugle newspaper, St. Paul.

more about Eagle Stories

Tales of the Fur Trade


James Aird, portayed by Duke Addicks, stands in the yard of Aird's 1770s house near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. This is the oldest structure in Wisconsin still on its original location.


Duke Addicks, portraying James Aird, tells an audience of 200 people at Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, to not forget Zeb Pike.

Duke Addicks portrays Scottish-born fur trader James Aird who tells stories about his own Mississippi River adventures and those of his wife, Grey Cloud; his brother-in-law, Chief Wabasha; his protégé Ramsey Crooks, who would eventually lead the American Fur Company; his partner Robert Dickson, who led the Indians in their efforts to keep the Upper Mississippi in British hands during the War of 1812; his partner Murdoch Cameron, whose ghost may still haunt the far shores; and his other partners, including Archibald Campbell, who was killed in a duel due to an argument with Dickson.

Aird also tells the stories of Zebulon Montgomery Pike and Lewis and Clark.

More

Pig's Eye Parrant Returns!

Retired voyageur, illegal whisky trader and inadvertent founder of the City of St. Paul (first called Pig's Eye Landing), Pierre Pig's Eye Parrant is back!

What Stories Does He Tell? Find out. Click here.

Don't Forget Zeb Pike!

Duke tells the true story of this extraordinary young hero of the Upper Mississippi. At the same time Lewis and Clark were searching for the source of the Missouri, Pike was sent to search for the source of the Mississippi, to establish sites for forts in the Northwest frontier and to establish peace between the American Indian tribes. By the time he was made a brigadier general in 1813 at age 34, Pike had become a national hero and was so highly regarded as a military leader and explorer in his own time that, had he not met an untimely death, he likely would have become our nations President.

American Indian History Tales

Who were the Wabashas, Decorahs and the Little Crows, Singing Bird and Black Hawk, Grey Cloud Woman, Cloudy Day, Green Eyed Woman, Red Wing; Winneshieck, Keokuk, Hole-in-the-Day and the other famous as well as ordinary people who have lived along the rivers in the Upper Mississippi region during the past thousands of years?

Learn who the American Indians were in your area, both in historic and prehistoric times, through stories about the children, women and men of the various tribes.

 

Chartered River Tales Cruises

Black Hawk War, Don't Forget Zeb Pike, and Eagle and Thunderbird Legends and Lore cruises are available for group charter. Any of Duke's other storytelling presentations can also be scheduled on board the Mississippi Explorer at a location on the river appropriate to the stories. Cruises