Ethical Dilemma

I've been wrangling with an ethical dilemma for quite some time... And in the interest of blog content (and a fresh point of view) here it is.

Several years ago I started working on my senior thesis. The topic was "Tradition, Innovation, and Acculturation in Dena'ina Sukdu'a" (Dena'ina Stories). Basically I collected dozens of stories in both English and Dena'ina from informant interviews as well as published and unpublished collections. I then traced who gave them the stories (in traditional Dena'ina culture a person/group owned a story and it was not told to someone outside their group/heir without some form of payment), how they learned Dena'ina, which dialect they spoke, and in almost all informant interviews asked for specific stories to use as a "control".

My premise was that over time, as the Dena'ina became "acculturated" (i.e. abandoned much of the traditional lifeways, outside subsistence issues), the stories and the storytellers incorporated "western" ideas/items (such as windows, guns, skidoos, etc.) into stories without changing the underlying message.

Things were trucking along just fine until I noticed that some of the stories told by one particular elder changed. I don't mean just changed by incorporating "western" concepts but the events and underlying messages changed.

Traditionally speaking, that just isn't done. If someone develops a reputation for changing stories, they will not be invited to share them or speak at public gatherings. It's basically a public humiliation.

So, what to do? This elder has passed on, but several generations learned Dena'ina from him, he had published/co-authored books, been a major contributor to at least 2 PhD. theses, and was renowned for his traditional heritage.

My advisor wanted me to continue on and present my findings at the local anthropology meetings. A close Dena'ina friend wanted me to continue on but not point out the elder's changes. A colleague advised me to drop it, as it was a lose/lose situation.

In the end I changed my topic, put off finishing school for 6 months, and put the project on the back burner. However, I developed a reputation as someone who collected stories, and periodically someone will contact me and give me one. In the past few years my inventory has probably doubled. When I get a new one I add it to the inventory, categorize it, and do the prelim analysis.

The whole thing was brought up recently when my advisor (who retired) came by work and wanted to know when I was going to finish and present my findings. I hemmed and hawwed, and basically avoided answering the question.

IF I were to finish there could be both good and bad results.

Good includes publishing, stirring up a bit of interest/dialogue, expanding my knowledge via others' input and dialogue, having defficiencies in my thinking/research methodology pointed out to me, and the joy of finishing.

Bad includes cheesing off well respected anthropologists, cheesing off the Dena'ina community, having put things out there with other folks' translations (therefore I can't vouch for their accuracy), and most of all possibly harming the reputation of someone who can't defend themself.

As it now stands, I don't think I should put this out there. I could leave out the changes, but then my results would be skewed. And isn't it unethical to not report the complete research findings? Maybe it's better to just let the whole thing fall by the wayside... Something I learned tons from, and isn't that the entire point?