Until now, members of the Oneida Indian Nation had passed down through oral tradition the story of “The Raccoon and the Crayfish,” a morality lesson about the consequences of lying. Now, the Oneidas plan to share the tale with the public with the same 3-D technology used by Pixar Animation Studios to make hits like “Toy Story.”

“There’s always been a sense of urgency that comes with the fear that we’re losing not only our stories but a lot of other aspects of Oneida tradition,” said Dale Rood, an Oneida who heads the tribe’s four-year-old multimedia studio. “It’s not until recently, with this type of technology, that we’ve had a chance to see how we can preserve them.”