1
10
12
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0badecae15dd241874b963514a0993b5
Dublin Core
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Title
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Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
2006-2015
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
James Hedrick
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Katherine Blossom
Location
The location of the interview
Great Basin College (Elko, NV)
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Transcription in progress
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
MP4
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01:40:45
Dublin Core
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Title
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Katherine Blossom - Oral history (07/10/17)
Subject
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Oral history interview with Katherine Blossom, Western Shoshone from Elko, NV on 07/10/2017
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Katherine Blossom addresses students at the Shoshone Community Language Initiative (SCLI) program at Great Basin College. Katherine Blossom begins her discussion by describing the benefits of learning the language. She speaks about how her mother and others were punished at boarding schools for speaking their native language, and as a result she was denied the opportunity to learn it growing up. She then goes on to sing a song on the hand drum. Afterward, she begins to speak about the different native plants and other materials that traditional Western Shoshones would use.<br /><br />Presented at the 2017 Shoshone Community Language Initiative summer youth program (SCLI 17).<br /> </p>
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Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Source
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 060
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
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07/10/2017 [10 July 2017]; 2017 July 10
Contributor
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James Hedrick [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK
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Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017.
Consent form on file (administrator access only):
Format
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MP4
Language
A language of the resource
Enlgish; some Shoshoni
Community
Crossroads
Elko
GBIA
language
Shoshone
Story
traditional food
traditional medicines
traditional songs
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398860dce33d24c71b39eb21a4751de5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
2006-2015
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Norm Cavanaugh
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Rosie Hall Jones
Location
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Duck Valley reservation (Owyhee, NV-ID)
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Transcription in progress (07/01/2017)
Original Format
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AVI and MP4 format
Duration
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00:23:21
Dublin Core
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Title
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Rosie Hall Jones - Oral history (04/14/2014)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Rosie Hall Jones, Western Shoshone from Duck Valley reservation (Owyhee, NV-ID) on 04/14/2014
Description
An account of the resource
Rosie Hall is a Western Shoshone from Duck Valley reservation (Owyhee, NV-ID). Her family came from various areas throughout the Great Basin region such as Ruby Valley and Paradise Valley. Her family was came from the Ainga diccada group. She speaks about how her family always had kids playing in their house, and how the traditional medicinal practices were carried out. She tells us about how the water rights issue took place in Owyhee too. Rosie also speaks about how the U.S. cavalry used to treat the Western Shoshone people.
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 031
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
04/14/2014 [14 April 2014]; 2014 April 14
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
Rights
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Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017.
Consent form on file (administrator access only): http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/items/show/393
Language
A language of the resource
Shoshoni
Community
Crossroads
Duck Valley Reservation
GBIA
Owyhee
Shoshone
Story
traditional medicines
U.S. Cavalry
water
water rights
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d315528fd5818c17c3860f63d2ffdac1
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/ca1a4257b57d880c5417a17e2ae2455a.pdf
258eda95d8448bc53a964527ea5f4756
PDF Text
Text
Virginia
Jones
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
030B
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
Summer
2012
Owhyee,
NV
Great
Basin
College
•
Great
Basin
Indian
Archives
1500
College
Parkway
Elko,
Nevada
89801
hCp://www.gbcnv.edu/gbia/
775.738.8493
Produced
in
partnership
with
Barrick
Gold
of
North
America
�GBIA 030B
Interviewee: Virginia Jones
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: Summer 2012
J:
My name is Virginia Jones. I’m a Shoshone-Paiute Tribe from Duck Valley Indian
Reservation. I am going to talk about my drums today. The big powwow drums, and the
hand drums that I have here. And I like to talk about how I first started singing with the
powwow trail. When I first started learning how to sing—that was 1976—I first started
learning how to sing with the big powwow drum. They were practicing at the Senior
Citizens’ Center with Wesley Hall, Jr., was teaching all the Shoshones how to sing on the
powwow drum here. And I went there, and my mother went there, and Lucille went there;
we all went there, just to see how it was going to turn out. So, I went there to learn how to
sing songs. So, Junebug—excuse me, Wesley Hall, Jr. was our instructor. He was
teaching us how to sing at that time. So, we did some singing there, and learned a lot of
songs from that. And I do appreciate Wesley for teaching a lot of us how to sing at the
powwow drum. So, the first thing that I learned on the powwow about learning how to
sing, is how to respect—that’s the number one thing we have to do, is respect others. We
always have to respect ourselves, our drums, the drums that we make. How we did the
drums was—how I learned how to make the drum, is—by scraping the hide. My mother
helped me a long time ago when she was still living. That was about after 1976. We all
started learning how to make drums. We all got interested in making the drums. So, when
it came about, how we learned was, we had to—this is how the drum was first. The drum
was just a case like this. And then, after that, then what we did was, we came about and
we used these kind of tools to scrape our hides. Deer hide we use on our drums, or we use
elk hide. That’s—oh, and cow hide. We use cow hide, too. This little drum here has deer
hide on it. We used to scrape this, the deer hide, first. We scrape the hides. Then, after we
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clean the hides really good, we clean the fat part inside the hide. All that stuff, the fat, we
clean that really clean. And then, after we get through cleaning that, then we go and turn
the hide over, and then we scrape the other side. That’s the hair part. So, we get all the
hair off. Every bit of the hair, we have to remove off of the drum—oh, excuse me, off of
the hide. Then, we remove that off, and then we put it—after we get all the hair off, then
we put the hide on the casing. On the casing here, on the drum casing. Then, after we do
that, then we turn around, and then we put the hide on it on each side. Then we tie it. We
do the tying. We do the drum tying then. And then, after that, after we do the drum tying,
then we let the drum kind of dry, the hide dry up a little bit. And then, the next day, I look
at it again, then I re-tie the drums again. I re-tie the strings back up to make it just so it’s
just right and tight. Then, you quit tying it. Tying the hide up. Then you let the drum sit
there and let it dry up for about a week. One week. And then, we do the same way with
the cow hide. This drum here is made out of cow hide. This one. This drum is a cow hide,
and that one is a deer hide. Deer hides made all that drum. And then, after I do that, and
then we go and use it after it’s all dried up real good. We try it out first, then we go up to
the river—that’s up to the waters up there, where the running water is. Then we stand up
there, and then we pray for the drum. The usage of the drum, we pray for the drum when
we’re at the running water. We see the running water there, and then we stand there. And
we pray up to the Creator, to ask the Creator to bless this drum that we made with our
own hands. That we’re going to use it, and we’re are going to take it out to the powwow
circles. So, after we do that, then we could use the drum. We can take the powwow drum
into the circle. Any powwow that we go to—the Four Corners, wherever—we can use
that drum. Any place we want to, we can take the drum out and use it. But we always got
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to remember to pray for our drum. Each time you sit your drum out there in that powwow
circle, you either smudge the drum with one of these sweetgrasses—which, this
sweetgrass is not made by our tribe. The Shoshone tribes, we don’t have sweetgrass here
on our reservation, on Duck Valley Indian reservation. These are what we get, whatever
powwows we go to, we buy these from the taipos. And that’s kind of sad, that we have to
buy something like this from the taipos, to smudge our drums off. We have to smudge the
drums off before we start singing. And we pray for it before we start singing. So, this is
the one that came from a different state.
C:
So, when you say “smudge,” Virginia, can you explain what “smudge”—what do you
mean by “smudge”?
J:
What we have to do is, we light the—see, we light the sweetgrass up. And then, what we
do is, we put—the drum is sitting in front of us, and what we do is light it up while
somebody is praying for the powwow out there. At the same time, an elder is standing out
there praying at a powwow. We have to burn the cedar the same time an elder or whoever
is praying to the Creator. So that way, we could have good powwow, and we don’t have
no droppings of an eagle feather out there on the powwow circle. So, what we do is, what
I mean by “smudge” is, we light the sweetgrass up, or we light the sage up. And this is,
this sage is from Duck Valley. This is our own sage. So, what we do is, we could light
either this sage up, or we light the sweetgrass up. And what we do is, while we light it up,
while the person there is praying, we go and light ours up, then we run it around the
drum. We light it and pray at the same time when that man is praying or lady is praying.
Then we light this up, and we do our praying for the safety of the powwow drum that’s
sitting in front of us. The powwow drum, it means a lot to us singers, because I was
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always told—long time ago, way back, I was always told this by my aunt: “If you are the
maker of a drum, whatever you make,” she said, “You’re the maker.” And my aunt used
to tell me that. That’s Edith Shaw. She was my aunt. And she taught me a lot of things
about things today. What all the things about, a lot about our living things, you know,
and—even about the drum. My aunt used to tell me, “You’re the maker. You take care of
it. Take care of it! Don’t leave your drum sitting anyplace! Take care of your stuff.
You’re the maker. Take care of it!” So, that’s how I learned by my aunt. And I’m
thankful today that I learned a lot of things from my aunt. Because she was the one that
taught me a lot of things. So, I want to thank my aunt for that. And I know she’s not here,
but I want to thank her wherever she’s at. Like I say, lot of times, us people always say—
we still pray, and we still say “Thank you, Appe.” Up there. Appe is same thing as Jesus.
We still pray like the taipo pray. And we pray in our own ways, and we pray for our
drum. And when we pray for our drum, then we feel better. We know we’re safe. We’re
protected by our grandfather up there. And we pray for our water at all times. We always
buy water. I know lot of times we don’t get it from the spring waters, but we get our
waters all the time, from the store or something like that. And then, we spill some water
on the drum to make the hide feel better. Because I was told long time ago that that drum
that you make—you’re the maker, take care of it—and lot of times, my aunt would used
to say to me, “Give thanks to the Appe up there. [Shoshone at 12:30] That’s what my
aunt used to say long time ago. So, that’s what I follow today. I pray to my Grandfather
up there every day. I pray to him. I give thanks to him. Just like, maybe, the taipos do.
But I still pray to him, and I thank the Creator for all the things that I’ve learned: how to
sing, become a singer today. And I sing with my powwow drums. And I thank the
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Creator how I learned how to do everything. And the sticks I made myself. When we
used to sing long time ago, that was about, we first started with Wesley Hall. Then we all
started getting bigger and bigger, and all the people started liking it. So, Winona
started—Winona Charles, Sylvania Charles, Carmen Jones started, Lucille Jones, and
myself. We all liked singing, so we all joined Wesley Hall. So, after that, then that’s
when I started. On 1976, I started singing. And then, still up to this day, now it’s 2009
and I’m still singing. And I enjoy singing songs. Sometime I make my own songs,
Shoshone songs. I make my own songs. And lot of times, we sing it at different
powwows when we go to different powwows. And when I used to be a singer with the
Four Winds group, that’s how we became—after Wesley Hall taught us, then we were the
Four Winds singers. So, that was Winona Charles, Sylvania Charles, Lucille Jones,
Carmen Jones, and myself. We were all a woman drum at one time. So, up to this day
now, I’m still a singer. I still sing at powwows. And I enjoy singing. And lot of times, I
go and sing with the hand drum songs. I’ve always get called to go and sing it, you know,
different places. So, I enjoy all that, too. So, all the things that I do, I enjoy, and I make
my own sticks. I know that was Wesley Hall, showed us how to make sticks. That was
1976. He said, “This is how you ladies are going to make the drum stick!” He said, “Go
over there somewhere, and find some fishing poles somewhere,” he said. See, this is like
a fishing pole. At the end of the fishing pole, he said, “Go over there and go get some!”
Some of these, he said. “And then we’ll start from there. I’ll bring—or either all of you
come the next class. All of you come to the class next time, and bring a sheep wool.
Bring something like that. And bring needles!” he said to us. So, we said, “Oh, okay! So
we’re going to make sticks, drum sticks, like this, so we can sing on our drums.” So
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that’s how Wesley taught us how to do the sticks, too. So, I want to thank Wesley again
for teaching us ladies how to do a lot of things, too. He taught us a lot of things. And I
want to thank him. And, this is one of our—our tobacco. We have a tobacco here, we can
get these up here, up in the mountains, up here in the Duck Valley mountains up here. We
go out there and get some of these. I don’t know what the white name is, but a lot of
times we just call it tobacco. But the Indian name is totsa. And we smoke this a lot. And
we use it a lot at powwows. We smoke this, we do our prayers with this. A lot of times,
we pray for our drums, we use our totsa, and we smoke this tobacco. A lot of times, we
use it for colds, too. And it’s really good. So, this is our Indian tobacco, the Shoshone
Indian tobacco here. We use it for lot of things. It can be used for a lot of things, if you
know how to use this totsa. And this is one of our Indian teas, too. We drink this lot of
times when we sing. Indian tea, here. It grows around here in Owyhee. Sometimes it
grows up here by the Cleveland Trail. I don’t know what the English name is, but they
call it antapittseh kwana. They call it an Indian name. But the only thing I know is the
Indian name. But I do not know the English name. Because my aunt was the one that
taught me how to go and get the Indian tea. So, I go up there in them hills and go get this.
And we can’t just go and get this, either; we have to wait and stand there. My aunt would
pick one first, down there on the ground. Then she stands there and hold it, and she stands
that way, the way the sun’s coming up. And she’ll tell me “We’ll wait until I do my
prayers.” So, my aunt Edith Shaw would do the prayers first, and then, after she gets
through praying for this, then we could pick as much as we want. And we drink this. This
is our Indian tea that we can drink every day. Some people use it for diabetes. Some
people just drink it just to be healthy. And it’s very good tea. It’s just like the tea that you
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buy in the store. But they’re very scarce. They’re very hard to come by. You can’t really
just go and go get it anyplace. You got to know where they’re growing at. They grow at
the spring. Spring water, somewhere, you know. You have to find it. We usually go up to
Cleveland Trail. Cleveland Trail up here.
C:
So is there a certain time of the year that you can harvest that?
J:
Yeah. We could only get this antapittseh kwana on July. July or August. Second week of
August is when we have to get them, is when they have a little flowers, yellow flowers.
When they have a little yellow flowers, they’re ready to pick. Then we could pick ‘em.
Then we could drink it.
C:
Virginia, you mentioned earlier that you should always watch or look after your drum,
and that you shouldn’t leave your drum unattended. Can you explain as to why that’s
important?
J:
The reason why I said it’s very important to watch and protect your drum is because
you’re the maker of the drum. And when you’re are the maker of the drum, you’re
supposed to stand up the drum—like this—all the time. You always have to stand this
drum up. This means when you stand this drum up like this, and here’s the casing on the
bottom. So this is what it sits on, and we made this one out of wood, and then the reason
why we have to stand this up is because the powwow is not started yet. So, when the
powwow is starting, then—and then, we go and then we put our drum on that casing. And
then, we put the drum on the casing, and then, you’re the maker. So, I’m the maker of the
drum. So what I do is, I do not leave my drum at the powwow circle by itself. I always
have to have one person sitting at the drum. That’s to watch the drum, because we have
like, maybe, fifteen, sixteen drums there at a powwow, or twenty. We have a lot of drums
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there. We have a lot of people from all over the country at the powwows. So the reason
why I’m saying, is that people, when we take our drums out, we have to protect our
drum. And we have to protect ourself. Because we’re the maker of the drum. Lot of
times, there’s a lot of bad medicine flying around. At each powwows. No matter where,
what powwow you go to, you can hear about it from other people. Talk about bad
medicine. So, when that is going around, what we usually do, is we go and put one of
these—for protection, we put one of our little cedar pouches on the drum. We hang it on
side of the drum for protection like that. That’s to protect our drum, and protect the maker
of the drum, and the rest of the singers. So, that’s why it’s very important that we do not
leave the drum at any time. If I’m going to leave it, I’ll leave one of the ladies in charge.
