Faculty Mentor: Matt Basso (History, University of Utah)

The East Idaho Ethnic Minorities Oral History Collection is a collection of over 100 oral histories, totaling more than 85 hours, conducted between October 2023 and February 2024 with members of ethnic minority communities in the Eastern Idaho area. These oral histories provide insight into the collective development of cultural identity in a predominantly white, rural area of the state (2023/2024 Idaho Blue Book, 2023,  pp. 309, 394-406; Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, 2022, pp.1-2). Some of the topics discussed by interviewees include citizenship, immigration, the role of language in preserving culture, the impact of education on cultural retention, deculturization, cultural hybridity, generational cultural shifts, historical recollections of the eastern Idaho area, experiences with disability, experiences as members of the LGBTQ+ community, resilience, historical and present-day discrimination, the Minidoka War Relocation Center (a WWII Japanese internment camp in Idaho), and segregation.

Oral history has played a significant role in the preservation of minority culture (Kerr, 2016, pp.369-370), and this collection aims to continue this practice. People who have faced oppression are able to shape the narrative of their experiences, allowing them to humanize themselves within the public narrative (Srigley et al., 2018, pp. 337). This project built upon the history preservation efforts being undertaken by organizations in the eastern Idaho area that represent minority communities, aiming to create a resource that both preserves culture and educates. Rather than focusing on the “elites,” these interviews centered typical community members, following the practice begun by oral historians in the 1960s and 1970s (Shopes, 2002). To preserve the autonomy of interviewees, interviewees were able to adjust a release form for their interview to their individual preferences, and tribal governments were given authority alongside tribal member interviewees of the publication and use of their oral histories, drawing upon the practices recommended by Shell-Weiss (2019). Further, all of the interviews/transcripts were given to the interviewees for approval for publication (including conditional approval), and all interviewees were given full permission for use of their oral histories for all purposes.

These oral history interviews will be accessible for free to the public through the Museum of Idaho’s website (Museum of Idaho, 2024) by October 2025.

Bibliography

2023/2024 Idaho Blue Book. (2023). Idaho Secretary of State. https://sos.idaho.gov/blue_book/2023/BlueBook_2023_2024.pdf

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. (2022, September 14). County Population Urban v. Rural. Idaho.gov. https://publicdocuments.dhw.idaho.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=23351&dbid=0&repo=PUBLIC-DOCUMENTS&cr=1

Kerr, D. R. (2016). Allan Nevins Is Not My Grandfather: The Roots of Radical Oral History Practice in the United States. The Oral History Review, 43(2), 367–391. https://doi.org/10.2307/26427588

Museum of Idaho. (2024, December 3). Oral history – Museum of Idaho. Museum of Idaho. https://museumofidaho.org/oralhistory/

Shell-Weiss, M. (2019). Good Intentions: Grappling with Legacies of Conflict and Distrust Surrounding a Native American Oral History Project One Generation Later. The Oral History Review, 46(1), 104–133. https://doi.org/10.1093//ohr//ohz004

Shopes, L. (2002, February). What Is Oral History? Historymatters.gmu.edu. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/what.html

Srigley, K., Zembrzycki, S., & Iacovetta, F. (2018). Beyond women’s words : feminisms and the practices of oral history in the twenty-first century. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.