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Abstract

Why would the chief鈥檚 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鈥檚 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: 鈥淲orld Conception鈥� published by Morris Opler in 1936, 鈥淓mergence of the Jicarilla Apache and the Exploits of the Culture Heroes,鈥� an unpublished telling collected from Jicarilla Apache Chief Juan Elote, , and 鈥淛icarilla Genesis鈥� published by Mooney in 1898.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鈥檚 tale could be considered a work of ethnographic fiction is raised.

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