I’ll say, “You take care of the drum. I’ve got to go drink water,” or go drink pop, or got to
go do something. So. So that’s why I said I had to protect this drum in that way. Because
this drum here, what I’m talking about, is just like a grandfather to us. This drum is like a
grandfather to us because we pray to this drum. All over, powwows that we go to, you
can see other people smudging their drums, praying for their drums. And this drum is a
big thing at a powwow. Because we go and sing songs with it. We sing for the Flag Song,
we open the powwow with the Flag Song, Victory Song, Honor Song, for the men fancy,
men traditional, women traditional, all the childrens, clear down to Tiny Tots. So what
we do is, in that way, I said, we always, always have to take care of our drum, because
this is the circle of life that we live in today. This drum means a lot to a lot of us, because,
in—when I first started singing, the more I got into this drum, singing, and I’m still
singing ever since 1970, I still haven’t let it up, the songs—sometime I go and sing with
Martina Littleboy’s drum, her and her sister Linda. So I go up there and sing with them
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when they ask me, or call me, to go up there and sing with them at the Te-Moak Indian
Powwow. So I go up there and sing once in a while with them. But like I say: if you’re
the maker of the drum, you’re to protect it. And every time you go to the powwow, and
the powwow’s through—I don’t care wherever you go, you could go to Fallon, Reno,
McDermitt, Idaho, all around us, all different—Fort Duchesne, Utah, Cedar City—all
over the place. I’ve been all over the place with this drum. This drum has gone to Fort
Duchesne; Cedar City, Utah; McDermitt; and it has been to Idaho; it’s been to Fallon,
Stillwater. All over the place in state of Nevada, Utah, all over. This drum has been all
over the place. So, when I was singing, when we went all over, then I told my mom that,
well, I liked singing, so I just continued to sing with the powwow circle. Which I’m still
in the powwow circle, and I enjoy being in this powwow circle. So now, when I’m
talking about this drum, it means a lot to me. And this drum here is made out of a cow
hide. This one. This drum is made out of two calf hides. My cousin gave me the two
hides to do. That was my cousin Wilbur Shaw, he gave me these cow hides, and I scraped
the hides, two calf hides. Me and my mother did that here, right by the shed. We scraped
these out, we took the hair off and clean it real good, then we put it on our casing here.
And this casing is what I bought. I just got lucky and bought this. Somebody that was
going through with the powwow trail had sold the casing to Idaho, one of the pawn
shops. So I bought this casing there, and so it didn’t have a casing. It was just an open
drum like that blue drum there. So my mother said, “Well, let’s ask brother if he has a
calf hide, and we can fix it up.” So Wilbur—my cousin, Wilbur Shaw—gave us the hide.
So, we went and did that. And so, we fixed this, and this is made out of two calf hides.
And this drum also went to Cedar City. This drum. And I really do enjoy this drum, what
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my brother Wilbur Shaw gave us, and we fixed—me and my mother. So we, my mom
and Winona, and Sylvania Charles, and Lucille, we all took this up to Fort Duchesne
when we went up there to host the powwow in Cedar City. We took this one to Cedar
City. That was about, oh, after the [19]70s. After 1970, something like that. So, I enjoy
using this drum, this drum has gone a long ways, and I do enjoy it. I’ve already had
washed all my drums. I keep my drums clean, because I use it all the time. You’re the
maker, you have to take care of it. It’s my responsibility to take care of my drums.
C:
Virginia, can you maybe elaborate a little bit on, you mentioned if you leave your drum
unattended, bad things could happen. What did you mean?
J:
Bad things—like, what I’m saying, bad things could happen to you is, like, somebody
that—whoever’s in the powwow circle might not like you. They jealous you’re singing.
Because you might have sing a real pretty song at one powwow. And then, they’ve heard
you sing there a pretty song. And lot of times, people get jealous of your singing. And
that’s why they put bad medicine on you, with whatever medicine they have. We do not
know what kind of medicine other people, other tribes, carry. We do not know that. But
the Shoshones, as far as I can remember, I don’t think we had bad medicine here.
Because my aunt used to tell me that, “What is that, bad medicine?” They don’t know
what that is. But, so that’s why I’m saying, that’s where all that comes in, is when you go
to different bigger powwows, you know. There’s always people jealous. Jealous one
another because of their songs. So, that’s why I’m saying they put bad medicine on you.
C:
Okay.
J:
So, okay. Now I’m going to come over here, and talk about these drums. This hand drum
right here, this hand drum right here is made out of elk hide. This one, right here. This
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one is a elk hide drum. It has a different sound to it. Sound. You can hear the different
sounding of the drum. This is elk hide. Okay? Now, we could hear a different sound in
this one here. This is the one I made about a month ago. So, I fixed this whole drum up.
And I never really used this yet to any powwows or round dance. Oh, I think I did use
this—I take it back. I did use this in Great Basin College. That was about last month, I
took this drum in there. Up there to Great Basin. Which, I enjoyed myself at Great Basin.
I was asked to be up there. Victoria Jackson called me one day and asked me if I could
work there and teach the people how to sing round dance songs. So, I told her yes, so
that’s when I went up there to the Great Basin College. And that’s when I first used this
hand drum there. And I enjoyed it. So, this one probably has a different sounding, too.
[Plays drum at 33:20] See? You could tell the different soundings of all these drums. It
depends on what sticks you’re using, it makes a lot of difference on all these drums.
C:
So what type of hide is that one?
J:
This hide is deer hide. This one is deer hide. I made this one out of deer hide. This was a
part of a casing to that big round drum. I didn’t really finish it, so I took it apart, and then
I cedared it off and just left it. Let it stand in the back, in one of my rooms. I just left it
because I have to wait until I find a white, like an elk hide for that drum. So this one is
done last month. And I’m thinking about using it when I go up to Elko on August. That’s
when they going to have that handgame tournaments for the youth, up in Elko, Nevada.
So, this will probably be going to Elko. And then, this one here is my special drum. This
was given to me by Mr. Joe Caskey and Lucy Caskey. This was given to me when we
had that—we had a powwow in Owyhee, at the Fourth July grounds, that was honoring
the elders. Then, I signed up for a contest. They said they were going to have a Round
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Dance contest. So, I signed up in it, and this is on Labor Day. Labor Day, 9-7-[19]96.
And it was made by Joe and Lucy Caskey. And this is what I won in Owyhee, Nevada.
Round Dance, first place. And Joe and Lucy Caskey gave me five hundred dollars. And I
really appreciate this drum. This drum means a lot to me. It was freshly-made when it
was given to me. And I really do thank Joe and Lucy. I know they’re not here, they’re in
the spirit world, but God bless them wherever they’re at.
C:
What type of hide is that one made from?
J:
This is a regular deer hide. Because when it was freshly made, Lucy and Joe gave it to me
at the campgrounds when they were honoring the elders. So, this is what they made with
their own hands. So, I enjoy it. I’ve been using it a lot. I’m going to thank Joe and Lucy
for the drum making on that. [Begins drumming at 36:29]
C:
So Virginia, you’re going to be singing some songs. But, can you tell us the reason for
the song before you sing it, or what it’s going to be about?
J:
I’m going to sing a song about a woman traditional song. And it’s sung like this, like all
the womens dancing out there with the buckskin dress. That’s the song. [Sings from
37:04-40:50]
C:
Good job, Virginia!
J:
Thank you.
C:
So, are there other songs? Like, what’s the Flag Song all about?
J:
The Flag Song—I could sing one of the Flag Songs, but one of our ladies sing it from
Fallon. But I’ll just sing that one, because I’m still working on the one that we were
doing at Great Basin. So, I’m just going to go with the song that we sing with Gill
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Hansen. So I’ll sing that one for now, until we get the other one learned more. I have to
work on that one. [Sings in Shoshone from 41:40-44:10]
C:
Okay, Virginia. You’re going to be singing another song. Can you tell us about this next
song that you’re going to be singing about?
J:
Okay, I like to sing this one song that my brother long time ago, I asked him if I could
sing this song. And the brother I’m talking about is gone today to the spirit world, and
that’s the brother that I’m talking about, that I think a lot of, that goes a lot of places and
sing Round Dance songs, is Art Cavanaugh. I will never forget Art Cavanaugh. He’s a
relative of ours, and I’ve always thought a lot of Art Cavanaugh. All his singings that he
done everywhere, I hear his tapes everywhere from people. I just love his songs. And I
asked Art—I like this one song, that I always say—so I ask Art could I sing that song one
day, anytime. He said, “Go ahead and have it. You can have any of my songs. Whatever
songs that you want to sing on those tapes that I record, if you can pick them up, sing it.
I’ll be glad that you’re going to carry it on for me,” he said. So, I want to thank Art
Cavanaugh for this. And I’m going to sing this one song in memory of Art Cavanaugh.
[Sings in Shoshone from 45:44-48:36]
C:
Okay, Virginia. The next song that you’re going to be singing is a handgame song, I
understand. And can you explain a little bit about it before you sing it?
J:
The reason why I like to sing handgame is because long time ago, we used to do some
handgame songs here in Owyhee at the campgrounds. So, from there I started my
handgame, and I used to play with different people, handgames. And for the last, past
four years, I’ve been called to Elko for the—I think it’s September or sometime they have
their Fandango up in Elko. And it’s very interesting, that they have a lot of kids on their
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Fandango. They have handgame tournaments. They have card games. They have
horseshoe pitch for the men, and the younger boys and girls have horseshoe pitch. They
have—at nights, they have Round Dance songs. That’s when Tom Sole Sr. comes in, and
he sings there, and Keith Andren sings there, Round Dance song. And they do a lot of
good things up there during their Fandango days. So, maybe the other people would like
to go and check their Fandango Days out, and I’m pretty sure that was on September, and
I can’t remember what. It’s in the fall. Maybe October. But anyway, they do good things
up there. They play handgame with the children, and the childrens are learning from all
that, and doing that handgame. They start the kids off the first night. They have all the
children’s handgame tournament, first night. And the kids are playing for money. And
then, after the kids is done the first day, then the next day, then they come in and the
adults start their handgame tournament. Lot of them, too. So, I’ve been up, going up to
Elko the past four years. So I’ve been singing for the children, and teaching some of the
children how to sing handgame songs. There’s about four of us instructors down there
doing that. So one is Gertrude, and Judy Hoover, [__inaudible at 51:20__], just different
people that want to donate their time and help the youth, and help one another up there,
and to teach the kids a lot of things, you know? What they need to learn about our
history, our stuff that we have to do to teach them, so that they can learn. Learn all these
things. So, I’ll be glad to teach someone, whoever is interested in learning songs for the
powwow singing, or hand drum. If you want to sing Round Dance songs, if you want to
learn, I’m here. Just come here and ask me to teach you, or—adult and children. We can
pull the drum out, and you can sing and learn. Learn a lot of things together. And know
about our history, and keep our culture here upon the Mother Earth. What we do, and the
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Four Directions, what we do every day. So, I want to sing a little song for us before it
starts raining over here by my house. I’m going to sing a little handgame song that I was
teaching some of the kids in Elko. So, I’m going to sing one of those songs. It’s a
different beat. It’s a little different beat. Like, the Round Dance is just a stroke. But this
one is a faster hit for the hand drum. See, faster. [Sings from 53:12-56:34]
C:
Is there anything else you’d like to say in summary today, Virginia?
J:
Only thing I can think about is, I want to thank you, Norman, for coming today.
Interviewing me today. And I’ll be glad to teach anybody, if anybody want to sing at the
powwow drum. And like I say, it helps everybody in a good way. You know, when we go
and take time, go to the powwow, you feel good. Smudge yourself down with sweetgrass.
Everybody feels good. Pray to the Creator. And that way, we don’t lose our history. We
need to keep it up, and stay in the powwow circle.
[End of recording]
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
2006-2015
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Norm Cavanaugh
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Virginia Mae Jones
Location
The location of the interview
Duck Valley Reservation (Owyhee, NV)
Original Format
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DVD and VOB format
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:58:00
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/583
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Virginia Mae Jones - Oral history (06/2012)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Virginia Mae Jones, Shoshone-Paiute from Duck Valley Reservation (Owyhee, NV) on 06/2012
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Virginia Jones is a Shoshone-Paiute from the Duck Valley reservation. She begins her oral history by describing the different types of drums that she currently own and how they are used in powwows, hand games, or circle dancing. She also tells us about how she got interested in drumming along with those individuals which taught her drumming through the years. This also included how to take care of your drum when traveling to different events, and moreover how different materials can create different sounds with the drum.</p>
Video Pending <br /><br /> <a title="Read Virginia Mae Jones Oral History Transcript" href="/omeka/files/original/ca1a4257b57d880c5417a17e2ae2455a.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read Virginia Mae Jones Oral History Transcript [pdf file]</a>
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Source
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 030B
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
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06/2012 [June 2012]; 2012 June
Contributor
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Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
Rights
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Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017.
Consent form on file (administrator access only):
Language
A language of the resource
English; some Shoshoni
Community
Crossroads
drums
GBIA
heritage
Shoshone
Story
traditional medicines
traditional songs
traditions
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/5a94fa8995185e4806f0bba05ae0a8a8.jpg
05f9b13f4ae2504a613adb671e3092f7
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/13bbb9a8db3b30863b1dfbaf48a07316.pdf
b472565d2602004505a6f3af6545989d
PDF Text
Text
Katherine
Blossom
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
029
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
March
27,
2012
Elko,
NV
Great
Basin
College
•
Great
Basin
Indian
Archives
1500
College
Parkway
Elko,
Nevada
89801
hCp://www.gbcnv.edu/gbia/
775.738.8493
Produced
in
partnership
with
Barrick
Gold
of
North
America
�GBIA 029
Interviewee: Katherine Blossom
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: March 27, 2012
B:
—and we’ve lost a lot of our Native American plants. Our herbs. But we still have a lot.
We truly do. And you know, if we don’t use our herbs, they’re going to disappear.
Because it’s our way, the Native Americans were placed here as caretakers for the land.
For the plant life, for the animal life, and all that’s here. Our job was to pray. And that’s
the foundation of our lives, was prayer. We prayed early in the morning. The old people
would get up early in the morning, and even the children, when they had the camps, they
would get up early in the morning and they would pray, and thank the Creator for the
good night’s sleep. But thank him also for all that’s here, from the morning star, to the
sun coming up, and the mountains, and the rocks on the mountains, the water that runs,
and all the trees, the plant life, animal life, the creepy crawlers, four-legged, and they
prayed also then for their family. And that’s how they took care of things. They were
completely dependent upon our Creator. Our Father, our God, however you call Him.
He’s known by many names today, but I feel we still have the One. And He is the
Almighty, He’s the one that takes care of us. But we have walked away from that type of
life, because we have—times have changed. Our people, our elders, our ancestors, would
be your grandparents, or maybe your great-grandparents, were forced to go to the
boarding schools, where they were not allowed to speak their language. And so that’s
why many that came from the boarding schools did not teach their children the language.
Because they went through hardships. It was broken. Their language was taken from
them. They were not allowed to speak it. If they spoke their language, they were punished
for it—severely. I mean, the stories are just stories of horror. And people don’t like to talk
about that because it’s so ugly. But that’s what our people went through. You think about
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the abuses; our people suffered all the abuses that ever was thought of. We have had our
Holocaust. But through that, and during that time, a lot of our ways, our old ways, were
taken from us. And I know many people say, “Well, it’s too bad your father and mother
didn’t teach you your language.” A lot of it was because they were ashamed. They
became ashamed of who they were. They walked with shame in their hearts. And yet,
they did nothing to deserve that. But it was so ingrained in them. The punishment was so
severe, they never forgot it. You think of all the horrible things that happen today,
happened to our people. And therefore, they quit. Many of them just quit going out and
gathering the precious herbs. And they started, because the prominent society said they
were the right ones, they had the right way, they had the answers for everything, and we
were savages, and you name it. You’ve heard all those names. I’m sure I don’t need to
repeat it. But, with that, then our people just kind of shunned away, because they were
taught it was wrong. They were taught it was wrong to pray in their own language. So
they had to learn to speak the—it was forced upon them to speak the English language.
