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Journal of American Folklore 117.463 (2004) 102-103



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Telling a Good One: The Process of a Native American Collaborative Biography. By Theodore Rios and Kathleen Mullen Sands. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Pp. xxii + 365, bibliography, 16 illustrations, index.)

In the eighteen years since G. Bataille and K. M. Sands edited the impressive American Indian Women (University of Nebraska Press, 1984), Sands has gone on to consider a number of issues relating to native biography. In this recent, complex volume, she combines several of these themes in a heroic effort to reveal the multiple facets involved in telling the story of a Native American life. This volume attempts to describe the process of writing a native biography with the inference that the process is somewhat different from other biographical projects. Sands is direct in discussing the theoretical and moral issues she sees as involved, noting the "problematic nature" and "ethical ambiguity" (p. xi) of the process; however, aside from the seriously flawed techniques described, there are also deeply troubling racist implications in this approach. For example, Sands has given first authorship to a person with whom she conducted a very limited number of interviews, for which she paid. She also discusses what to call a work like this (p. 81). Her use of the term "collaborative autobiography" (p. 316, n.20; but compare this terminology with the title of the book) seems to provide a new definition for the word "collaborative." There appears to have been no collaboration of the sort I would describe when working with a colleague.

Theodore Rios's story reads like a narrative of any failed arid land rancher of any ethnic origin. What is unclear is why he was selected to be interviewed or if he was ever made aware that he was to be a senior author. Rios spoke Papago, but that seems irrelevant in his world of Spanish surnames and a cattle economy. Rios's life seems so far removed from traditional Tohono O'odham (Papago) culture that his language skills are irrelevant. As a speaker of a language, but living on the margins of the culture, Rios provides an interesting indication that a culture might be lost even when the language survives. Sands made no attempt to learn Papago and deliberately avoided exploring "traditional Papago culture" (p.91). Thus Rios's data could not be placed in the context of cultural change as revealed by existing Papago personal narratives.

Sands effectively uses the limited data she collected as a vehicle to discuss theory and related issues, allowing a graduate student exercise to serve as the framework for an excellent text. Yet Sands also seems to be saying that Rios's limited narrative has meaning unto itself. I think not. I did not find his experience "authentic, alive, and compelling" (p. 218). His story adds nothing to Ruth Underhill's writings or to the considerable body of work on the Tohono O'odham.

Sands's important review of theory required far more effort than her dozen formal interviews (pp. 41, 88) and "follow-up sessions" amounting to less than fifteen hours of data gathering over the span of about a year (p. 91). Years later, she spent a week checking details (p. 264). For his "collaborative" efforts Rios is listed as senior author of this book, which is also dedicated to his memory. Why, how, or even whether one should list subjects of biography or "native" informants as authors are questions barely explored.

Sands's literary approach to biography is far removed from the goals of anthropology. I find exaggerated concerns with "ethical" matters rather than with the significance of the information and its accuracy. Some ethnographers and folklorists may take a literary approach to their subject, but few deny that a primary goal [End Page 102] is to know the culture. The literary approach seems interested in culture, but to the end of telling a good tale rather than understanding the system and effectively sharing the requisite information with others. Perhaps Sands's title...

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