History and Culture

Short Stories: History and Culture

Short cultural stories, historical fiction, and stories on history and culture. We learn a lot from what we read. Stories that are framed in historical times, or in far away places, can make the unfamiliar known, and bring the past alive like nothing else. Expand your horizions. Read some of these great stories!
Historical Fiction and Cultural Stories
  • Sex Revolution
    Peoples change in perspective of sex from the 1950's-1960's. (:
  • When deaf, one-eyed Apache Kit-I-Chin killed a cowboy, his fellow Mescaleros found a solution
    When Kit-i-chin, a Mescalero Apache, killed a cowboy in 1908 in what was then the New Mexico Territory, officials turned to the Mescaleros for help in tracking him down. A number of issues--racial,...
  • Bandido Juan Flores, part II
    Part II
  • Bandido Juan Flores, part I
    Juan Flores and his gang of "bandidos" briefly terrorized law-abiding citizens in Southern California in the 1850s. Flores was not the only Hispanic bandido to flourish during those days.
  • Unworthy
    Something I started writing for school a while ago. Insane serial killer thinks vampires are real. Turns out He's right and he knows who they are. The killings continue.
  • Savior
    A Russian soldier is held captive in a Nazi prison camp and used as a guinea pig for human experiments.
  • A Portrait of Josephine
    A classic mentor/apprentice story about female empowerment between a young, graduate student from the 21 century named Abby Archer, and her mentor, Galena Conner, a British milk farmer’s wife from...
  • Diving the Ocean of Islam
    A wonderful experience…
  • Dearest Santiago
    A Spanish crusader describes the events of a battle in letter to his wife. Any suggestions on how to improve my will be appreciated as will spelling errors. This my first story so I’m not expecting...
  • Short Story - Protesters
    Protesters is a short story, part of a set based loosely on a theme of travel. here, a Central American political leader finds himself sharing a green room before a public meeting with an aged...
  • 21 November 2026 – Jerusalem
    From: the Diary of Muhammad Shamsaddin Gozubuyukoglu World review and personal events recorded by the hand of a lifeless person, and left for vain, useless, memory.
  • The Exorcism of Jerico Whitehorse
    The Killing Spirit trapped in his soul, the body of Jerico Whitehorse is exorcised by the elders of the overworld. From THE KILLING SPIRIT (Cries for a Vision) by Jack Random.
  • Day of Reckoning: September 11, 2001
    Jerico captures the killing spirit in the moment of his death. An alternative scenario for 9-11 and the conclusion of the novel THE KILLING SPIRIT (Cries for A Vision) by Jack Random.
  • Prophecy of the Dreamers
    After the killing of Jerico Whitehorse, the dreamers offer a vision of the future. It is a vision of darkness and light, despair and hope. The epilogue to the novel THE KILLING SPIRIT: Cries for a...
  • Releasing the Soul
    Jerico releases the soul of his grandfather, completing the wheel and clearing the way for a final confrontation with the killing spirit. The 27th and final chapter of the novel THE KILLING SPIRIT...
  • Path of the Soul Keeper
    Completing the seventh of seven sacred rites, Jerico Whitehorse keeps the soul of his grandfather for twelve moons and engages in battle with the captured killing spirit. Chapter 26 of the novel...
  • The Fever
    Struck down by the killing spirit at Wounded Knee, grandfather shares a feverish vision with Jerico and the dreamers from his deathbed. From the novel THE KILLING SPIRIT (Cries for A Vision) by...
  • Ghost Dance at Wounded Knee
    Jerico delivers a powerful message of survival and redemption before the Ghost Dance at Wounded Knee. The killing spirit strikes back. From the novel THE KILLING SPIRIT (Cries for A Vision) by...
  • The Familiar Gone Awry
    In this nightmarish world of ours even the erstwhile comfortingly familiar has gone awry and menacing.
  • Frantsuzsky Boulevard and Odessa dachas
    The Frantsuzsky Boulevard in Odessa was always a fashionable place to live and to have a rest on dachas (villas and country houses). Zhan Reno and Alexander Pushkin, Grigoriy Marazli and Petr Nilus...
  • The Assassin
    On the road to Wounded Knee, Jerico is stalked by a delusional killer who imagines him the antichrist. From the novel THE KILLING SPIRIT (Cries for A Vision) by Jack Random.
  • Me Too
    Surviving to live - and living to be and do better.
  • Burning Churches
    A beloved janitor loses his life to a race motivated church burning. Originally published in AIM Magazine Fall 1996, this story is from the collection Random Tales: The Killing Spirit & Other...