They were forced to recite prayers. And many of the prayers didn’t mean anything to
them, because that was not our way of prayer. That’s not the native way of prayer. Our
prayer is different. Our prayer is—I don’t know how to say this, I never have been able
to, but it just seems like our prayers go deeper. Because we pray for everything. We pray
for our Mother Earth. Why do we call her our mother? Because she’s the one that gives
us everything. Without our Mother, the electricity would not be here. Without our
Mother, the glass would not be here, because it’s made with sand. And so, as you go on
to school, you’ll learn these things. But remember, where did it all come from? It came
from our Mother. The clothes you have on, the glasses we wear, our jewelry, whatever,
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all has come from our Mother. And our Father, our Creator, has touched man in such a
way that they have gone beyond. I mean, now we’re flying in the air in aircrafts. That
never was. Our grandparents never saw that. I mean, it would just—they would just be
startled and really scared, because they didn’t see this type of living. And you’d come in,
and you’d turn on the switch—how does the light come on? You know? But it’s here.
You go and you turn on a dial, and the heat comes on. I mean, and that’s how far
technology—and now we’re flying, and with the computers, and your iPods—all of this
has all been created by man. But it was the Creator who gave that. But, you know, that’s
going beyond. And our people’s lives was very simple. Like, the outdoors were our
pharmacy. All the plants that you see here, in whatever form, it came from our Mother.
She has given us everything. Even today, our water comes from Her. And how many of
us stop to think how precious the water is? How many of us stop to pray when we take
that drink of water first thing in the morning? Because our body is made up, good portion
of it—how many know how many percentage of water is our body? Does anyone
remember?
U1:
It’s like 70%.
U2:
I was going to say 70-73[%].
B:
Mmhm. It’s in the 70 percent. That’s how much of our body is made of water. We cannot
live without water. And therefore, we need, all of us, need to start praying for our water.
That it’ll be pure. It’ll be good. And that when we drink it, it won’t harm us—because
look at the chemicals that we have put in there. The atomic bomb was the first thing that
started that off. It went into the ground. Where is our water? It’s in our Mother Earth. It’s
in Her veins. And they have contaminated our water. Some places, people cannot drink
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the water. They have to have it shipped in. Or they have to boil it, or they have to put
something in it, to make it pure, that they can drink it. And so, man is literally destroying
what we have, what the Creator has given us. And so, I believe we need to go back to our
basics. Remember our prayers. We need to pick it up. And as we do that, and if you’re
really sincere in your heart, you’re going to learn. The Creator’s going to give you songs.
When you go out and you pick the pinenuts, the pinenut songs will come to you. It’s just,
we haven’t been doing it, and that’s why it’s gone from us. We’ve lost it. Because we
have not been doing it. And so with that, if you really want to live a better life for
yourself—this is for you, not for me—however you live your life is how you’re going to
be. Like if, now with the drugs that’s coming on, with the drinking, the alcohol, the
smoking all of the different things that’s homemade, and manmade, it’s not good for your
body. Our people did smoke, but they smoked in their ceremonies. But they use the
natural herb. They used the natural tobacco that they gathered. They harvested. They
would mix it with a medicine called totsa. They would grind it, and they would put it into
their, when they’re rolling their cigarettes. But then, they didn’t just smoke it just to be
smoking. They smoked it so that, maybe they had lung problems. It would clear that lung
out. Or they would chew it, and swallow it, and that would help clear the lungs out.
You’ll be surprised how much stuff you can start spitting up when you start using this in
a good way. Pray for it. Pray, and ask it. Because everything that’s on our earth, on our
Mother Earth, has a spirit. And this is something you don’t learn in school. They say the
rocks don’t have a spirit. The rocks have spirit. Because in our ceremonies, we pray to all
the elements, because that’s what the Creator has given us. And so, our basics is—and
I’m not trying to preach at you, but that’s just the way it is. That’s the way it is. So, when
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you go out—and we’re going out to go pick pinenuts. We’re getting ourselves ready,
we’ve gotten ourselves ready, we’re going out. And before you go and you pick the
pinenuts, you ask the Creator to bless the pinenuts, and that you will have a good harvest,
and you give it water. And you thank the pinenuts for being there for you, that you can
feed your family. And you can use it in a good way. You take what you need. You take
what you can use. And you take what maybe you’re going to give to your grandfather,
grandmother, or whoever. You take that much. You don’t take so much that you’re going
to throw it away and waste it. Because that’s not what the Creator have told us to do. He
told us, take care of everything. And so that’s why we walk—and you walk in your
prayer. You know. It isn’t a one-day thing like Sunday, you go to church and then you
forget about God and you forget to pray, and then next Sunday you go back to church
again. It’s not that. You walk your prayer, you walk in that, daily. You pray for the sun
that comes up, that it heats all of us, and it gives energy to us, to all of the plant life,
everything that’s on our Mother, and all that She gives us. And we should be thankful. Be
thankful that we still have clean air. Pray for the air, that it’ll be clean, and that when
you’re breathing, it’ll be clean for you. And for your family. And for your relatives. And
with that, so we’ll go to our medicines now. All of this was given to us. This is what is
called chaparral. Chaparral is good. It grows in southern Nevada and Arizona. And it
grows in a bush. And sometimes, if it’s really nice and healthy, then they grow up like
little trees. They don’t grow real tall, because it grows where it’s hot in the desert. And
the way you can tell—and this is, by knowing your plants, if you go out and you walk
among them—you pick your plants, there’s only a certain time of the year that you
harvest different plants. The chaparral is the best in the springtime, in April. You get up
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early in the morning, you look at it. The sun is coming up, let’s say, from the east. I’m
not sure of which way east is in the building, but let’s say this way. Then you look
through it, and you see the sun has come up, and your chaparral, the plant that glistens
and shines, has a lot of healing property in it. Because it’s healthy, because of the oil
that’s in it. Our plants are oily. And that’s when you pick it, you harvest it. Again, you
don’t go out and just pick. You prepare yourself. You think about the plant you’re going
to go and gather. You go, and before you touch the plant, just like the pinenuts, you pray
for it. You offer it water. And same with all the medicines. That’s the process. You do
that before you harvest. And, now this plant, and this is a crown that came from the
Sundance. I don’t know if all of you have heard about the Sundance, but this is another
way of prayer that has been given to our people. Now, this is mugwort. It’s a little bit
different than our sagebrush, but this grows along the riverbanks in Oregon. And they use
it for a crown, because they’re going to go out, and they’re going to dance for four days,
without water or food. And when they gather this, they pray for it. Same thing. You pray,
you give an offering. Maybe you could take tobacco. Because this grows along the river.
You don’t need to give it water. But then, you give it tobacco, for an offering, thanking it
for being there. And that, when you pick it, it will go with you and help you. And it does.
Because this is full of water, and they wrap it with a red cloth, and then they put it on
when they go out and dance. And it helps. It helps them. And this, a crown would be
more out, but because I’ve had to pull it back so I could carry it, when it was gifted to
me—when I say “gifted,” it was given to me—the crown was out like this, and then that
gave them shade. That helped the dancers in that way. And this is a mixture. It’s got
cedar, it’s got tobacco, it’s got sage in it, and you can mix different kind of herbs with it.
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And then you give this as an offering, when you go out, and you’re praying. Like, in the
morning. You go out, and you make a fire, and as you’re building the fire, you go
through the procedure with prayer. Thank the wood for being there. And thank it that it’s
going to take your prayer up. The smoke is going to take your prayer up, that our Creator
can hear you. And that you do stand in front of him in a pitiful way. But we’re asking for
help for ourselves, whatever the need is. And then you thank—also, never forget to be
thankful for all that Mother Earth has given us. And if you have time, you can name them
all. If you don’t have time, you can say, just, “Thank you for Mother Earth and all that
she has provided for us, and keep her strong.” Because we are literally destroying our
Mother. And it’s sad, when you stop to think about it. But all of this came from her. This
was given to me, and it’s like a wax. But people from the south use this, and when they
go in the sweat lodge, they put it on the rocks, on the hot rocks, and it gives a different
fragrance. It helps clear the mind. It helps you to clear out—like if you’re carrying a lot
of bad junk inside. You had bad feelings then. And now it’s getting overwhelming with
you. And this is what happens. You can get in that state of where you feel dark, and you
feel ugly, and you just have this heavy feeling, and you don’t want that. You want to be
able to walk upon our Mother in a good way. And so, you need to get rid of those, the
darkness, the heaviness. What else would we call it? Anything that keeps you from being
free. Rather it be our mind-thought. And sometimes, we have to watch what we think.
Because if we keep thinking bad thoughts, we’re going to start talking that way. It just
happens. And so, if you don’t want to be that way, and you want to be kind, you want to
be loving, you want to be helpful. You have to pray for that. Because we’re living in a
time when there’s a lot of ugliness around us. You take the drugs. That has a spirit in it.
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You have all kinds of spirits. The alcohol has a spirit. And the drugs, and the, what,
wacky tobaccy? Whatever they call it. [Laughter] I’m not up with the term these days. I
think that’s an old saying. But, those things are things that will hinder us, from being the
person, and the potentials you’ll have. It will dampen that. And it’s wonderful when you
don’t have those hangups, and you don’t have to rely on a drug in the morning to help
you through the day, and don’t have to have a drug to keep you awake or put you to
sleep, or whatever they use those things for. You don’t need that! You need the good
medicine to keep you well and healthy. And it’s all out there. This is what they call
sweetgrass. And it has, they’re kind of old. I’ve had them for a while. But it has—go
ahead, pass that around—it has a sweet smell to it, and when you burn it, it has a
wonderful fragrance when it’s fresh. And they use that to smudge with. And when I say
“smudge,” you take, and you can, you know, put it around you, and ask that all that bad
feelings, whatever it is that’s bothering you, to leave. Now, this is white…?
X:
Sage.
B:
It’s white sage. She said she has some. And this has a different kind of fragrance. But it’s
the same, it’ll do the same thing. Because, the Creator has given us, wherever you live,
has given the people different kind of herbs, that will grow in that area. And that’s what
they use. And it has a different smell to it. Very fragrant. And it just help clears the mind,
it helps you to feel better. It does lift up your spirit. It works. And then, this has a little bit
of, this is what we call a prayer tie. Now, our people don’t do this as much as the Sioux
people do. But they take—and, like, if I was going to make a prayer tie, maybe I would
put some, I’d put a little, maybe cedar in it. Maybe would take some sage. Or maybe
would take, if we were in Oregon, we’d take mugwort. We’d take whatever herbs there
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are, and mix it. And then, as we make our prayer ties—like, say you have a trauma in
your life, going on. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one, maybe someone has gotten terribly
sick. And you want help for them. This is another way our people have learned to help
themselves. They take and cut a piece of red material, and then they put tobacco and
whatever herbs that they have, and they wrap it, and they tie it. And while they do that,
they’re asking for help, for whoever, whatever’s going on, to give relief. Do a healing. To
maybe lead them to make a right decision. Maybe you’re at a point in your life you don’t
know what to do. You pray about it. And that helps clear your mind. And then you also
burn the different herbs, your cedar. This is a flat cedar, comes from Oregon. And then it
looks different than the cedar that we have here. But people use it the same way. They
use it in their ceremonies. And if you make a fire, and you put it in there, you’re going to
have a wonderful fragrance. And that is what will clear, and help you clear your mind.
And that’s what they do. And then, after they make this, maybe they can hang it in their
room, or however they feel like they need to do it—and then after so many days, then
they burn it. Or maybe it’d be the same day. I don’t know. It just depends on how you’re
led, however you’re taught. That’s what you do. And this is a protection. And it’s like a
chalk. You hear of people carrying bad medicine with them? That they can harm one
another? With our people, you have that. We don’t like to think of that. But you can rub
this on you, like that. And it’ll protect you. You can put it over your heart, you can put it
down on your breast, you can put it on top of your head, where your chakra is. And it
works like a protection. But also, then we have one, that can work that way, and also, this
is called—
X:
Aipin.
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B:
[Laughter] All of the sudden! Thank you! Aipin. And aipin1 is red, and you gather this
from the mountain. There’re spots of it. And it’s very, very fine. And when you look for
it—and if you go about it in the right frame of mind, you’re praying for it, that you will
find it, if you don’t know where it is—it’ll show itself to you. And you get down and you
pick it. And it’s just like a little, round, little tiny round ball. Red. And you pick that, and
then you can later on mash it and then put it on. But we Shoshones don’t put it on our
faces, because invariably you end up with an argument or a fight or whatever. We don’t
do that, because that’s not our way. Other tribes do that. But you know, all different tribes
have different way of doing things. And we don’t make fun of other people, however
they believe, however they pray, it’s your own personal thing. It’s how you’ve been
taught. And we’re careful not to make fun of other people’s religion, or their beliefs, their
spirituality. With our native people, we don’t call it religion, we call it sprituality. It’s
how you walk and live. You can put it, also you can put it on the top of your head, and
that is your protection. You can put it on your wrist, around your ankle, and you can
walk. Especially when you’re going among a people that you don’t know, you don’t want
to get harmed. With the girls, it’s very important that you protect yourself. And this is a
good way. Ask it to go before you and protect you. And it—like I said, everything has a
spirit. Everything understands. It’s we humans, sometimes don’t have a good
understanding. And we just have lost our way. The birds know what to do. Certain birds
know when to go south. How did they know that? It’s, the Creator has made them that
way. And how do the bears know when to hibernate? You know, that’s a gift to that
animal. And so, all animals have a spirit, too. And when our young people used to—well,
1
It is clearer in the video, but KB was holding aipin, which is white and chalky, before moving on to the reddish
substance, which is most likely pisappe.
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when our menfolk used to go hunting, they prayed. They cleaned their gun, and they took
care of their gun in a good way. And then they would pray. “Let the deer”—and they’d
pray to the deer—“give up your life, that my life can go on, and my family’s life can go
on.” And when they do that in a good way, they always came home with a kill. Because
the spirit heard them, and the animal gave up their life willingly, that we could go on.
And that’s the way it is. So be thankful for all that you have. And now, this is for the
head, and this is for the—this person’s hands are smaller than mine. [Laughter] I can’t get
it on. But they used to have, it used to have quite a bit of the mugwort sticking out. And
that’s how they danced. And then they had one on their ankle, on both ankle, and then
they would have a portion of it sticking out also. And that helped them through their
dance, and through their fasting and their prayer. Because dance was not for show, but to
help their people. They danced. Some maybe, someone in their family could have cancer,
and they would pray for that person while they’re dancing. Or maybe they’re just, maybe
there’s an, on a reservation, or a colony, maybe, say, there’s a lot of suicides coming
that’s happening. A man, or woman, whoever’s dancing, can take that, and pray that that
spirit would be lifted. And this is sweet sage. Got this down here by the college down—
well, where the—okay, help me out. The park down here.
X:
Peace Park.
B:
Peace Park, thank you. I’m having those moments. But that’s okay, I always have help—
thank you. This is what we call totsa. This you go out and you harvest it from under the
ground. And in the springtime, when they’re growing, they look like a celery. No, carrot.
They look just like a carrot. You know how they’re really, just plentiful little leaves?
Well, that’s what they look like. But then, in the fall, when we go gather them, then they
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change. Because then, on top, they’re like flat, but they have little flowers around the
outside. And sometimes, some of those stems are still standing, and you can see them.
You’ll recognize them. But if you go out, like, in September, you can smell them. From
the ground. It’s interesting. Because you use it, and you’re familiar with it, it’s a familiar
medicine for you. And you can smell it. And you can—and many people, like if they’re
out in the country a lot, and they’re attached in a special way to the land, and they’ve kept
their prayers up, and they walk in that way—they can also smell the deer. You can smell
the plant life, there’s just… Because you’re keen, you’re open to that. But that’s
something that is acquired over time. And it’s the way you walk, with prayer, and
kindness. It’s the way you are as a person. And totsa is one of the many, many wonderful
medicines. You can boil this and drink it—it’s strong. You don’t want to boil it too long!
But you can drink it, and it’ll open up your esophagus. It’ll open up your bronchial tubes.
