Ethnography, when it’s done well, emerges from the intersection of multiple authors, each bringing something different to the endeavor. The resulting artifact has the potential to speak to an audience broader than what is normally available to a single author. Some years ago noted healer, herbalist, cowboy and rangeland manager Paul Ethelbah narrated the story titled He Became an Eagle to two young graduate students, Marybeth E. Nevins and myself. Paul told the story in Western Apache, and worked with his wife, Genevieve Ethelbah, to translate it into English. Marybeth provided an ethnopoetic transcription of the Western Apache and English language versions of the story. She and I worked together to develop an ethnographic introduction, which included an exegesis of the story provided by me. Our essay was first published in 2004’s Voices from Four Directions, edited by Brian Swann, and recently republished by Brian Swann in 2014’s Sky Loom.

The image of the Mogollon Rim, very near to the area of Arizona where the story is set is by Doug Dolde at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain