0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Moving Beyond Culturally Bound Ethical Guidelines
know about our stories, then it’s even more important for our young
people here to listen to them, too” (Toelken 1996 , 6 ).
Anthropological accounts consistent with aboriginal thought and
experiences, as the one presented by Toelken to a largely Navajo au-
dience, are seen as evidence that the aboriginal perspective is valid. In
no uncertain terms, in different places around the world, anthropol-
ogists are told again and again: “Don’t try to save us physically un-
less you are willing to see that we keep our culture” (Navajo woman,
quoted in Toelken 1996 , 6 ). Aboriginal peoples around the world
would agree with this Navajo woman when she adds: “We Navajos
will live as long as the stories are wet with our breath!” (in Toelken
1996 , 6 ).
To tell a story based on personal experience is to speak a truth.
Our hosts in aboriginal communities listen to accounts of our expe-
riences among them and examine how these accounts are consistent
with their own stories. For instance, Miller had a vivid dream when
in the midst of an intensive research project to compile vital genea-
logical information that would give tribal members grounds to claim
their ancestral rights to access resources in specific sites within Wash-
ington State. In the dream, the visitors identified themselves as tribal
ancestors and told Miller their names, names that he had to find to
complete his research. The next day, when Miller shared the experi-
ence with local tribal members, they were not surprised. In their view,
the dream “showed that the ancestors maintain active interest in the
community of today and in the role of the anthropologist therein” (B.
Miller 2000 , 9 ). In cases such as this one, we clearly see that “dream
reports and dream interpretation are inseparable from the social and
political situations in which they occur” (B. Tedlock 1992 , 28 ).
Notwithstanding the truth about the dream, Miller and tribal mem-
bers recognized that this information “needed confirmation from an-
other source to be used in a legal setting” (B. Miller 2000 , 9 ). Soon
thereafter, at the University of Washington archives, Miller found not
three but thirty-two Indian names that had been lost to the band. Miller
“hand-recorded this material and brought it to the elders. This infor-
mation was... useful in litigation and the names were later ‘brought
out’ in naming potlatchs” (personal communication, April 25 , 2002 ).
