Dissertation Title:

Supporting Background: An Autoethnographic Look at Three Jicarilla Creation Myths

Candidate:

Twyla Yoshida

Date, Time & Place:

October 10, 2018 at 10:00 am
Studio, Lambert Road campus


Abstract

Why would the chief’s story be omitted from a book of Native American tribal mythology? Ethnologist Morris Opler published The Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians in 1938 after studying the Jicarilla Apache people. In his book, Opler indicates that some stories, including those of the chief and his son, were left out due to lack of space. What circumstances led to the exclusion of the chief’s tale?
This dissertation puts Jicarilla Apache mythology into context by looking at Native American history and the Anglo American view of Native Americans from Enlightenment to the present day. A study of Jicarilla Apache history sets the stage for a comparison of three extant versions of the Jicarilla creation myth: “World Conception” published by Morris Opler in 1936, “Emergence of the Jicarilla Apache and the Exploits of the Culture Heroes,” an unpublished telling collected from Jicarilla Apache Chief Juan Elote, , and “Jicarilla Genesis” published by Mooney in 1898.

A secondary question centers around the issue of what makes a credible researcher, and who is a credible informant. The anthropologists who studied Native Americans, the informants they chose, and the methods they utilized are reviewed. The question of whether Chief Elote’s tale could be considered a work of ethnographic fiction is raised.

The entire dissertation is contextualized within the framework of the author’s personal, previously-unrecognized search for identity.

Note

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Details
  • Program/Track/Year: Mythological Studies, Track E, 2012
  • Chair: Dr. Christine Downing
  • Reader: Dr. Debbie Everson-Borofka
  • External Reader: Dr. Martin Ehala
  • Keywords: Jicarilla Apache, Creation Mythology, Native American, Identity, Autoethnography, Ethnographic Fiction