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oral history , community , and work
in the american west
 Oral History,
Community, and Work
in the American West

E dited by J essie L. E mbry

The University of Arizona Press
© 2013 The Arizona Board of Regents
All rights reserved
www.uapress.arizona.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Oral history, community, and work in the American West / Jessie L. Embry,
editor.
  pages cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8165-3017-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. West (U.S.)—Social life
and customs—20th century. 2. West (U.S.)—Social conditions—20th
century. 3. Interviews—West (U.S.) 4. Oral history—West (U.S.)
I. Embry, Jessie L.
F595.O73 2013
978’.034—dc23
2013009661
Publication of the book is made possible in part by a subvention from the Charles
Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University.

Manufactured in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper

containing a minimum of 30% post-consumer waste and processed chlorine free.

18 17 16 15 14 13  6 5 4 3 2 1
 Contents

Preface  vii
Introduction  1

Part I: Reflections   
1 Stories of Community and Work in the
Redd Center Oral History Program   11
Jessie L. Embry
2 A Two-Way Street: Explaining and Creating
Community through Oral History   29
Barbara Allen Bogart
3 Probing Memory and Experience: The Untapped
Potential of Oral History (Re)Collections   42
Laurie Mercier

Part II: Examples of Neglected Groups   

4 “Everybody Worked Back Then”: Oral History, Memory,
and Indian Economies in Northern California   61
William Bauer
5 Bittersweet Memories: Oral History, Mexican Americans,
and the Power of Place   82
José M. Alamillo
6 “That’s All We Knew”: An Oral History of Family Labor
in the American Southwest   102
Skott Brandon Vigil

v
vi contents

7 “Colorado Has Been Real Good to Us”: An Oral

History Project with Japanese Americans in Weld
County, Colorado  127
Georgia Wier
8 Using Oral History to Record the Story of the
Las Vegas African American Community   150
Claytee White
9 Women at Work in Las Vegas, 1940–1980   175
Joanne L. Goodwin
10 “Every Woman Has a Story”: Donna Joy McGladrey’s
Alaskan Adventure  197
Sandra K. Mathews
11 Searching for the Rest of the Story: Documenting
the Dee School of Nursing   222
John Sillito, Sarah Langsdon, and Marci Farr
12 The Utah Eagle Forum: Legitimizing Political Activism
as Women’s Work   247
Melanie Newport

Part III: Essential Sources   

13 Creating Community: Telling the Story of the Mormons
in Fort Collins, Colorado   267
Linda M. Meyer
14 Every Mine, Every Cow Camp, Every Ranch:
Oral History as Fieldwork   284
Leisl Carr Childers
15 Oral History among the Orchards: A Look at the
James George Stratton Family   305
Kristi Young

Afterword: When History Talks Back   327

Clyde A. Milner II
Contributors  339
Index  345
 Preface

In 1973, I was finishing a whirlwind bachelor’s degree at Brigham

Young University and deciding what I wanted to do with the rest of
my life. To delay that decision, I planned to start a master’s degree
program. Thomas G. Alexander suggested that I take an oral his-
tory class that the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies was
sponsoring summer term. Gary L. Shumway, a professor at Califor-
nia State University, Fullerton, was the guest professor. I signed up
with no idea what oral history was (I truly thought it had some-
thing to do with dental history). That class affected my career. I
returned to the Redd Center in 1979 when I was hired as the oral
history program director. Besides directing many oral history proj-
ects, my writing has been based on oral history.
I attended my first Oral History Association (OHA) meeting in
October 1973. The organization was new enough that the found-
ers were still in charge. After I came to work at the Redd Center, I
continued to attend the OHA meetings and served as the editor of
a pamphlet series for three years. The organization always inter-
ested me because it includes a mixture of historians, folklorists,
journalists, family historians, storytellers, and social scientists. We
all say we are doing oral history, but there are major differences in
the motives, the interviewing techniques, and the end products.
The essays contained in this volume show some of those differ-
ences. All of the interviews have been recorded and then excerpts
have been transcribed so that the authors can include quotes in
their articles. However, they do not agree on how much the verba-
tim transcripts should be edited. For example, I remove false starts
and correct the grammar and complete the sentences. For me, that
creates a more readable document. Others feel that I lose the ver-
bal flavor of the interviews and the narrators’ personalities by mak-