It’ll open your lungs. And many, many people have survived because of totsa. Because
when it was harvest, it was gotten in prayer. Most important element. It was prayed for, it
was taken care of in a good way. And we dry it, and it’s really hard. But then you can
shave it, and then you make a fine—it just comes out real fine. And you can put that on a
pan, in a pan, if you have a wood stove you can put it on the wood stove, and then you
get the, it cleanses the air, it helps you to breathe better. You smoke it, it goes down into
your lungs, to purify your lungs. And also, people have drank this, and they mix it. They
boil it with chaparral. People that have had cancer have done that, and it has—this2 is real
good medicine for cancer. Very, very strong. But, there was a woman that lived on the
Reese River reservation, and she was the oldest woman that I knew of. But I’m not quite
2
KB
is indicating the chapparal again as she makes this statement and those that follow.
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sure how old she was. She was very, very old. But she would drink a cup of this every
day. And her nephew, her grand-nephew, would go down southern Nevada, and go and
pick it. And he went with a, he did what was expected of him to do. And he prayed that
that plant would go and help his grandmother. And she lived. And her, it helped with her
arthritis. Because she was still able to walk, and to get around. And she did
basketweaving. And her hands were nimble enough that she could continue to do her
basketweaving. Sagebrush is a very good medicine. Here again, you can make tea out of
it and drink it. It’s good for colds. I saw a woman one time that had fallen, and had
gashed her leg down to the bone. I could see it. And she was sitting in her little cabin, and
she was boiling the sage. And I said to her, “You’d better go see the doctor!” “Oh, no.”
And she said, “No, I’m not going. This is my doctor.” And she was boiling it up, and she
took it out of the pot—she didn’t wring it out or anything, but she just put the whole
thing, the plant and all the juice, and she put it right on top of that, and she wrapped it
with white material. And I saw her, I can’t remember now just how long. But I saw her a
while later. And she was up walking around. I never did ask to see—but I know she
didn’t go see the doctor, because she wasn’t going to go. But she just, when she wrapped
it, she just put the skin together, and then put this medicine right on top. And it healed.
And she could walk. I saw it with my own eyes. And I thought, “Whoa! That’s good
medicine!” So we do have good medicines out there. We have medicines that will help
you, to protect you. And that’s why I say, go to your grandparents, if you still have
grandparents. Go to them, talk to them. And they can tell you a whole lot more than what
I have here, because I just haven’t been out gathering the last year and a half. Well, it’ll
be a year and eight months now, because of, my son had cancer. But through prayer,
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through the herb, he is cancer-free today. And right now, we’re in the process of getting
him up off the bed and helping him walk. But he needs help to walk. But that’s what our
medicine can do. But you have to believe in it. You have to take care of it in a good way.
And you must, of all things, live a good life. Can’t go out and get drunk, or go out and get
high, or whatever else is out there, I don’t know what’s all out there. But remember, all of
those things do have spirit in them. I will give you this one testimony that I, that was
revealed to me. One Sunday morning—or no, it was on a Saturday, I believe it was—I
had gotten up, and it just, I could see this black blackness that had come, and it was
hovering over the camp. The native camp up here on the hill. Way up on the hill, and
down below to the old camp. There was this blackness, this darkness. And I thought,
“What is that?” Because it just looks so weird. And it didn’t feel good. And I started
praying about it. I started asking questions: you know, why? Why? What is this, that has
settled? I didn’t see it over the town. The town was not revealed to me. But where we
lived, it was revealed to me. And I kept asking, “Well, what is this?” Because I knew
there was an answer. And the next morning, it came to me that that blackness, that
darkness, was a suicide spirit. And during that time, before that time, I believe we had six
suicides up among my people. And that spirit had come. And evidently, no one had
prayed about it. But I felt—I can’t tell you how I felt. It was scary. And I remember, they
have the Indian chapel up on the hill. I think it’s still the same name. But anyhow, I went
to church that morning, and I just had to tell somebody, because that was pretty scary, to
see that blackness. And I told the minister’s wife. And I told her what I felt that was
revealed to me. And she said, then she said, “What we need to do is pray.” She said,
whoever all was in the church. We all prayed that that blackness would be lifted, and that
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spirit—this is the way she said, “it’s a spirit that has come to linger over your people.”
And so we prayed that that spirit be lifted. The whole congregation did. And do you
know, the suicides ceased. We did not have another suicide after that. So whatever you
want out of life, you can have. If you want to draw closer, and you want to walk in your
spirituality, you want to keep it strong, then you need to do the footwork. Which is, you
need to get up, and you need to pray. You need to be thankful for everything that you
have—good or bad, and who’s to say it’s bad? Through this cancer situation, I have
learned so much. Through my son. I’ve gone through experiences that I would have never
went through if it wasn’t for my son having cancer. How many times did I hear him say,
“I want to leave. Mom, I don’t want to be here no more. I want to go home.” And he
wasn’t talking about this home, because we were home at the time. And when we went to
Salt Lake, and we lived there for—well, a good year. I heard him say that again and
again. And he wasn’t. He was talking about the natural home. He was talking about going
home to his Father. And I told him—the first time he said that was, I was sitting across
the room from him on the couch. I was on one couch, he was on the other. All of the
sudden, I felt something shift in the room. And it was kind of weird. But I knew
something was going on. So I got up, and I went over, and I sat next to him. I said, “Ross,
what’s going on?” He says, “Mom, I want to leave. I don’t want to live here no more. I
want to go home.” And then he said, “Why do people pray for people to stay here when
they are suffering so bad? I don’t want to stay here. Why, mom, do people pray that
way?” And I looked at him, and it hit me that we are selfish. I’m selfish. I didn’t want
him to go. I wasn’t willing to share him. I wanted him, because he’s my only son. Any of
our children, we would feel the same. And, so through that, I’ve learned to pray
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differently. And I told him, “I will not pray that way anymore. My prayer from now on,
Ross, is that our Father’s will be done. His will, not mine.” And I just let it go. But that
was the first time of just completely yielding in oneself. But the experiences from that has
been absolutely wonderful. And, so now we’re working real hard, and he’s rallying. He’s
cancer-free, and it’s because we relied—Ross said, “You know, I don’t know about this
Western medicine.” And I had, that came to me. And so we talked about that. And he
said, “You know, I just don’t trust this Western medicine. It’s not doing for me what it
needs to do.” And I says, “So you want to go to the native medicine? You want to go to
the herb?” He says, “Mom, I think that’s where my help is. I truly do.” I said, “Okay.
Then let’s do it.” And so we, I called my grandson from Oregon, my adopted grandson
from Oregon, to come, and we all had prayer, and with the herb, it—he just looked so
much better the next day. I was amazed. But then, when we went back to the doctor, I
think it was about a week later—I think it was the next week—and the doctor looked at
the results in awe, and he said, “There’s no cancer.” And I looked at him—it was so hard
for me to take that in. But we have accepted that. No cancer. And he’s doing better. So,
our herbs are alive and well. We just need to start picking it up and taking care of it. Pick
up our prayers and be strong. And with that, I would like to close with a song, if that’s all
right. When I started walking the spiritual path, picking up my prayers, praying in the
way that I felt I needed to pray, I had a desire that I wanted to sing in my own native
tongue. I wanted to sing a song. And so I started praying for that. I didn’t have a drum. I
didn’t have the drum stick. But that’s what I felt I wanted to do. Well, the drum came
first, but I was surprised that I was gifted a drum. I’ve never played a drum before in my
life. And my girlfriend, and our friend, went down to the river, and they picked a willow,
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and made me a beater. So in that day, I got my drumstick and my beater, there’s no
reason now why I can’t go out and sing and do what I want. So I started praying. And it
was in the wintertime, because I remember sitting on the floor in the front room—may
sound really something, but that’s all right—I was sitting in the front room, and I burned
cedar in my smudge bowl, and I had it on the carpet, and I started praying and asking,
again, that I would be given a song in my native tongue. That was my heart’s desire. And
lo and behold, I was just beating the drum, and a song came. So I’m going to sing you the
song that was given to me. This is a healing song. I’m going to wrap it around each one
of you. Let your faith take hold. If you have something that’s bothering you, you have a
situation in your life, just feel this song coming to you. And there’s a healing in this song.
One day, one evening, I got a call, long-distance call from this young man. And he said,
“Auntie,” he said, “I just have a terrible craving. I want to go out and get drunk. But I
don’t want to do that. I put that behind me. I don’t want to go do that anymore.” And he
says, “Would you pray for me?” And I said, “Well, of course!” So I prayed for him. And
then I was reminded I had a drum, and I had been given a healing song. So I went, and I
said, “Do you mind if I sing for you?” He says, “That sounds wonderful.” So I went and
got the drum, and I started singing the healing song. And I wished him well. Next
morning at 8 o’clock, he called me, and he said, “Auntie, I could hear your song all night
long, and I didn’t go out. I am so glad. It really helped me.” And so, with that—and it has
helped others—I tell you that because I want you to let your faith go. Have faith that it
works. It works if you believe. But it’s up to you. It’ll happen if you want it.
[Sings from 47:33-49:05]
And with that, I thank you for listening, and I hope this all helps you. Thank you.
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[End of recording]
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
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GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
2006-2015
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Norm Cavanaugh
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Katherine Blossom
Location
The location of the interview
Elko, NV (Great Basin College Campus)
Original Format
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DVD and VOB format
Duration
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00:49:40
Transcription
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http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/578
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Katherine Blossom - Oral history (03/27/2012)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Katherine Blossom, Western Shoshone from Elko, NV on 03/27/2012
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Katherine Blossom is a Western Shoshone from Elko, NV. She begins her presentation speaking about how Native Americans have adapted to the land, and that it was the Native Americans duty to pray for all things that exist within this universe. She also speaks about the hardships and horrors that the Western Shoshone people went through in boarding school which included losing their native language – usually by forceful means. As she continues she speaks about the importance of prayer. She also educated her audience about the type of natural plants, herbs, and other items that were used by the indigenous groups in and around the Great Basin region. Katherine also recalls some personal experiences that she has gone through which she shares with her audience.</p>
Video pending <br /> <a title="Katherine Blossom Oral History Transcript" href="/omeka/files/original/13bbb9a8db3b30863b1dfbaf48a07316.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read Katherine Blossom Oral History Transcript [pdf file]</a>
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Source
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 029A
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
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03/27/2012 [27 March 2012]; 2012 March 27
Contributor
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Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
Rights
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Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017.
Consent form on file (administrator access only): http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/items/show/380
Language
A language of the resource
English; some Shoshoni
boarding school
Community
Crossroads
GBIA
language
Shoshone
Story
traditional ceremony
traditional medicines
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/f2f3134d7c0000b4abe0ecae69bbe40d.jpg
94dc7a2f4f0cde8d355fa7c1267330d1
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/8c894abc984f242d04cc980bd9b50207.pdf
d28de104ce87e2e2d48060a7131ddeee
PDF Text
Text
Lois
Whitney
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
026
Oral
History
Interview
by
Lois
Whitney
May
2011
Elko,
NV
Great
Basin
College
•
Great
Basin
Indian
Archives
1500
College
Parkway
Elko,
Nevada
89801
hDp://www.gbcnv.edu/gbia/
775.738.8493
Produced
in
partnership
with
Barrick
Gold
of
North
America
�GBIA 026
Interviewee: Lois Whitney
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: May, 2011
W:
Okay. My name is Lois Whitney. I was born and raised right here in Elko, as were my
children, my mother—who was born up on the hill, next to the smoke shop. So we have
strong ties to Elko. But, my dad is from Owyhee. His name was Dale Dick. And there’s a
large family of Dicks in Owyhee. We’re related to many people, including the
Whiterocks. And the family is big. But anyway, on my grandfather’s side—he’s from
Austin, the Austin area, and he’s a tekkotekka [1:31], and we’re also, I’m part of the
Tosawihi, too, because of my dad, moving from the Paradise Valley, Owyhee, the
Golconda, that area there, as they were pushed into Owyhee. So… And then, I’m also
indirectly related to the Marshs, and the Caskeys. My grandmother is a Caskey. Or, she
was a Marsh, actually, Ollie Marsh. So, I come from a big, big family. And I’m just
really glad today to hear each and every one of you tell a little bit about yourself, which is
a lot. We don’t do that anymore. And as a way of introduction, if you came into a room
where there were other Shoshone people, generally you would have to say, “I am So-andSo, this is my grandfather, this is my grandmother,” and you give them this long list of—
and then they finally say, “Oh, I guess we can sit down and listen to this person talk.”
Otherwise, if they can’t validate who you are, they look at you with a little suspicion.
And anyway… I am doing a small presentation, and I am picking up for Katherine
Blossom. I am not a prayer person, or a healing person, but I do know some about the
medicines that we do have. And so—and I know that that’s what Katherine does. She
does prayers. But that’s not to say that prayer wasn’t always something that was a part of
our lives, because every morning, my grandmother, Judy Jackson—[Judy] Johnson
Jackson, who was from the Beowawe area—she would not be carrying one of these
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bottles, but she would have a cup of water. Water was very critical to our way of life as
Native people. And I wish more and more people would recognize the importance of
water. And I’m just going to go off and tell you a little bit about water. Grandfather said a
long time ago, one day we’re going to be paying for our water. And that’s before he
understood about airplanes, and cars that ran by themselves, or windows that went up and
down by themselves, and everything else that’s going around. But he also said that one
day, our water would be on fire. We would not be able to see it. We would not be able to
taste it. But our water would be on fire. And I believe what he was talking about was the
nuclear fallout that we’re getting really close to being subjected to, especially after what
has happened in Japan. So value your water. My presentation today is to talk a little about
the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual healing of our Native people. Water was
critical for that. If a child fell, or if somebody fell, and they were knocked out or
whatever, feeling bad, water was used to bless them. It was taken and their, the area
where they fell was usually, water would be sprinkled on them, or their head. Water was
sprinkled on them, and prayers were made, and prayers always went up in that direction.
But yeah—and for little children, they always says, [Shoshone at 4:55] “Ma
mappuisinneh.” [“Bless him/her.”] And that means if a child fell, and wasn’t coherent,
then they would put the water on the child and bless the child until the child was feeling
good again. So water is very important to your physical, your emotional, and your
spiritual health. Don’t forget that. So we have to take care of water. Okay. I’m going to
start at the physical part. We did water. Sagebrush. Sagebrush was taken internally by our
people almost daily. Maybe two or three times a day. It was either chewed on—if you
had a cold or were coughing, you would take a leaf and chew on the leaf—or it was
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boiled into a type of a tea, and many of our people would drink this tea throughout the
day. Maybe at morning and in the evening. And those people, according to some medical
information we’ve gotten, have verified that, apparently the properties in the sagebrush
have helped them in their cleansing and their healing, and it was very useful to them. If
you got a bee bite, what’d you do? Go take the sagebrush and rub it on the area that you
were bitten. That helped soothe. So we had all of our medicine at hand, we didn’t have to
go out looking. And sagebrush—I consider sagebrush in this area to be our rainforest.
And they cut my rainforest down pretty quick. So I might throw a little bit of activism
here, but that’s kind of how I feel. So the sagebrush was used to—was ingested, and it
was also used in part of the offering that they made when they made the little bit of
tobacco. And they drank it, they chewed on it. The other item we have here is what we
call totsa. The totsa grows usually in areas where it’s higher, rocky—kind of hard to get
to. And it grows like a big tube, tubular. It can probably can get as—I’ve seen it get that
big. [Indicates roughly six inches or more.] And it looks like, probably, a great big
sugarbeet. But it grows into the ground. It’s related a little bit to the parsley family,
because it grows tall. It’ll grow tall, and then the tops have like a little poofy spiral type
of flower. It’s not really a flower, but when it’s dry, and usually you can smell the totsa
when you’re out in the mountains, you know you’re nearby. But you really have to dig
for the totsa. The totsa is in—per our family, and I see Norman has done the same
thing—the totsa is cut in circles, very much like Norm has done here. And then it’s
strung, he strung it through wire to hang it up to dry. It also is good for colds. You can
smoke this, you can drink it, you can chew on it. You can put it on the stove—for those
of us who have wood stoves, or even if you’re out, you’ve got a campfire going. I
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wouldn’t put it on your gas burner, but I would put it in a pan maybe on your gas burner.
