Amanda Vella/The Ithacan PERRY GROUND, a member of the Haudenosaunee confederacy, performs Tuesday in IC Square.

Perry Ground looked out at the students and local residents who packed the small, round tables in front of him and asked them to imagine it was 500 years ago. They now belonged to the Haudenosaunee confederacy and spent their cold winters in a longhouse with 80 to 100 people, mending clothes and making tools.

“Would you want a storyteller to come to your house?” he asked. He invited the audience to suggest what items, such as food or clothes, they would offer in exchange for a story. Competition between families for the traveling storytellers escalated in the cold winter months when people were forced to stay inside, Ground said.

Tuesday night in the IC Square, Ground told stories that he said reflect the ideas and values of the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois. Ground is a member of the Onondaga, one of the confederacy’s six tribes. His night of storytelling was the last event of the college’s Native American Celebration Month.

He told part of a Haudenosaunee creation story, which says the “sky woman” was the first human being on earth. He also narrated stories that explained some of the physical features of rabbits and owls, how the black bear got a short tail and a recent true story of a friend who raised a porcupine.

Ground said Native American stories do four things. These stories can teach history, teach lessons such as proper behavior, explain nature and entertain.

Brooke Olsen, assistant professor of anthropology, said Ground’s animated style helps bring to life what storytelling used to be like for the Haudenosaunee.

“If you have 80 people in a longhouse and you need to captivate that audience, you need to do the things that he did tonight,” she said.

Freshman Laura Henry said the dynamics of the stories engaged her.

“He had a lot of expression,” she said. “It made it a lot more interesting than if he just stood up there and spoke to us.”