vii
viii preface

ing those changes. Because there are advantages to both argu-

ments, the authors have edited the excerpts from their interviews
in many ways, and there has not been an attempt to standardize
them.
In 2008, Redd Center Director Brian Q. Cannon asked me to
put together a seminar on oral history and the American West. Fol-
lowing a pattern that had resulted in a book of essays Utah in the
20th Century (Utah State University Press, 2009), I asked partici-
pants to write papers and come together to share their work. I then
edited the papers into a book. I put out a call for papers and re-
ceived responses from historians and folklorists. I asked the seminar
participants to step back from their oral history work and ask how
their experiences in oral history increased their understanding of
the American West. The impromptu discussion that followed that
question helped all of us understand the focus for the rest of the
day and for this volume. I knew the seminar was not about how to
do oral history, but which of the two topics (oral history and the
West) was more important? For me the question was easy: the
American West had top billing since the Redd Center’s mission is
to promote the study of the West.
Editing the book posed a new set of challenges. To create a more
balanced representation, additional essays were solicited. The au-
thors represent a wide variety of oral historians. Some, like me, have
been involved for years and have conducted hundreds of interviews
on many topics. Others have had limited exposure to oral history.
They have all seen the value and drawbacks of using oral history as
a research source. Some conducted the interviews themselves so
they wore two hats: creators and researchers. Some were only cre-
ators, and this was the first time they had used interviews to write a
paper. Some were only researchers and used others’ interviews. All
of the essays provide valuable reflections on the role of oral history
in researching the West and understanding community and work.
oral history , community , and work
in the american west
 Introduction

the essays in this volume show ways that oral history helps in-
crease the understanding of community and work in the American
West in the twentieth century. This introduction sets the stage for
the chapters by providing a backdrop of western history and oral
history along with expanded definitions of community and work as
they are used in this study. Finally, it outlines the book’s contents.

Western American History

For years, western American historians wrote almost exclusively

about white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men in the nineteenth cen-
tury. Much of the genre’s orientation reflected Frederick Jackson
Turner’s 1893 lecture “The Significance of the Frontier in Ameri-
can History.”1 Historian Patricia Limerick writes, “Turner was, to
put it mildly, ethnocentric and nationalist; English-speaking white
men were the stars of his story.”2 Turner’s ideas were superseded by
a focus on race, gender, and class in the 1980s in what is often re-
ferred to as the new western history.
Turner would not have been surprised that the frontier thesis
did not endure. He observed, “Each age writes the history of the
past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost in its own
time. . . . The historian strives to show the present to itself by re-
vealing its origin from the past.”3 The new western historians found
new meanings as they examined groups left out of or underrepre-
sented in the traditional western history. However, these new his-
torians also focused their attention on the nineteenth century.
Limerick, for example, occasionally steps into the twentieth cen-
tury in her groundbreaking Legacy of Conquest, but her focus is
telling the story of the people and lands Turner left out of his
nineteenth-century analysis. Richard White includes more of the
twentieth century in his study “It’s Your Misfortune and None of
My Own,” but again, only about a third of the book ventures past
the nineteenth century.4

