Grandma Elsie

By all appearances, Grandma Elsie is the prototypical traditional Navajo matriarch. She is a monolingual Navajo speaker. She has lived in the same house for over 50 years without basic amenities such as electricity, running water, or telephone. She has woven rugs since she was a child, and the proceeds from the occasional sale supplements her monthly social security checks as her only sources of income. Indeed, her way of life does not markedly differ from the way all Navajos subsisted a century earlier. This chapter introduces Grandma Elsie.

Introduction

The individualistic orientation of life histories has long been hailed as an antidote to the generalizing tendencies of ethnographic research. However, the life history method is not without problems of its own, as the author explains by referencing some of the most well celebrated life histories and so-called “autobiographies” in the anthropological corpus. The traditional method of composing the life history as a flowing narrative is not only morally dishonest but also intellectually inadequate because it conveys the false impression of a chronologically timeless and uninterrupted soliloquy. By focusing only on the final product, life histories ignore the other two components in the communicative process. In this opening chapter, the author emphasizes the need to (re-)insert the producer and process into the research equation.

Chucky

Chucky is the product of an interracial union; his mother is Navajo while his father is Black and Mexican. Along with his three siblings, he was placed in the custody of his maternal aunt, Isabelle, because of a very tragic incident. At the age of five, he witnessed his father murder his mother. Despite all the turmoil, Chucky is remarkably well adjusted and level-headed. Unlike many of his peers, he has managed to stay out of any serious trouble. He has chosen to respond to heartache with humor, and he has developed a reputation as a prankster. With his gregarious personality, it is no surprise that Chucky is among the most popular students in his high school, which is no doubt buttressed by his standing as a start basketball player. Along with rap music, basketball is his chief coping mechanism for dealing with his adolescent angst. This chapter introduces Chucky.

Delbert

Delbert has battled the plague of alcoholism for most of his adult life. The death of his younger brother and faithful drinking partner to cirrhosis of the liver would have seemed to serve as a wake-up call. Not only did it not curtail his behavior, he showed up drunk at the funeral. Alcoholism has cost Delbert his family as well as an untold number of jobs. When the author first met him over 30 years ago, he had already abandoned his wife and three children and moved in with his mother. Although he has cohabitated intermittently with several girlfriends since, his primary place of residence remains his mother's house. Not surprisingly, Delbert has also struggled with chronic unemployment. The few odd jobs that he manages to find never last very long because he either quits or gets fired. Although he occasionally earns money through silversmithing, Delbert subsists day-to-day mainly through freeloading off of his mom and girlfriend(s). His desultory lifestyle is both exacerbated and fueled by a lack of hope. This chapter introduces Delbert.

Conclusion

The nature of the relationship between the researcher and the researched is critical to understanding the nature of the research as a whole. To be sure, the form that a particular ethnography takes emerges in discourse. An ethnographic interview, for instance, is a highly personal encounter that is shaped by the interpersonal exchange between the ethnographer and the informant. The speaker will only reveal what he or she wants the researcher to know. Therefore, the quality and depth of the relationship between the two individuals determines what will be said. Usually, the longer and more amiable the relationship, the richer and more consistent is the final product. Even if narrators answer a prepared set of questions, how they respond depends entirely on the level of rapport. This chapter explores this relationship.

Regina

Regina is Isabelle's eldest child and something of an anomaly when compared to her siblings. While the rest are tall, slender, and athletic, she happens to be short, overweight, and has always preferred books to sports. Such dissimilarities have caused her to feel very insecure about her appearance. Regina has attempted to compensate for her physical shortcomings through her intellectual superiority. So, for example, whenever any of her brothers or sisters teases her about her height, Regina will always respond by reminding everybody that she is “the smartest.” Despite the milieu of anti-intellectualism so pervasive among Indian youths, Regina was pushed to excel academically by her mother who wanted her to have all the opportunities that she herself never had. She graduated high school as valedictorian of her senior class and won a prestigious award for excellence in math and science that included a full scholarship to the college of her choice. This chapter introduces Regina.

Isabelle

Isabelle is the sister of Delbert and the daughter of Sharmaine. She is also the mother of 10 children of her own: six biological children fathered by four different men in addition to the four children of her deceased younger sister. Having survived a succession of abusive relationships with various men, this mother hen has been the sole provider for her large brood for most of the time that the author has known her. In many respects, Isabelle can be called the “white sheep” of the Benally family. While the rest of her siblings have battled alcoholism and chronic unemployment for most of their adult lives, she has never imbibed alcohol and has been gainfully employed for the past 40 years. She is not unlike a Native American version of Horatio Alger: a girl from the rez who, through diligence and determination, vowed to raise herself up from her bootstraps and overcome any obstacles placed in front of her. This chapter introduces Isabelle.