  • First Time
    Oh those last minute holidays…
  • March to Wounded Knee
    Inspired by a vision and a dream, Jerico Whitehorse leads his followers on a march to Wounded Knee where they will dance the Ghost Dance. From the novel THE KILLING SPIRIT (Cries for a Vision) by...
  • Sign of the Dead Man
    Returning to camp from the Sun Dance at Coyote Paradise, the path to Wounded Knee is blocked by a dead man walking. Grandfather wonders if the killing spirit has poisoned Jerico's soul. From The...
  • Sun Dance at Coyote Paradise
    Jerico completes the fifth spoke of the great wheel, enduring a brutal Sun Dance at Coyote Paradise. From the novel: THE KILLING SPIRIT (Cries for A Vision) by Jack Random.
  • A Story of a Rose, an Artist, and History
    In the future, an artist creates something that some fear, that some love, and that some adore.
  • The Telling of Jerico Whitehorse
    The dreamers gather in the sacred Black Hills for the telling of Jerico's vision. He recounts his journey, his dreams, visions, his encounters with the killing spirit, and shares the dream of the...
  • A Gathering Of Dreamers
    On the eve of The Telling, Jerico joins a camp of visionaries and dreamers in the sacred mountains, where the killing spirit makes his presence known. From the novel The Killing Spirit (Cries for A...
  • First Time
    Holiday culture piece – With no prior knowledge of Turkey, equipped only with two pages of Turkish language and gestures, and our bellies full of anticipation, me and my…
  • Wavoka's Lament
    Having recovered from a near fatal wound, Jerico returns to Pine Ridge, where he is greeted by a gathering swarm. He discovers the lament of Wavoka, Paiute prophet and founder of the Ghost Dance: ...
  • Between Worlds
    A bullet lodged near his brain, Jerico lays in a Wyoming hospital as his spirit visits a circle of elders in the overworld. From the novel The Killing Spirit by Jack Random.
  • Tales of Jerico
    Word of Jerico's heroism spreads as he returns to society after a decade in isolation. Hungry for news of the reservation, he accepts a ride from three men and their hidden companion: the killing...
  • A Lost Boy
    On his descent from the high Rocky Mountains, Jerico finds a lost boy and delivers him to his despondent parents. From the novel The Killing Spirit by Jack Random.
  • The Hawk & The Ravens
    Seeking solitude in a mountain cave, Jerico is visited by the most sacred being in Lakota lore. She tells him what he must do and why he must return to the world to fight the killing spirit. From...
  • BLOOD SACRIFICE
    After Hanblecheya (vision quest), Jerico undergoes Inipi (sweat lodge) before the telling of his vision. The killing spirit intervenes. From the novel The Killing Spirit (Cries for A Vision) by...
  • White Skin, Indian Soul
    Jerico Whitehorse, a Lakota pilgrim, finds comfort in the arms of a white woman, who leads him to his destiny: Hanblecheya (Vision Quest). From the novel THE KILLING SPIRIT (Cries for A Vision). ...
  • The Stone Dreamers
    In a vision of the Stone Ceremony, Jerico returns to Sand Creek to deliver a warning to Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle. Instead, he receives a lesson. From the novel CRIES FOR A VISION by Jack Random.
  • The Buffalo Stone
    Driving along a desert highway, Jerico is led to a sacred place where he witnesses the Sand Creek Massacre and receives the sacred Buffalo Stone. From the novel CRIES FOR A VISION by Jack Random.
  • Vision of the Black Robes
    Jerico Whitehorse has a vision of the black robes bringing destruction to the land of his forebearers. He is visited by the wasichu killing spirit, who attempts to convert him. From the novel: ...
  • The Repentant Warrior
    An Apache Vietnam veteran struggles to find his footing until he seeks help from a wise elder. From Random Tales (unpublished).
  • A Feverish Vision
    A dark vision of the future visits the dreamer in the pitch of fever. From a work in progress.
  • The Head Of De Soto
    The only sucessful occupation in history is that of the Europeans in North America. This is the story of the Mound Builders, the seven tribes of the Natchez Trace, who fought back the first wave of...
  • The Violin Boy
    A moment in time which joins two individuals forever. A man. A boy. An event.
  • Straight From A Movie
    The end of best friendship that ever was. The metal clasp on the schoolyard flagpole clanged against the white steel rod in the soft breeze. My flip flops preformed their namesake through the wet ...
  • Don't Let Life Pass You By
    Set in 2021, An old man tells his son a story about how he fell asleep at a bus stop-- and lived to tell about it!
Also see History | Cultures of the World