1
2 jessie l . embry

By 2004, historian David M. Wrobel declared that new western

history was no longer useful. He acknowledged the life the new
western historians had breathed into a dying field, but found they,
too, had oversimplified a complex story.5 The essays that followed
Wrobel’s comments in the September 2004 issue of The Histo-
rian, written by many of the new western historians, acknowledge
that the field had moved beyond the “showdown at the political
OK corral.”6 Historian Richard W. Etulain summarizes what many
of the other bibliographical essays suggest: “These more compli-
cated paradigms . . . should help us to avoid the too-positive tri-
umphal approach of many early-twentieth century historians, and,
conversely, move beyond several late-twentieth century scholars
placing too much emphasis on negative conflicts in the West. This
larger view sees the American West as an arena in which different
cultures met, sometimes conflicted, but also compromised and in-
termingled.”7
For some historians, expanding western history also meant look-
ing into the twentieth century. In The Oxford History of the Ameri-
can West, historian Carol A. O’Connor declares, “Once a backwater
of the nation, the West had grown in wealth and population and
become an economic and political powerhouse. . . . The West’s his-
tory in the twentieth century, no less than the nineteenth, com-
bines elements sordid and sublime, tragic and triumphant. . . . The
fullest understanding of the American West requires historical ap-
preciation of this watershed era.”8 Peter Iverson agrees, “We need
to present American Indian history as a continuing story. All too
many historians have remained hesitant about entering the rather
murky waters of the recent past.”9

Oral History

Oral history is one way to expand the view of the American West
because it can give a voice to people who rarely leave a written re-
cord. Oral history gives a voice to people of color, people from
many economic classes, and people with different religious views.
Iverson’s claim that with “interviews . . . historians can write a
richer history of American Indians” is true of other ethnic groups.10
 Introduction 3

Historian John Mack Faragher points out that ethnic studies are
“notable for [their] use of oral history.”11 These interviews allow a
more personal and less ideological view than can be drawn from
written documents alone.
Interviewing is not a new technique in historical research, but,
like history itself, its uses have evolved over the years. As it is prac-
ticed today, oral history began as an elitist movement at Columbia
University in the 1940s. Historian Allen Nevins used oral histories
to supplement the written documents available on leading US pol-
iticians. However, the technique quickly became a way to record
the experiences of everyday Americans who left little or no record
of their experiences. Oral history preserves stories for families, his-
torians, folklorists, anthropologists, social scientists, scientists,
business leaders, activists, journalists, educators, and museum pro-
fessionals, to name just a few of its many consumers. Interviews
enrich history by giving what radio broadcaster Paul Harvey fa-
mously called “the rest of the story.”
Oral history connects the past, the present, and future. It matches
what novelist George Orwell meant when explained the slogan of
the Party in 1984: “[H]e who controls the past controls the future;
who controls the present controls the past.”12 Historians Paula
Hamilton and Linda Shopes claim, “Oral history . . . is at heart a
deeply social practice connecting past and present, and at times,
connecting narrative to action. [It] . . . span[s] the borders of es-
tablished academic disciplines, contemporary professional practices,
and community activism.”13 Or as Michael Frisch puts it, oral his-
tory is “a powerful tool for discovering, exploring, and evaluating
the nature of the process of historical memory—how people make
sense of their past, how they connect individual experience and its
social context and how the past becomes part of the present, and
how people use it to interpret their lives and the world around
them.”14

Community and Work

The common themes in this volume are how oral history helped the
authors better understand the role of community and the role of
4 jessie l . embry