But this has the properties of healing for our colds, allergies probably. A lot of our people
have allergies nowadays. And I know Leah, my sister, drinks totsa almost daily because
she has tons of allergies; she’s always got a cough, something going on with her. But the
totsa is then shaved, and I see Norm has done that right here. This is your totsa, and he’s
shaved it to where it’s really fine. And this is really nice. This is really nice. And that can
be rolled along with other—tobaccos, or whatever else you might have—and it can be
smoked. And when we smoke, it’s not the same as when a person—I mean, I’m not a
smoker, but I will smoke for my own cleansing. Giving up a prayer, and the smoke
carrying my prayer up into the sky, up to where it needs to go. That’s generally what our
people do. Most native people are smoking, too, for that physical, for that emotional, for
that spiritual release and healing. If I go too fast, stop me. Headaches. I’m a willowweaver, and these are willows. These are natural, the willows from this area. These are
native. We have a lot of invasive species right now, so they, you can’t use as much of the
invasive species as we can of our traditional willow, because of the bitter taste, and it
leaves a funny film in your mouth. But we split the willows with our teeth, and with our
fingers. And this has the properties of getting rid of headaches. And as a matter of fact,
that’s what aspirin is made of, is the willow. So this is natural. Let’s see here… And then
we have over here—you said you thought this was antapittseh kwana. Actually,
papohovi. It’s this one here. That one there? This is antapittseh kwana—oh! Am I not
supposed to move around too much? Well, this is—maybe I’ll get Norm to help me. Then
I won’t run around so much. This is antapittseh kwana. This antapittseh kwana came
from the Owyhee area just above the rodeo grounds, up on—there’s couple, oh—you
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know where they have, the water comes naturally, this kind of marshy place there?
Virginia Jones’ dad did that for me. And then, it also grows in Lee, Nevada. Usually, it’s
ready by June, I believe. And it’s a plant that grows about that high, and it’s pretty
delicate, because apparently, whoever collected this just rolled it into a little braid here,
and that’s what it’ll look like. But the leaves, the property of the antapittseh kwana is
great for taking out infection. If you have a sore, infection, and it needs to be cleaned out,
you take that antapittseh kwana, and it’s put between cloth—it’s wet—you make a
compress out of it, and it has to be wet, and you put that on top of the infection, and it
helps draw out the infection. And it has this sweet smell. Too bad we didn’t get any seeds
with it, because I would have tried to plant it to see if I can get some growing. But most
of our plants, they’re used to a certain area. They don’t just grow everywhere. It’s just
like the different zones of the growing season. You can’t plant something delicate in the
real cold area. I mean, these, they all have their own properties, the way they survive, and
many of our plants were very delicate. I am certain that there—and so have our people
felt—that there was more of the plants here at one time. And that disappeared when we
had that rush of people coming through the Humboldt River and exhausting all of the
plants that were in that area. So there were very few plants that survived. These are just
some of the plants that we have now that we’re still able to collect. And so, we didn’t
have the doctors that we’re used to. But we did have doctors. We had prayers, people that
did prayers, and we had people that did hands-on healing. There are very few that are left
now. I think the last doctor that I was fortunate to get prayed for and doctored was when
Alec Cleveland—he was from Owyhee—when he did the doctoring for me when I lost
my two girls. And that was quite an experience. It’s just too bad we don’t have that kind
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of strong people anymore that are taken care of from the time they’re real small to the
time they’re starting to practice. And I don’t recall him ever using anything more than
just water and prayer, when I was doctored. But it was an incredible experience for us—
for me at that time, because I was at that point where the outside world looked really
attractive to me, all that glitter and glamour of the new society, the things that were
happening, you know. So I was already married, and had children probably in the
[19]50s—no, it was in [19]68, was when Alec Cleveland doctored me. And I still, it was
an incredible experience. You have to be—for somebody that had to learn the doctoring
from the time he was real small to the time he became an adult, that was his life. And it
was a very humble life. So, not very many people will brag about being a doctor. As a
matter of fact, these people never say anything. They are always just sought out because
it is known by the communities that these people with special gifts are the ones that you
go to when you need the special healing, the hands-on. Or even the physical. And also,
these doctors—which I’ve come to realize, too—spoke a language that was different
from our language. Because they always had a helper that they spoke to, and then the
helper was the one that interpreted to the patient what they were supposed to do, to go
about this healing process. So it was an incredible experience. I’m hoping that at some
point, we’ll get some young people who have that gift, and those people will be nurtured
and brought forth so that they can share what they do know. Okay. They ingested—and
this, too. This is called papohovi. Most often, this grows in the area where there’s water.
It’s a sweeter type of a sage—it’s a sage. And it can be boiled into a tea. It can be used as
a compress as well, as can the sage. That can be used as a compress. Let’s see. Now,
we’ve been—oh, and now we’ve come to this. You’ve seen this plant a lot. And this red,
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and when it’s ripe it’s just real, just real deep red, almost this color right now. I had to
collect this, because I didn’t have any. But right now, it’s growing, because the leaves are
starting to, they’re just starting to come up. They’re starting to, they’ll grow probably
about three, four feet high, and they’ll be in tight clusters. Now, if I’m not mistaken, this
is for diarrhea, and also for—it’s boiled to help combat diarrhea, and there’s the other,
and I can’t think of the other condition that the person had to boil to drink this. But if I
think of it, I’ll try to come back to it. Okay. Now, we’ve talked about all the ones that can
be ingested—the totsa, the sagebrush—oh. Oh! Yes. And then, we have this root, which
is—I’m not really certain the name of this root, but what you do is when you have a cold,
you’re not feeling good, you just chew on it. And it’s like just keeping a toothpick in your
mouth, you just suck on the item, and… Now, I believe this came from Pyramid Lake,
this came from some of my husband’s family from the Pyramid Lake area, and I wasn’t
quite sure what he called this plant.
C:
Bear root. They call it bear root.
W:
Bear root. Okay, this is what they chewed on. So. And I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen the
bear root in this area that I could pick it. It has to be probably in the California area,
Pyramid Lake, Alturas and that area there. And I’m only speaking of plants that are from
this area here. And most of these can be, you can pick this up here. Also, to be ingested.
This white rock is called pisappin. Pisappin is used by scraping it into water. And it can
be drank. It goes along with prayers. Pisappin is used for, also going into—when you’re
going to be doctored, it’s basically ground up, either to use as a powder, or with a little
bit of water. And it’s the face, or the areas of the body are marked. This is called
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pisappin1. Also, I was surprised that I found the pisappin in—these were given to me by
Robert Burton from the Battle Mountain area. And when I scraped it, it was, the rock
seemed a little bit pink. But most often, it’s white. It’s like a chalk—it looks like a chalk.
But, my understanding, it’s good for stomach ailments as well. And again, for drinking it.
Usually when you’re going into a sweat, sometimes when you’re doing a ceremony. Even
a gathering of people. It’s mixed with the water that you’re going to drink, and everybody
drinks it. Everybody drinks part of this water, and that’s part of the healing. If I’m going
too fast, slow me down. Okay? Now… Those are the medicines that can be used for the
physical. Now, for the emotional, would be—again, the sagebrush, for prayers. The
sagebrush here, you see I picked it up from the root. For those people that do prayers,
that’s how you collect this sagebrush, for praying with, and to use in some of the
ceremonies. And also, then, we use—the cedar is very, very important, too, in the
spiritual and the emotional. It’s, again, mixed with other tobaccos or similar native plants
that can be smoked, put on the hot rock, or the fire. Mixed smoke. And usually, the cedar,
the sage, the rabbitbrush, they’re all used to ward off bad energy. And generally, when
our people talk about the emotional, that’s that bad energy. The spiritual, they’re having
trouble with the spirit side of them. They would bless themself with the smoke from the
cedar. This is rabbitbrush. This is also for the emotional and the spiritual. In our family, if
a child had, or family member was being bothered by bad spirits, or just felt really bad—
nightmares, whatever—towards the evening, just before the sun goes down, this bunch of
rabbitbrush would be lit until it creates like a smoke. And the person that was going to be
blessed would be placed in the immediate area of a room where they’re going to be
1
Actually
aippin;
LW
corrects
herself
further
on
(see
p.
17,
or
42:50
in
the
audio).
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sleeping, and they were covered with a cloth of some sort, just to keep the burning
embers from getting on them. But this was burnt, and then they were blessed. Prayers
were given, said, throughout their whole body. And I remember Grandma doing this.
Grandma just prayed, she was not a healer. But this is the things you did for your
immediate family, when there were no doctors around. So, this is the emotional and the
spiritual use of this rabbitbrush. And also, when the rabbitbrush’s flower turns bright
yellow, that’s when it’s time to go pick your pinenuts. That’s when you knew that
pinenuts were ready. I brought with me, as well, for the—this should have been the
physical part. And this is also spiritual. This is the wild rose bush, native to our area.
Some of the prayer people, as part of the—they each have their own use of particular
items. So not one [skip in audio at 24:03] always use the same one, they had their own
choices. But I understand that this here, the wild rose bush, was boiled, and it was given
to the person that was having problems, the ailing party. And usually, at least our custom
in our family, is that when we have a family member that is deceased, this rose bush was
put into the coffin, or the burial garment, or whatever they were wearing, so as to protect
the family so that the one that was deceased would not come back and bother the family.
That was what was used for the wild rose bush. But I think that the wild rose bush flower
is much more fragrant than what they have in the market today, because I make potpourri
out of the little pink flower that I gather. And I mix the potpourri with the cedar, with the
sage, with the grandfather sage, with the sagebrush, and with some of the willow. Now,
that takes care of the physical and the emotional. And now we’re going to come back
over here to the spiritual. Again, water was very critical to the spiritual. Always cleansing
yourself, blessing yourself. I understand—this here is actually the shavings, it’s the inner
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membrane that I’ve scraped away from the willow. I take the bark off first, and then
between the bark and the actual rod itself is a membrane, and that’s what this is, where
I’ve scraped it. And I’ve kept this because there is a gentleman that uses this for his
sweats. He smokes this with his mixture. So, and I didn’t know of that. And I’m not
sure—I think the man was from the Pyramid Lake area. Also, the sweetgrass. You can
pass it around. I think a lot of you have smelled the sweetgrass. You can take some of
this, here, too. Smell that, and… Sweetgrass is burned for the emotional and the spiritual,
again with prayers. It also helps when you’re having a bad time in warding off that bad
energy, to smoke your house. I say “smoke your house,” other people say “smudge.” But
that’s what it’s used for. And then, this here is grandfather sage, or white sage. This does
come from California, from the California area. Bishop, Lone Pine area. And it’s a
bundle, and it burns really well, and it smells so nice. It’s all different. And again, that’s
for part of the prayers. And then, I just have a mixture of tobacco, and this is papohovi. I
haven’t put any of the willow on it. Or the totsa, that could use a bunch of totsa with it,
too. Does anybody have any questions? Because this is just a little bit of what we have. I
wanted to talk a little bit about, not only do we use the white rock, but there’s also a red
rock, and that’s called aippin2, and it’s for women that wear rouge, it sort of has that
property. It’s powdery, and it’s really red. But that was also to ward off bad energy. If
you were going into a gathering of people that you weren’t familiar with, the individual
would put the red on the forehead, behind the head, wherever they felt that if anybody
struck them with bad energy, that it would protect them. And it was a powder, too, very
2
Actually pisappin; LW corrects herself further on (see p. 17, or 42:50 in the audio).
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much like this. Let me just kind of pass this around, so you can see what this is here.
Does anybody have any questions?
U1:
Well, I do, I guess. So, all of these are native to Nevada, pretty much?
W:
All of them are native to Nevada, yes.
U1:
Would there have been any other things used that might have been traded, or prized,
or…?
W:
Well, I think probably, if anything would have been traded, it might have been this root
here. Also, the stick with the grandfather white sage. I had some camas seeds, too, that I
intended to plant; this gentleman said that his last name was Camas, but camas was
eaten, the camas bulb was eaten in the Idaho area. And that was part of trading. Our
people used to make jerky out of deer meat, and also antelope. And I’ve seen that, we
don’t go on antelope drives anymore, so antelope has not been used as much in our area.
But from the Fort Washakie area, they traded some antelope jerky with us. And it was
really quite good.
U1:
[__inaudible at 29:43__].
W:
Yeah. It’s really quite good. Yes. Well, actually, when you’re going to smudge a room,
you’ve got to open all your windows, and all your doors. Because the smudging is to get
rid of that negative energy that—so, what you would do is, either you would burn that
smudge stick there, or you would make a smudge stick out of your sage. And you would
smoke the whole house, go through the whole house, filling it with smoke. Your fire
alarms will go off, but that’s what needs to happen, because it has to be really thick. And
then, when you open up your windows and stuff, all of that is just blown out. The bad
energy goes out. And some of our people today still have problems with the houses on
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the top, because they’ve been visited by—not our people. I think they’ve been visited by,
probably, there were Chinese people that came through and had little encampments in
different parts of this area here, and I believe that the top Colony, from the information
that I’ve gathered, the top Colony has several places where they might have disturbed the
resting place of an oriental person. I know in my daughter’s house, they see this little tiny
man. They see him often. He’s in the house. So, every once in a while, when they start
feeling really bad, or when they’re at a bad point in there lives that that’s when it bothers
them, then they go and have the house smoked and prayed for. And my uncle passed
away in my house. And my house was a new—I consider it a new house, they were built
in the [19]70s. Or, [19]68 and [19]70s. And I’ve never had him bother me, but my
children see him there. And sometimes it’s the little guys that see things, not the older
people. The little ones are more in tune as to what’s going on. And when you see, when
that starts happening, you know, get somebody to come pray for you. And we have
several people in our community do the prayers, do the smudging. I think among those
people are Chet Stevens, Katherine Blossom, Sean Marsh… These are some people that
can help. But generally, your elders know how to smudge, and they can come and take
care of that for you. And I’m real fortunate to know that [audio cuts out at 32:22] Gerry is
a prayer person. And she did a lot of prayers for my mom when my mom was sick, and
we lost mom last year. But she’s always been great about standing up and giving the
prayers for us, and putting us in a good place before we start our meetings. That’s always
really, really important. And think, when your uncle—her husband—was really sick, he
had cancer of the throat, I believe it was her prayers that really helped him. And he’s
giving me a bad time all the time, he gives me a lot of grief! [Laughter] But, does
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anybody have any other questions, or something that, you know, you would like to share
that your family does? Because not everybody does the same thing. There’s a general
thing we do, and then there’s the things that are reserved for families. So, even though we
are all Native American, we’re all as different as we are similar, in the way we believe
and the way we do things, the way we present ourselves, and so forth. And so—and I am
Shoshone, from this area. And my grandparents are Shoshone, from this area. And even
though there’s paperwork that says that my grandfather, the Dicks that came from the
Paradise Valley area, are—the papers say they’re Shoshone, but I believe that they’re
Paiute. So, I’m a mixture, too. And Whitney is a Navajo name. [Laughter] My exhusband was Navajo. Navajo and Paiute. And so, Whitney would not have been a
common name among the Shoshone people. But, and Norm is right, you know; we all
had, many women had Indian names, Native names, and they might’ve been given a
nickname that was built on, or they might’ve been named after a rancher. But these are
basically the same medicines our people would have used then, that I’m hoping our
people will use today. Continue to use it. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
U2:
You lose it, yeah.
W:
You lose it. Because, as, even though we think there’s an abundance of sage, it’s not the
abundance of sage as it used to be. And if you don’t pray for your medicines, your
plants—I don’t think we do a lot of planning, but if anything is going to be passed on, it
should be done in the family, you know, the same way with the language. If you’re going
to speak your language, it should start in the family. And that’s where we keep things
going. Oh! Chokecherry!
C:
Explain how [Shoshone at 35:24].
