Heritage in Translation

Making the Project

Behind the Stories

Eythana Miller as a young child with her grandfather. Eythana Miller standing near the coast.

I'm Eythana Miller, the voice behind the camera and the maker of Heritage in Translation.

Memories of my childhood in Montana have stayed with me over the years since I moved to California in 2018. Stories would come out in my writing when I did not intend them to, and I was continually made aware of the unique situation in which I had been brought up. I found a grant at my university that would allow me to spend a year working on this. I could not pass up an opportunity to share the stories and language of that community with the wider world.

This project was made possible through the generosity of the Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize at UC Berkeley. I am so grateful to the Stronach committee for trusting me to carry this out and giving me all the space and creative freedom I could have hoped for.

I have to thank Rose Fisher for her invaluable support and guidance. Her work has inspired me since before we met, and it was an honor to work together on this project.

Thank you to Jeriah Miller, my brother, for managing so much unwieldy footage, setting up the camera on many occasions, and helping with endless logistics.

I am grateful to my team of translators, who helped me process all of these interviews, and without whom I could never have finished this in any reasonable time frame. Thank you, Mercy, Meredith, Alyssa, Verena, Eunice, Judith, and Jethro.

Most of all, I am grateful to the members and former members of the Libby community for generously sharing their stories and thoughts. We are all enriched by the exchange and opening up of this valuable history.

A Note on the Archive

Though I had generous help from translators and support with some filming, file management, and logistics, I created this oral history largely by myself. I directed the project, shaped the interviews, reviewed and edited the translations, made the editorial decisions, and am continuing to manage the archive as it grows.

Because of that, there may be errors, imperfect audio, uneven footage, missing context, or small glitches along the way (though I've tried really hard to fix all of those!). I am grateful for patience, corrections, and suggestions as the project continues to take shape.