work. These sound simple, but like the evolution of western history,
they are just the beginning of complex interrelationships. A 1975
Webster’s dictionary and a 2010 web version define community as “a
unified body of individuals as a: state. commonwealth. b: the people
with common interests living in a particular area; . . . d. a group of
people with a common characteristic or interest living together in
larger society.”15
Although most of the authors in this book talk about commu-
nities that share the same geographic area, the common interests
vary with each essay. For some it is a similar ethnic group. Others
share an occupation. Still others find their community in religion.
Sometimes the community is an unlikely combination, such as the
rancher and federal inspector in Leisl Carr Childers’s study of
rural Nevada. Many scholars have struggled to explain community
and how it has changed over time. Robert N. Bellah worried
about people forming “lifetime enclaves” and no longer having
interaction. Robert Wright wrote about “The Evolution of Des-
pair” that this lack of community caused in 1996. Hillary Rod-
ham Clinton quoted an African saying that “it takes a village (or a
community) to raise a child.”16 These oral history interviews add
to that dialogue.
Work is equally hard to define. While I am inclined to think of
work as what I do for a living, the 1975 Webster’s dictionary defini-
tion reminds me of the many other ways I use the word work. In
fact, the first definition listed is “to bring to pass,” and the second
is “to fashion or create by expanding labor or exertion upon.” The
definition in a 2010 dictionary matches my usual view. Work is an
“activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform
something: a: sustained physical or mental effort to overcome ob-
stacles and achieve an objective or result b: the labor, task, or duty
that is one’s accustomed means of livelihood c: a specific task, duty,
function, or assignment often being a part or phase of some larger
activity.”17
Work also has a variety of meanings in the essays contained
herein. In many cases, people’s occupations bring them together as
a community. But work can also be volunteer labor. For example,
the Mormons in Fort Collins, Colorado, worked together to build
a church building and a church community. In a similar fashion,
 Introduction 5

women in Utah worked on promoting conservative ideals through

the Eagle Forum. Sometimes the work that brings people together
is often not referred to as work at all. Jose Alamillo expected that
the Latinos created a community by working in the lemon groves
of California. But when he asked about work, it was baseball and
the Cinco de Mayo queen contests that his interviewees felt were
more memorable and uniting. Working with lemons is what they
did for a living, but it was not what defined them as people.
Of course, this is true of work and community throughout the
world. In fact, in many ways the world became very much the same
during the second half of the twentieth century. But there were
unique elements that played out differently in the West. The articles
that follow show what oral history can add to understanding some
elements of community and work in the American West. They do
not try to cover all aspects that connect the West, oral history, com-
munity, and work. They do, however, suggest some valuable inter-
connections. To help make those connections, the essays are divided
into three categories.
The first part contains reflections on the uses of oral history. As
the “oldest” practitioner in the group, I explain what I have learned
about oral history and the West over the years. Then Barbara Allen
Bogart, a folklorist who conducted her first interviews in 1978 as
part of her dissertation research, talks about her experiences in
western communities. Laurie Mercier first conducted interviews in
Montana in the early 1980s and has since used oral history in her
research on western mining and women’s history.
The second part looks at how oral history gives voice to groups
that were neglected in the old western history and continue to be
underrepresented in the new western history, often because of lim-
ited sources. But the articles include more than just untold stories.
They allow members of groups to speak for themselves. The authors
“introduce voices that counter [conventional views of the past];
they can complicate our understanding of what happened and what
it means.”18 For example, many western historians have documented
Native Americans’ work in California from the employers’ point of
view. William Bauer allows the Indians to talk about how they felt
about the work. Similarly, Jose Alamillo describes the work and play
of Mexican immigrants in the lemon groves of southern California.
6 jessie l . embry