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W:
Oh, okay. I can do it. This is a chokecherry patty. This is chokecherries that have been
mashed—because they’re, the seeds are not broken—and made into a patty, like a
hamburger patty, and dried for storing for later use. So, if you were going to use it, you
take what you need, you boiled it, and you mixed it with other things. I just like it plain,
just plain chokecherry pudding. And I’m going to be providing chokecherry pudding,
buckberry pudding, and tepakwini [36:05]—pinenut gravy—during the reception on the
11th of July, for visitors. As a matter of fact, we’re going to get a lot of stuff. We’re
getting three elk, seven deer, groundhog from Owyhee, deer from Owyhee, deer from
South Fork, and we’re trying to get more groundhog from the Yomba Tribe. And we
have squirrels running around here, but nobody wants to eat the squirrels in this
neighborhood because we don’t know what they’re eating! [Laughter] But, the
groundhogs, yeah. I was raised on groundhog. And my birthday always fell on Memorial
Day. And that was always a sad time, but I always looked forward to having groundhog
during Memorial Day! [Laughter] And our groundhog, just like the—there was a tribe, a
group of people that came here, the ones that live in yurts. What are they called?
U3:
Mongolians.
W:
Mongolians. They eat groundhog too. And they prepared their groundhog here, we
prepared our groundhog, and we shared.
U3:
Was it similar? Or was it different?
W:
Theirs was different. Our groundhog was, after you’ve gutted the groundhog, you singe
the hair, you’ve pretty much laced up the area that you took the intestines from, laced it
up. And some people might have packed it with some type of an herb or whatever. But
we just laced it up, and burnt the hair off. And then you’re left with this sort of crust,
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nice, thick crust. Black, burnt crust, which is like foil, and then the groundhog is cooked
underground. And it’s cooked until it’s done, and it’s pretty rich. You can’t eat too much.
It—
U3:
It’s kind of a dark, darkish meat, isn’t it?
W:
No, it’s not. Well… Well, it is darker—well, I would say, it is darker than chicken.
U3:
Tastes just like chicken! [Laughter]
W:
It’s different! [Laughter] You’re going to have to try some. It’s a little bit different. It’s
like with anything that you never had before, you have to acquire a taste for it. Just like a
lot of people don’t like pinenut pudding, and all it is is ground-up pinenuts that have been
roasted and charred and dried and ground into a thick paste, just with water. And a lot of
people don’t like that taste, and I just love it! [Laughter] It’s good for you! Very, very
healthy. But you know, you can only eat a little bit. Too much of a good thing is not
good, as we’ve come to find out as a people. And two, because of the food that we had
was sparse, our people were not big. Our people were thin, they were strong, they had
endurance, they could run a long ways, they traveled for long distances, and they ate just
a little bit of whatever they could put in their hand, you know? That’s, and now we’ve
become excessive with everything that’s good, and I think we show it. You know? Okay.
Norman says I can go ahead and touch this. He says this is not eagle, but this is—this is
just a dreamcatcher? The dreamcatcher didn’t come from the Shoshone people, it came
from the—is it from the Sioux tribe, or other tribes? Their thoughts were that if you hung
up this dreamcatcher, that your bad dreams would be caught, and the good dreams would
come through the hole. And there’s usually a hole in the center. But, and then it’s
adorned with the plumes, and the feathers. The feathers are earned. When you earn your
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feather, then you can wear your feather. And that’s talking about an eagle feather. And
it’s very respected. The eagle takes our prayers. It is the mightiest bird. And I wanted to
say, too, about prayers—when the person that’s giving a prayer gives a prayer, it covers
everything. Yourself, your family, all the little children, all the relatives, those that are
getting old, those whose hearts feel heavy, those who feel good, those who are traveling
that they get to their destination in a safe way, but their families are going to be fine, the
four-legged ones, the ones that crawl, the ones that live under the water, that live under
the ground, the ones that walk upon the land, that fly upon the land, the mountains, the
water, the food. That’s what you give thanks to. You name everything, and sometimes
our prayers do go on and on and on. But, that’s the spiritual part. Well, I want to thank
you for letting me do this, and I also would like to invite each and every one of you to the
reunion. Even share. I mean, this is part of the healing, we’re having a difficult time,
many of our people right now. We’re losing a lot of our culture, we’re losing our ties to
our families, when that’s what it used to be about, is that if our family was together, we
were all together. We were happy. But different occupations, experiences, take us
different places. But we never forget who we are. We’re still here, and we’re still using
some of our plants and our animals in a good way. Okay. I think I can. This one was
papohovi. This one is totsa. This one here is tontsiah, which is—tontsiah is like, the
blooming, there’s girls that are named tontsiah. But this is tontsiah. I’m not sure what
they call the rabbitbrush again—
C:
Sippapin.
W:
Sippapin? Okay. And… help me.
U4:
What is that, cedar?
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W:
Cedar.
U4:
I don’t know. In Paiute, we just call it waap.
W:
Waap3? Okay. This sehepin is willow. Pardon?
U4:
Saawaapi? In Paiute, sagebrush. Saawaapi.
W:
Mmhm. And that’s it. I’m not sure what they call this. And this was called pisappin. Or
no, this epi. Epi is the white one, pisappin is the red one. And pah is water. We all know
water. Yeah.
U5:
Real quick question: do you say dotsa with a “d” or totsa with a “t”?
W:
I say with a “d,” dotsa. Even—other people will put “t” in front of it, but I say “d,” dotsa.
And, but, we’re all mixed, now, too. So it’s okay. And what’s really interesting about our
language is the different dialects. You can tell when somebody’s talking—I know when
somebody’s talking that came from Duckwater, because they speak different than Ely.
And what’s really different is to hear the Timbisha Shoshone speak. They—but they
speak in Shoshone. But here, the Comanche speak Shoshone. Or the Eastern Shoshones.
We’re all the numic-speaking people. And the Utes! I couldn’t believe it! I could hear the
conversation of the two Ute people that were talking in Ute, and I thought we weren’t
related! You know? But Shoshone and Paiute are so close, closely related. And that’s all I
have.
[End of recording]
3
Waappin
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
2006-2015
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Norm Cavanaugh
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Lois Whitney
Location
The location of the interview
Great Basin College Campus (Elko, NV)
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
DVD and VOB format
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:44:00
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/572
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Lois Whitney - Oral history (05/2011)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Lois Whitney, Western Shoshone from Elko, NV, on 05/2011
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Lois Whitney was born in Elko, Nevada along with her children and mother “Liz” Brady. Her family hails from all over the Western Shoshone territory. Her presentation goes over the different types of plants that are indigenous to the Great Basin area, and how they were used by the native people in the area. As Lois says, her presentation was to “talk a little about the physical, the emotional, and spiritual healing” characteristics of the plants as well as how they were used by the Native peoples. She also speaks a little about other items within her presentation as well.</p>
Video Pending <br /> <a title="Lois Whitney Oral History Transcript" href="/omeka/files/original/8c894abc984f242d04cc980bd9b50207.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read Lois Whitney Oral History Transcript [pdf file]</a>
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 026
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
05/2011 [May 2011]; 2011 May
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
Rights
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Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017.
Consent form on file (administrator access only): http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/items/show/352
Language
A language of the resource
English; some Shoshoni
Community
Crossroads
Elko
GBIA
Great Basin
medicinal plants
Shoshone
Story
traditional medicines
traditions
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/fbdde5d06106bed95680c6201ee2ee30.jpg
0c32fa88d3ad86cb236ab25e06e69845
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/42e8cfd518657ccafcf2585ac27ed966.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
Illaine
Premo
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
024
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
November
30,
2009
Owyhee,
NV
Great
Basin
College
•
Great
Basin
Indian
Archives
1500
College
Parkway
Elko,
Nevada
89801
hDp://www.gbcnv.edu/gbia/
775.738.8493
Produced
in
partnership
with
Barrick
Gold
of
North
America
�GBIA 024
Interviewee: Illaine Premo
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: November 30, 2009
P:
My name is Ilaine Tybo Premo. My mother’s name was Ada Cortez Johnson, and her
mother’s name was Ida Cortez. And Ida’s dad’s name was Cortez Charlie. They’re from
the Cortez area, and then they moved down to Beowawe, and then from Beowawe, they
moved down to Battle Mountain. And from Battle Mountain, they moved to Elko, and
from Elko to South Fork, to Lee. And that’s my mother’s side. My huttsi, my grandma,
she was born and raised in Austin area. Austin area, and from there she moved on to
Battle Mountain, where she lived. And my grandpa Jim Tybo is from around Big
Smoky—I guess that’s what it’s called, Big Smoky. That Smoky Valley, I guess, where
Felix is from. That’s where my grandpa is from. And my dad’s from Austin area, also.
C:
What kind of work, or what did your family do, prior to moving? Or did they move to
find jobs?
P:
I think they just migrated from Austin down to Beowawe, probably looking for work on
the ranches. Because my dad was a, worked as a sheepherder, I heard, as a young man.
He herded sheeps for some big sheep ranchers. And my grandma, my huttsi, she went and
worked in the same ranch families raising their children. Raising their children, I guess,
the owners’ children. Raising the Marvos from Battle Mountain, Tom Marvo and his
family. She raised those boys, all of them. And they looked up to my grandma as their
mother, that she raised them. And my mom, she worked in Battle Mountain in the
restaurants. I don’t know, probably washing dishes and so on. Grandmas just stayed
home. And that’s just about all I know. That’s from, in Battle Mountain. Then from
Battle Mountain, we migrated. From Battle Mountain—now, we were real little—no, I’m
getting ahead of myself. [Laughter] That’s before we were born. And then my mom and
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dad met each other, and then they got married in Battle Mountain, I believe. And then,
they were—then four of us girls were born. We were still little when we were in Battle
Mountain. We hardly remember the story. But then, after that, my dad got a ranch in
Lee—Lee, Nevada—and he moved up there. Moved my mother and us guys up there. We
were little tiny girls then. And then, left my grandmas behind in Battle Mountain. And
then, along the way, my mom and dad divorced when we were still little. He was in the
army. He came out and found somebody else, and he divorced my mom at a young age.
And then, we moved back to Elko with my grandma, Lucy Cortez. We lived with her.
And my mom. We lived there for a while. We were still little then, and then my mom
died from sickness, and then a year after that, my grandma Lucy died from loneliness
because my mom died. She, it was loneliness that killed her. So, we went back to Lee
with my dad. We were little yet. And then back and forth, we went to my huttsi’s place in
Battle Mountain on the Greyhound. When we’re little, we get shipped back to Battle
Mountain, back to Lee, back to Lee. And that’s where I knew about my grandma Minnie.
She was a medicine lady. And she delivered most all the kids around the Colony. She had
delivered them, and then she was—every night was her ritual. Every night, she would
bless us with her eagle feather, because she was a medicine lady and all. She blessed us
with her eagle feather so we will not get sick, all four of us girls. We never got sick. And
then she had sagebrushes in a little glass of water that she has by her bed day and night,
day and night. And she dipped the sagebrush, and, “Mei mapuisi,” [5:08] she blessed us
with it every morning, early in the morning and at night. And she prays all the time,
morning and night, morning and night. And we never got sick as little girls. Hakapi e ha
napan’ni [Shoshone at 5:20] I don’t want to forget.
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C:
So you guys used to ride back and forth on a Greyhound, from Lee to Battle Mountain.
P:
Uh-huh, yeah. We were little then. We were just put on the Greyhound, and we would
travel all by ourself over there. And Huttsi would meet us over there in Battle Mountain,
and that’s how we traveled, back and forth. I guess we were—I don’t know why. Well
anyway, Huttsi was very interesting, because she was real traditional. Very traditional
Indian. And we drank all those Indian medicines—sagebrush, really. Antapittseh kwana. I
don’t know what the taipo name is for antapittseh kwana. But we’d, we grew up on that,
and sagebrush. Drinking sagebrush liquid, all the time. And we hardly ever got sick—
especially me. I never got sick. Huttsi said I was tough like her! [Laughter] Ah, but,
um—and then, we lived on jackrabbits a lot. Because everybody’s poor in the Colony,
and not everybody had jobs. And there was a lot of jackrabbits around in the desert, I
guess, behind Battle Mountain. They hunted a lot, and then occasionally deer. But
mostly, we were raised on weyempi [wi’ompi], you know, that buckberries. That
Grandma used to go down on the Marvo ranch and get. We’d have buckberries, and
that’s what I grew up, and I really love it, buckberries. She’d make pudding, and put—
make Indian bread, and just break the Indian crumbs into that, that would, sometimes
we’d have it three times a day, because there was nothing to eat. And, Usen kia [7:02],
let me see, my huttsi… So in Austin area, my dad’s side, and my mom’s Cortez,
nemmesen Tosawihi, now, White Band. White Band Shoshones. White Knife, White
Knife band. [Shoshone at 7:16] Cortez [Shoshone at 7:18] Beowawe, and Battle
Mountain’s also considered White Knife nemiya. Carlin, that area. [7:27] Nemme setai
kimmate. So, then we go back to Lee. Back to where I grew up, were going to school
over there in Lee, from first grade to eighth grade, and then I was shipped off to Stewart,
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where I stayed for four years. But in Lee, it was—oh, it was a good life over there, too.
My dad ranched back there, and we lived the furthest from the school, a real long ways.
Way down there. Just mananku. And we’d go to school on horseback all the time. Winter,
we’d have a barn back there where we’d tie a horse. And we’d run, and race up the hill.
Race up the hill [8:12] nemna’ punkukate tea. You know, all three of us, that’s Lilly and
me, and Joanne–but mostly me and Joanne, because Lillian’s older than us. Irene Diggs,
she, my huttsi raised her in Battle Mountain. And so, I remember the incident, you know,
when we used to come down the hill toward where Raymond Yowell lives now. That’s,
his grandparents used to live over there, Muumpittseh and his wife, Muumpittseh
Hepittso. Muumpittseh Hepittso [Shoshone at 8:39]. We’d come down that hill, and
there’s a gate right by her house. [Shoshone at 8:46], the bareback through her house.
And then, and I guess we leave her gate open, I don’t know! We get [Shoshone at 8:55]
with her apron. I always remember her. She’d come on her porch, waving her fist at us.
She said, “[Shoshone at 9:02]!” “I’m going to tell Burt on you!” But we laugh and just
race through there without shutting her gate! That is awful! [Laughter] But we grew up
like that on horseback. And then, at Lee, we had good teachers. One of them was Norman
Thompson, and his wife—hate nanihante? Norman’s—Ellen. Ellen Bea Roth. And they
were teaching us over there, for quite a while. And then, we all talked Shoshone over
there. Hardly any English. Mostly Shoshone over there. And those taipo kids that went to
school with us, like the Kanes, Marilyn Kane, Bob and Bill Kane, the brothers, two
twins. Twins. And Charles and Linda Dran were our neighbors back there. And Elbert
Berrenega, he’s a Basque from under the mountains. [Shoshone at 9:52], they know
how to talk Shoshone. Because we all talked Shoshone, and then Marilyn Kane and them
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rode horseback with us going home. [Shoshone at 10:01] every night, we race, you
know, up the road. Race real fast, and we leave her behind, Marilyn-ha. Then she’d cry,
said, “Don’t nukki! Don’t nukki! Don’t nukki!” [Laughter] “Don’t run! Don’t run!”
[Shoshone at 10:12]! [Laughter] It was—oh, we had fun up there! [Shoshone at 10:20].
C:
So who were your sisters?
P:
Oh, my sisters. My oldest sister is Lillian Garcia now, still lives in Lee where we used to
live. And Joanne Manning, and Irene Cota. And my half-brother’s Milton Tybo. And
that’s us.
C:
So at one time, did your Grandma Minnie tell you stories of what she recalled, or
anything about what her childhood was like?
P:
Yeah. Well, she told us real stories, because my huttsi was a real good storyteller. Every
night, we hear stories. But I’ll probably just tell you one of them. But we heard a lot
about tsoo’apittseh in the hills, and of course Itsappe—Ish. And the water babies,
pa’ohaane. And—because they lived around that river in Battle Mountain. Paohaane.
