ABSTRACT
The author is a descendent of Sacajawea; her father who was White and her mother who was Shoshone taught her to be proud of both of her heritages. In this chapter, she provides a collaborative nature of the fieldwork endeavor as evidenced in an in-process, experimental, collaborative, life history project. The subject of the life history is Esther Burnett Horne, a mixed-blood Shoshone woman known as Essie. The person to whom the story is told is Sally McBeth, an anthropologist by training. Horne’s interest in recording her life story stems from her desire to pass down what she has learned, as a student, teacher, and now elder, to the next generation. In the beginning phases of the project the author recorded and transcribed Horne’s life chronologically. Horne understands much of the Shoshone language, but is not bilingual; her first language is English, so translation was not an issue in the collection of her story.