Few historians combine ethnic groups, but Skott Vigil uses his His-
panic and Native American family to talk about migrant workers in
Colorado. Georgia Wier allows Japanese Americans in Colorado to
explain their unique experiences. These immigrants came to Weld
County before World War II and felt accepted. Claytee White pro-
vides a unique perceptive of blacks in Las Vegas; though their num-
bers were small, these African Americans were involved in many
businesses and activities.
Women’s work has also been misunderstood. Their experiences
were completely left out of the old western history or they were
seen as reluctant followers of men. Later, while their work experi-
ences were often limited by social norms, their life stories show
their abilities to expand those limitations. Joanne Goodwin ex-
plains that Las Vegas women are more than showgirls and prosti-
tutes. Even if they held these jobs, they explain their experiences
differently than the standard stereotypes. Sandra Mathews uses her
aunt’s experiences in Alaska to show how women moved into the
West for adventure even if they worked in traditional jobs, such as
teaching. John Sillito, Sarah Langsdon, and Marci Farr look at an-
other stereotypical women’s job—in this case, nursing—but go be-
yond the stereotype to show how the women felt about their train-
ing. Melanie Newport looks at the Eagle Forum in Utah. This
group of conservative women is often belittled, so her interviews
allowed these women a forum to voice their political views and
activities. All the articles show strong, independent women who
make a place for themselves in the urban and rural West.
In nearly all cases, oral history provides material not available in
traditional sources. The final articles in part 3 show how oral history
is often the only source of information. The essays in this part show
some unique ways that oral history changes how scholars and partici-
pants recall the past. Linda Myer studies the Mormon community in
Fort Collins, Colorado. Usually there are many sources about the
LDS Church in an area, including congregational histories, member-
ship lists, newspaper articles, and journals. For Fort Collins, these
records do not exist or are very sketchy. The only way Myers could
learn about the local LDS Church was to talk to people. The stories
from the interviews explain how the Mormons worked and grew to-
gether as a community. Leisl Carr Childers shows how nuclear test-
 Introduction 7

ing in Nevada was more than just a footnote in the cold war. The
testing affected people (where the official government position was
that there were no people) and led to an unlikely friendship between
a rancher and a federal tester. Kristi Young looks at family connec-
tions and stories that are not always historically accurate and reflect
more on the narrator’s views than they do on past events. Folklorist
William A. “Bert” Wilson taught me that people believe what they
think happened is more important than what actually did happen in
the past.

Notes

1. Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American

History,” in The Frontier in American History (New York: Holt, 1920), 2. His-
torian Ray Allen Billington expanded on the idea in Westward Expansion, a
History of the American Frontier. He writes in the preface to his first edition,
“This book attempts to follow the pattern that Frederick Jackson Turner might
have used had he ever compressed his voluminous researches on the American
frontier within one volume.” Ray Allen Billington, Wesward Expansion, A His-
tory of the American Frontier (New York: Macmillan, 1949), xi.
2. Patricia Nelson Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of
the American West (New York: Norton, 1987), 20–21.
3. Ibid., 17.
4. Ibid.; Richard White, “It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own”: A
History of the American West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991).
5. David M. Wrobel, “Introduction: What on Earth Has Happened to the
New Western History,” Historian 66 (September 2004): 440.
6. Ibid., 438–39.
7. Richard W. Etulain, “Meeting Places, Intersections, Crossroads, and
Borders: Toward a Complex Western Cultural History,” Historian 66 (Sep-
tember 2004): 509.
8. Carol A. O’Connor, “Introduction and Chronology,” in The Oxford His-
tory of the American West, ed. Clyde A. Milner II, Carol A. O’Connor, and
Martha A. Sandweiss (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 428.
9. Peter Iverson, “American Indian History as a Continuing Story,” Histo-
rian 66 (September 2004): 529.
10. Ibid.
11. John Mack Faragher, “The Social Fabric of the American West,” Histo-
rian 66 (September 2004): 444.
12. George Orwell 1984: and Related Readings (Evanston, IL: McDougal
Littell, 1998), 39.
8 jessie l . embry

13. Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, “Introduction: Building Partner-

ships between Oral History and Memory Studies,” in Oral History and Public
Memories, ed. Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes (Philadelphia: Temple Uni-
versity Press, 2008), viii.
14. Ibid., ix.
15. See http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community (accessed
April 5, 2011).
16. Robert N. Bellah, Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment
in American Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 72; Robert
Wright, “The Evolution of Despire,” Time Magazine, August 28, 1995, 50–
57; Hillary Rodham Clinton, It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children
Teach Us (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996).
17. See http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/work (accessed April
5, 2011).
18. Hamilton and Shopes, introduction to part 1, Oral History and Public
Memories, 3.
 Part I
Reflections
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