And then, she told a story about Toya Tuineppe, the Mountain Boy. That’s where I come
from, the Mountain Boy, I was one of the descendants. Mountain Boy. Himpa—Huttsi
used to tell us that when they used to go from pinenut hills to pinenut hills long time ago,
because they didn’t have anyplace to live, they just migrate from hill to hill, and they live
in camps. Probably, I don’t think it was tipi, it was just those willow huts, I guess, or
something. She never really went into it. But they moved from area to area, pinenut hill
to pinenut hill. And she said that Toya Tuineppe was always around, tepitsi atsatsi
[11:53], he was a real naughty boy, she says, a real mischievious, very naughty. And he’d
come down the hill, akka toyama [12:02], but he’d slide down the hill, down the hill, and
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he’d holler and laugh. You can’t see him. They never see him, but they know that he’s a
little boy because it’s got the voice of a little one. They’d see him coming down the hill,
making dust down the hill, and they’d say, “Oh, there’s Toya Tuineppe again!” Toya
Tuineppe, Little Mountain Boy. Then, when they’d camp and go to the pinenut hills to
get pinenuts, they’d come back, their camp would be all destroyed. That Toya Tuineppe,
Little Mountain Boy would kick all their food all around, ashes all over from the
campfire. They know it was him, because he’s mischievious. And they hear him laughing
in the trees, Huttsi said. You know, he’s always doing some kind of tricks to them. And
sometimes, he’s good, too. You know, he blesses people. He blesses people, even though
he’s kind of bad. And that’s what I remember about Mountain Boy, because he’s my
descendant. One time, after I married Willis and moved to Duck Valley, I got really,
really sick. And Judy Jackson, my aunt, was still living here, so she said, “Alec
Cleveland’s going to be here tonight.” [Shoshone at 13:09], because I was sick. I don’t
know the for—probably stress, or, I don’t know. And then, I went over the [Shoshone at
13:18] Alex, [Shoshone at 13:22]. And I’m one of those persons who grew up kind of
funny, [Shoshone at 13:27]. That’s what got me sick. You know? I’m always scared at
nights, I don’t know why. Even though I was little and grew up and got married, I was
still scared, because my husband used to wake me up, Willis used to wake me up, and I
was talking, talking, and crying, and wake me up from that. But I always knew it was my
mother. Somehow, I knew it was my mother, doing that to me. [Shoshone at 13:52]
Neweh nohimpai. Then it got me sick, because I was always worried in my house, you
know, looking for her, looking for—over here, at my house. And so I got sick, and Judy
said, [14:03] “Attik tai puhane to come on over tonight,” so I went over there, and Attik
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said, [14:08] “Tsatta em pii. Your mother’s bothering you all the time.” Because you
know—I probably was her favorite, because she used to take me to Starr Valley or Ruby
Valley for work, you know, on ranches? And she’d take me all the time, I don’t know
why. But I was little, she always took me with her. And Attik said, “She wants you,
that’s why she’s bothering you. [Shohone at 14:29],” he said, “You have to get after
her!” In the olden days, old people cuss them out, you know, spirits. [Shoshone at
14:37]. Tell them to go away and leave you alone. Said “That’s the only way you can get
rid of her, is just tell her to leave you alone! Cuss her out! Be mean to her! She’s trying to
get you. She’s going to get you if you don’t get after her! [Shoshone at 14:58]. That’s
why you’re sick,” he told me. And I always remember, because Attik doesn’t know me.
You know, he’s from here, I’m from the other area. And he said,
“Always remember that [Shoshone at 15:10],” you know, “You’re a descendant of Toya
Tuineppe. So every morning when you get up, drink a glass of water three times, face the
mountain, and pray”—[Shoshone at 15:24]. Pray and bless yourself, every
morning.[Shoshone at 15:29], and you’ll get over that sickness, over your mother. And
so I said, “Oh, that was all that was wrong with me, I guess! Her haunting me all the
time.” And I was really sick. So I came back, and she was still haunting me. [Laughter]
And the latest was, she was haunting me, and I heard her downstairs in my basement, and
I got up, and I done what Alec told me. I went down there, and I cussed her out in
Shoshone, and told her not to bother me, and told her leave my kids alone, because my
kids were down there. My girls were down there. And not to bother them, because some
are bothered by her, too, some of them. And so, I said, “Don’t bother me anymore!” in
Shoshone, and I threw down whatever I can get. Shoes, clothes, I just threw it down there
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real mean like that, where I couldn’t see her, but I knew it was her. After that, she went
away for good. Never bothered me up to this day. She never bother me again. But that
was one, I guess you can call “superstition” or something, I don’t know what it is, that
happened to me. So that’s how I grew up. Was in Lee. I don’t know what—hinna tease?
C:
When you guys lived in Battle Mountain, was there a lot of pinenuts?
P:
Up in Austin area. From Battle Mountain, we go up to Austin on wagons. We go up there
and get pinenuts. Or else some other relative will bring it down to us, because it’s too far.
But when my huttsi was growing up, they lived up there in the Austin—on the pinenut
hills. So that’s where they got their pinenuts, they lived on pinenuts, all the time. And so
did my mom and them in that Cortez area. They live on pinenuts, too. And they walked.
They never used cars or wagons, because they’d—before, when my mother was growing
up, they didn’t have any horses or wagons. They usually walked long ways for food and
roots, hunting, and getting pinenuts. That’s what they done. You know, when we went to
Cortez last week—whole bunch of us from Duck Valley went. Gerry Brady and us guys
went, and she said, “Just think, our old people used to walk these hills for many miles—
and look at us getting tired already!” [Laughter] You know, we’re climbing the hill,
we’re real tired and breathing real hard. We got to sit down every once in a while! And
they used to roam these hills walking. [Shoshone at 17:59]. But that’s what they done, I
think, that Old People.
C:
So is there still pinenuts left there in Cortez?
P:
Lots. That’s a pinenut hills. Pinenut hills. But the mine, the new mine’s going up. That’s
how come they invited us, because they said most of the descendants from Cortez is
Duck Valley White Knifes. So that’s why we were invited over there. And there’s lot of
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pinenuts. But there’s a new mine going up there in that Cortez mine. Great, big giant one.
We went to visit that one. Plus, there are old mines. And the new mine’s going to be so
huge. I don’t know. And that pinenuts, some of the pinenut hills they’re going to destroy.
They’re going to cut them down. But they’re going to save some of the young ones, I
think, that’s what they were saying. The younger pinenut trees. So, the mine is really
expanding.
C:
So what kind of mineral are they mining for?
P:
Gold.
C:
Gold?
P:
Mmhm. I don’t know, but that’s where my mom is from. And they said that used to be a
real big Shoshone settlement at one time. Rehabi Whitney was telling us that, at one
time—or was it Felix Ike? That was the biggest Shoshone settlement in that valley, Grass
Valley—over the hill is Grass Valley. That’s another valley Huttsi used to talk about
[Shoshone at 19:32]. She used to say “Grass Valley”—but you know, in Shoshone—
“Grass Valley,” “Grass Valley.” And we never paid attention to her. It’s over the hill
from Cortez. Big Shoshone area. From there, they migrated different areas, like Duck
Valley, Fort Hall, Ruby Valley, other areas. But I really grew up in reservation, in
reservation life. And a little bit in Elko, not too long. Because we were just little girls
when we moved to Lee. So we grew up on a ranch.
C:
So, do you remember any of the stories that your Grandma told you, many about the
Tso’apittseh?
P:
Oh yeah, Tso’apittseh. [Laughter] Tso’apittseh. Yeah, she told lot of stories of what her
mother and them told. I don’t think it was when she was young, I don’t think, because I
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think tso’apittseh was way back there. And she said they didn’t—they were still
wandering around the pinenut hills, living here and there in the hills, and they used to sit
in the, by the campfire, and tell stories that, you know, Newene, the Indians would sit
around the campfire telling stories. All they do every night is tell stories. And then they
hear from way back, Huttsi said—because she was going to scare us, now, because we
were little girls, they always thought we were naughty, and she tells us scary stories so
we can go to sleep and be quiet, I guess! [Laughter] And then, she said, well, they were
sitting, talking, they would hear Tso’apittseh away just miles and miles away. [Shoshone
at 21:05], he’d be crying a lot, coming to the camp, and everybody’s getting scared now,
trying to hide their kids. And—[Shoshone at 21:13]—he was singing that song,
“[Shoshone at 21:17],” was getting closer and closer. Finally, he just squatted down that
campfire. And every time he leaves—I don’t know whether this is true, or it’s just to
scare us—she said he takes off with a kid in his [Shoshone at 21:31]. You know, that
little—a little basket behind his back. He’s supposed to be a rock man. Rock, I think,
made out of rocks. But he’s got a basket in the back that was coated with pinenut sap.
[Shoshone at 21:47]. Big enough for an adult to go into, [Shoshone at 21:51], he’d take
one of the kid and take off with it. And he’d go crying away, [Shoshone at 21:59]. After
he steal that kid, and everybody was so scared of him because he’ll always find them
wherever they’re at. Even if they move or run away, he’ll find them. So they just stay put,
because that Tso’apittseh was around. And then, one time, she said he came again. They
were sitting down, they heard him crying, and he was coming again, and this time he sat
down and talk Shoshone to them, and asked how they were doing and all that stuff.
Talking and eating with them, whatever. And finally, he kept looking at this one young
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man, she said. A young man, not a baby or a little boy. He was a young man, I don’t
know how old he is. He kept looking at that young man. Finally, he got up and grabbed
that young man, and threw it behind his big basket and took off. Took off, and that young
man was old enough to know what was happening. So when the Tso’apittseh was running
along under the pine trees, he thought real fast, and then he—when he was running along,
crying along, that Tso’apittseh, he grab a limb up there, and he climb up on that limb and
Tso’apittseh didn’t know it. Kept on crying down the hill until he got where he was
going, probably to his den. And he found out that young man was missing. So he turn
around crying real loud, coming back again to the camp, looking for that young man.
Young man was up there waiting for him, she said, with—he made fire out of rocks or
something, I don’t know. He made a little fire. When Tso’apittseh was right underneath
him, he threw that fire into that basket, that sap, and that burnt real bad, and Tso’apittseh
ran away crying. [Shoshone at 23:42] down that hill, he was just crying and panicked,
you know? And it burned him up. It burned him up, because he never bothered the
Indians again. That’s her story about Tso’apittseh. He never bothered them again. I guess
he burnt to death, or something happened. His big basket burned up. [Laughter]
C:
So what did he do with those kids? Did he eat them, or what did he do with them?
P:
That’s—according to her, [Shoshone at 24:08]. He tears the head off, I guess he eats the
head. That’s what she said. But maybe different people have different stories about
Tso’apittseh. But he does kill them, the kids. So… There was another story about—
Huttsi, she told us so many stories about the Cottontail. Of course, that’s simple
Cottontail. There was another story about a big bird, and I believe she called it Ish. Ish,
that bird. But Ise was supposed to be the Itsappe, Ish. But she called this big bird Ish, too.
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[Shoshone at 24:44] Pia ______ kwina. Like an eagle, but it wasn’t an eagle. It was a
real big bird. On the island, ka nakkan, some island, middle of the water. He live over
there, and he come every now and then, fly to the Indian camp again, take people and
take it over there to eat, I guess to the island. Back where he live in a great, big nest.
[Shoshone at 25:05]. And, I guess long time ago, he stole a lady. And that lady grew up
to be a old lady. And she slaved for him. Cooked for him. He demanded this and that,
demanded she cook his food. Whatever he brought home, she cook it for him. Mostly
humans. She cooked that food for him, and over the many many years, just getting real
old, just getting tired of that big bird doing that to her. And there’s no way to get to that
place except—wasn’t no way to get there. It’s the middle of a big river, open ocean, or
something. And so the old lady was getting tired, and was getting mad at the big bird. So
she finally thought, “Well, I am going to get rid of him.” In Shoshone said she’s going to
get rid of him. “[Shoshone at 25:55].” And so, she got some kind of flint. Uten obsidian?
That black flint? She chipped it real fine, chipped it real fine, and so he came back with
whatever he had. And—oh no, it was a young man he brought back again, a young man.
So she got really upset, the old lady. She wasn’t going to have him kill the young man.
So she got some flint, and chipped it, and put it in a bowl for him with soup [26:23],
before he killed that young man. She made him some kind of soup because he was so
demanding. And then soup, she put it in front of him. And he started drinking the soup.
But every time he was drinking the soup, he would put his big [Shoshone intermittently
after 26:38] in the air like [26:39]. And he’d kind of like gurgling sound in his throat,
kind of choking because that thing was already working on him, that flint. Gurgling,
gurgling. And she watched, she sat there and watch him. The bird wasn’t saying
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anything, he was just eating and doing that gurgling and choking and so on. Her and that
young man watched that bird. Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore. He got up, and he
flew away. He yetseko [27:04]. And he flew away up the middle of the water, and
[27:08] behind, say they never saw him again. That was another story she told.
[Laughter] I believe she called him Ish. And I always say, “Why did she call him Ise
when Ise is supposed to be Itsappe’s brother?” So, that’s one story she told.
C:
What about the water babies?
P:
Oh, water babies! Yeah, Battle Mountain [Shoshone at 27:30] water babies. Everybody’s
scared of them, because they hear them crying, you know? Babiesne. [Shoshone at
27:36] used to always tell that all the time. My uncle Willie Johnson, he used to tell about
water babies all the time. And he also took babies away from mothers that was fishing on
the banks—you know, with their baby, and their—[Shoshone at 27:53]. And he just
snatch them off of them and take the baby underwater [Shoshone at 27:58]. The baby’s
lost for good. But one time, he done that to another young man—[Shoshone at 28:05],
and that somehow, that young man—I don’t know this story too good. But somehow, the
young man killed that water baby, and came back again. But all the Indians know about
water babies. They say they’re still alive—I mean, you can still hear them. And you know
what that—I forgot to tell you about this. Mountain Boy, Toya Tuineppe, they say you
hear him in any mountain. He lives in any mountain, high mountain. And sometimes, you
can hear him whistling at you, whistling. Sometimes, you think it’s a bird, you know. But
it’s Toya Tuineppe. And a lot of times, I go hunting with Willis way up in the mountains,
way back there [Shoshone at 28:48]. And I’d be sitting there waiting, because he walked
a long ways. I’d sit there, wait for him. [Shoshone at 28:53], whistling, [Shoshone at
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28:55]. Then, I thought it was, you know, a bird. And then I remembered what Attik said
to me: “If you go in the mountains and hear some whistling, that’s Toya Tuineppe. He’s
whistling at you.” So that’s—he said it happens with anybody. Any Shoshone. You go up
to the mountains and hear him whistling at you. So if you ever go hunting and hear
somebody whistling? It might be him and not a bird. [Laughter] Huttsi was telling me
some, another good story… Oh, I forgot! What was it about, now? Wait, ask me another
question.
C:
Do you know anything about [29:41] Toyanatsi’ that live out there in Ruby Valley? That
you could talk about?
P:
Osen kwai, yes. [29:46] Suteen Toya Tuineppe naa. What did they say about Toya
nukutsi?
C:
They take care of the wild horses there, and the wild sheep?
P:
Oh.
C:
Yeah. [__inaudible at 29:57__]
P:
Oh, that’s probably their story from that area. Oh! Hm. That’s interesting.
[Break in recording]
P:
When he died [Shoshone at 30:08], we go up to [Shoshone at 30:11]. And we’d, we
meet our ancestors up there. [30:16] Tammen naa supai akka nupuwiiha. Milky Way
[Shoshone at 30:19] you know, Shoshones souls have the dance in the Milky Way.
That’s why when you see the Milky Way, it’s all dusty-looking? That dust, when they’re
kicking up their heels, kicking up their feet, and all that dust, dancing, because that’s
what they do. That was their routine up long time ago, to the Shoshones, was Round
Dance. They sing in their old language, and so they’d sing a Shoshone song, telling
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stories and their music. And the Milky Way is where we go to to dance when we die.
That was a Shoshone belief. So when my daughter died, I always look at the Milky Way.
[Shoshone at 30:55], she’s dancing up in the Milky Way now, with her grandmas, and
her aunts and uncles, her dad. Because I believe they came after her when she died that
night. They all came, picked her up, and took her away, and now she’s up in the Milky
Way. Osen tammen belief, you know, we’re dancing up there. That’s one of the Shoshone
belief that I grew up on. So, hinna tease?
C:
So, in the dancing of the Milky Way, are they going someplace? Is there a belief that the
people are going—are they traveling, or are they just dancing?
P:
No, I think they just dancing. They go up there to be happy up there. You know, they’re
free. Free of all kinds of worries and stuff. And so, they just go up there to Heaven to
dance. Dance up there. So when we look at them, we see them up there, we’re supposed
to see them up there dancing. Sometimes it’s so pretty, you know, up there. The Milky
Way. Another belief that I was told long time ago is, take a star for your loved one that
died. A star. And I always look at the star and pray to God for that star to take care of
your loved ones. So I picked a star for my daughter Francine. The Evening Star. [32:13]
Sokka nabuite, and then I always nanisuntehai, I pray. Because, you know, I really miss
her. And so, that’s one of the beliefs. So everybody’s dancing up there. And I believe—
that’s my belief, I don’t know whether anybody else believe like that, but I believe we all
go to Heaven. Everybody, good or bad. Everybody goes to Heaven! [Laughter]
C:
Well, that’s a Shoshone belief. There’s—everybody goes to the Spirit World.
P:
Mmhm. Yeah. So, that’s one of the stories.
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C:
Were there very many medicine—or healers in your family? You mentioned your
Grandma was a healer.
P:
Yeah, her stepfather was a real powerful medicine man. [33:00] Himpaise ma nanihante
Sam Wilson. Sam Wilson, nekka. Is it Sam? I believe from the Austin area. A old man
that was like a hermit. And he was married to my huttsi’s mother, Katie. Katie Wilson. I
don’t know what their maiden names were—because a long time ago, they only had
Indian names, and when they worked with a white man, they change all their names. So,
Katie Wilson and so on. Indian names. Like, my [Shoshone at 33:30]’s name was
Paampokompi. Like, “water currant.” Paampokompi. And from there, they were changed
to Lucy Cortez. And so, anyhow, [33:45] himpai nani_____?
C:
Oh, healers.
P:
Oh, that Sam Wilson! He’s a powerful healer, Shoshone healer, up in Austin area. Was so
powerful that he had, that Katie Wilson, his wife, had two daughters: my huttsi, and
Davis Gonzalez and their grandma. Their grandmother, Nellie Woods. Nellie Woods. So
Katie had two daughters. Katie Wilson’s really Sam Wilson’s daughter. Sam and Katie’s
daughter. My huttsi is a half-breed; her dad’s half white. But somehow, Sam Wilson
chose her—my huttsi’s more Indian because she’s got more Indian belief, even though
she’s half white. She’s real traditional. But keep her with him as assistant. You know,
assisting him with preparing things when he’s going to doctor somebody? [34:44]
[Shoshone at 34:44], it was for a young girl, that was just job for the girls—that’s
what my huttsi told me, that I used to [Shoshone at 34:51] kumaitte mia. I go with them
to help them prepare their roots and the medicine. And she listened to him. All the songs
and stuff, she listened to him, and it got into her. So she became a medicine lady. Not as
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great as Sam, but she still know what she was doing. And then Huttsi used to tell me,
when she used to come visit me at my house when I had all my kids, she’d say—well,
nowadays, nobody took after Sam, you know, that powerful medicine man. But some day
[35:24] there’s going to im himpa, emerge a medicine man from one of your family.
Our family—you know, the Tybos, I guess—our family’s going to emerge some day. A
powerful medicine man. It might be your kids. If not your kids, your grandkids or your
great-grandchild. “Some day,” he said, “himpa tipitsi Newe wepekanai [35:46]. It’s going
to come.” I don’t know when that’s going to be! [Laughter] But that’s what she always
tells me. Because of Sam Wilson. That’s the only one I know. The other medicine lady
that I know is Satii Nap from Ruby Valley. Her name’s Sally Brigham, I think. She’s the
one that raised Anna Premo. Sally Brigham, and I knew—we call her Satii Nap.
Nowadays, she’s dead. Satii, she used to come down to our Colony in Elko, to our
little—and doctor my mother, because my mother’s really sick. Doctor her all the time.
Was a very powerful medicine lady. I remember her. She’s real tall and skinny, had long
gray hair. [Shoshone (?) at 36:29] and every night at midnight, she opened the door, and
then she’d pray to God, I guess. [Shoshone (?) at 36:34] up to the Heavens. Then she’d
come around and doctor my mother again. But my mother didn’t get healed, because it
was tuberculosis that killed her. It wasn’t other kind of disease, sickness. And so, those
two I remember really good. Satii Nap and Sam Wilson. And of course, Atikko here in
Duck Valley. That’s all I know.
C:
So these people that were healers, they were blessed with the power? Or, I mean, they
didn’t go to school for it.
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P:
No, it was blessed by power. They had it from the ancestors, from way back. I guess it
just came to them from way back. And—no, they didn’t. They weren’t taught. It was just
in them to heal people. And they really did heal people, you know, in the old days.
Nowadays, we have this young modern medicine—claim to be medicine men. I think
they’re just out here for the money! [Laughter] Money, you know, they’re not really
healing people like the old people. They’re all dead now.
C:
What kind of medicine did they use? Were they all different, or—?
P:
They’re all different. Like, sagebrush was the main one from that area, Battle Mountain,
Cortez, [37:56] kwaiya. It was pohovi. Pohovi and totsa—totsa’s a lot, too. Antapittseh
kwana. Those three I know.
C:
Is there anybody that still uses those kind of—
P:
Medicine? I do. We do. I taught all my kids that, you know, my girls and my son? We
harvest totsa up in Scott Creek back in the mountains every fall. And that heals anything.
You drink it—but it’s real greasy. Like, greasy? I really don’t like it. But some other lady
told me to make it kind of mild, put more water in it, and strain it, and then you can drink
it. But it’s supposed to heal your insides. Any sickness that’s inside of you. Stomach
problems. Some people even says cancer and other kind of dreadful sickness. It cures that
if you’re very faithful to drink it every day. Like, Huttsi used to drink, like, a half a cup a
day. So I guess… But I don’t do that. I use mine for sores, when you get cut. Like, for
animals too. Like my dogs get run over and cut or something, like, I boil that totsa and
make it real mushy—you know, that real mushy—and then I mash it with my hands. And
I cool it, and I take that pulp, and I just put it in the dog’s wound, and it heals it
immediately. Or anything. Horses, anything. And humans also. And you can smoke it,
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too. You can smoke the totsa. Just pound it up to a little tobacco, and roll it up, and
smoke it. My huttsi—again, Grandma Minnie over at Battle Mountain—she used to roll
up totsa, and she’d smoke it every wintertime. She’s sitting by her stove, smoking totsa.
And she’d always make me wrap her totsa—you know, her tobacco, in the little paper. So
I wrap it for her, and then she would give me one, just for so I won’t get sick. Because
it’s totsa. And that’s where I started smoking little bit, because of her! [Laughter] And I
used to remember that. I was the only one that smoke among my sisters. I had fun with
my huttsi, although she was really strict, too. Really strict with us. So… We were taught
how to get up early in the morning to do our chores. Every morning, my dad done that to
us when we were growing up. We got up, she made five in the morning. I still now, to
this day I get up at that time. And that was good teaching. We done all our chores early in
the morning. And we didn’t have no electricity. We had to haul our water from a well, or
from the river. And a lot of hardships, you know, when we grew up, and nothing—
outside toilets, no water. Had to wash your clothes out by the river. Or in a tub with
washboards. That’s how I grew up. Nowadays, we have it easy.
C:
What about the antapittseh kwana? What’s that used for?
P:
Antapittseh kwana is a real powerful healer, too. More powerful than all of the other
medicine, according to Huttsi. And it grows up here around Cleveland Trail, back here.
Cleveland Trail? Because she used to tell George Blackett to get it for her every fall. He
goes over there, [Shoshone at 41:34], he’s still walking way off from where the plants
are growing, and he’d be singing. [Shoshone at 41:40]. In order to get it, he has to sing
and pray to it. So he’d go over there and get whole bunch of it for Huttsi. Some long, tall
plants. And then she’d boil it, I guess, and then drink it. Again, drink it. And then it’s also
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good for healing, like the totsa. You know, you’ll get it pulpy, boil and get it pulpy, and
put it on sores or whatever. Cuts. And that’s supposed to be real powerful. But it’s hardly
any totsa around. I mean, hardly any antapittseh kwana around. I’ve heard that they’re
gone, now. And they don’t grow anywhere, just rare places. But I rely on the totsa now.
And mostly pohovi, I love pohovi yet. And I walk along, and I break a piece of pohovi,
young pohovi, young one along outside my house. I just have it, smell it, and feel it, and
inhale all the good medicine inside of you. I love pohovi. And [__inaudible at 42:47__],
that’s, I was raised with pohovi and totsa.
C:
How about cedar? Did you use cedar much?
P:
Not the Battle Mountain area. I never heard of them burning cedar. Did you?
C:
Well, I hear people talk about it.
P:
Yeah, some, I guess. But I never heard my Grandma talk about cedar. Only when I got
over here. So I burn the cedar now all the time. It’s good to bless your house with.
C:
Uh-huh. Okay, we’ve got about ten minutes now. Is there anything you want to wind up
with, or tell at the end here, about things that maybe your grandchildren, or if you were to
tell them what’s important in life, and what’s important in terms of tradition, what would
you think of would be the best thing it is to say to them?
P:
My grandchildren. Well, I would tell them to get up early in the morning, because
nowadays, those young people stay in bed, stay in bed ‘til ten, eleven. And that’s not
good. Because I notice some of my grandkids are like that. And I try to make them get up
early, but they’re spoiled, I guess, in the modern world. Because I didn’t raise them, their
mother raised them. Their mothers raised them. If I raised them, it would be different. It
would be different. Because I raised one granddaughter—that’s Nammi up at the
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hospital—I raised her. I made her get up early in the morning, do chores. So she works all
the time. She gets up early. She does her work. But the other grandchildren, I don’t know.
Well anyway, so I tell them to get up early in the morning, work, and make a living, and
be honest and giving to people. Talk to all the elders. Respect elders, and respect all
people, animals, everything. And to—and not get involved in alcohol and drugs, because
that’s killing people nowadays. And that’s what I want to pass on to them. That tradition
is—keep up the medicine. Keep up the medicine, the totsa and the sagebrush. And just
pray. Mostly pray. Pray, in the Indian way. Most of my grandkids and my kids doesn’t
talk Shoshone. They understand it, my kids understand, but they don’t talk it. And
grandkids are even worse. So—but they hear me talk all the time. So I just tell them what
I know about living a good life. That’s what I want them to do is live a good life, free of
drugs and alcohol. And that’s what I want to pass on to them.
[End of recording]
�
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Title
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Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
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Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
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GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
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2006-2015
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
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Norm Cavanaugh
Interviewee
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Illaine Premo
Location
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Duck Valley Reservation (Owyhee, NV)
Original Format
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DVD and VOB format
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00:45:58
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http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/566
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Illaine Premo - Oral history (11/30/2009)
Subject
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Oral history interview with Illaine Premo, Western Shoshone from Battle Mountain, NV on 11/30/2009
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Illain Tybo Premo was born to Ada Cortez Johnson and Cortez Charlie who were from the Beowawe/Cortez area. Her ancestors came from Smoky Valley and the Austin area. During her childhood she speaks about moving all around Western Shoshone territory to places such as Elko, Battle Mountain, and South Fork. She speaks about living in both Battle Mountain and South Fork reservation. She also speaks about her grandmother Minnie, who was a medicine woman, who lived in Battle Mountain and taught Illain traditional lifeways of the Shoshone. She was taught traditions such as picking nuts and berries, hunting deer and rabbit, using traditional medicines, and getting up early and doing chores. She also speaks about attending Stewart Indian School after 8th grade. She also tells us a few Shoshone stories including the Toya Deanapa (Mountain boy), Tso’ovich (stone man), and ba’a wa’a (water-babies). She ends her narrative by cautioning the younger generations about using alcohol and drugs.</p>
Video pending <br /> <a title="Illaine Premo Oral History Transcription" href="/omeka/files/original/42e8cfd518657ccafcf2585ac27ed966.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read Illaine Premo Oral History Transcription [pdf file]</a>
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Great Basin Indian Archives
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 024
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
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11/30/2009 [30 November 2009]; 2009 November 30
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Norm Cavanaugh (interviewer); James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
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Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017.
Consent form on file (administrator access only): http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/items/show/373
Language
A language of the resource
English; some Shoshoni
Battle Mountain
Community
Crossroads
Duck Valley Reservation
folktale
GBIA
medicine woman
Shoshone
Stewart Indian School
Story
traditional foods
traditional medicines
traditions
-
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04de61d9668de5a83279898614a59079
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/cc71cefaafddeea7b0dfcb83d2bc679c.pdf
4ebe28c5ce483e86445e14bba041709c
PDF Text
Text
Alvin
&
Lorraine
Sims
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
023
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
November
30,
2009
Owyhee,
NV
Great
Basin
College
•
Great
Basin
Indian
Archives
1500
College
Parkway
Elko,
Nevada
89801
hDp://www.gbcnv.edu/gbia/
775.738.8493
Produced
in
partnership
with
Barrick
Gold
of
North
America
�GBIA 023
Interviewee: Alvin and Lorraine Sims
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: November 30, 2009
C:
Today we have Alvin and Lorraine Sims. And Alvin, can you give us your full name and
tell us about where your family came from?
AS:
Yeah. My family came from in Paradise Valley. Came this way from there. And then, my
dad and my mom, they all came—no, my mom came in from Ruby Valley. And then, my
dad came from Paradise. My grandfather came this way, saikkih [1:16] Owyhee. And
then they stayed in Owyhee, and that’s where I grow up. Pu’unkh’a [1:21] But I grow
over here. That’s where I’m living right now. Hok’ patanke [1:26]. Right there, on this
side of my house, in the sagebrush, that’s where I was born. I was born the Indian way,
not in the hospital, huh? Sokkuh nemmen tsoo’pa naha nap’an [1:40]. Yeah. [Shoshone
from 1:44-1:48] Yeah. [Shoshone from 1:50-1:51] my parents. Yeah.
C:
Who was your parents? Hagan nanihande?
AS:
Edna Charles and Jack Sims. They’re my parents, my dad and my mom.
C:
Uh-huh. What tribe were they from?
AS:
My mother’s from Shoshone. From Te-Moak side. And then, my dad came in from
Paradise. Paiute. Yeah. Soteweh newene [2:25], I’m kind of half and half. Put me half and
half. [Shoshone at 2:31] Sikkih mia ______ kimmake. They came this way. And then,
found a place where to build their home. And that’s where I was raised from.
C:
So what kind of house did they—did they build a house, or did they live in a tent, or…?
AS:
Well, they live in a tent from the beginning. Tent huup’a. Then, later on, they build a
house. And then, that’s when my dad was working with the CC. CC crew, they call them
that. I’d come and I’d put up the boundary fence. All the way around the reservation.
That’s who we worked with. Down from us. That’s our place. And then we stayed in
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Owyhee. Yeah. [Shoshone at 3:20] Yeah. All my grandparents [__inaudible at 3:26__].
And then on Te-Moak side, [Shoshone at 3:30], they came in from that side.
C:
So, are you related to Frank Temoke?
AS:
No, not really. I’m related to Captain Sam. The main guy. That was my great-great-greatgrandfather, tsoo. He was there with ones [Shoshone at 3:55]. Came down here, and
checked this over [Shoshone at 3:59]. Checked this land to see which one you like. You
want this one? Or you want Wild Horse? [Shoshone at 4:07]. My old man didn’t go for
that! So, he don’t like that. They’re too small. So, [Shoshone at 4:18] sopai wahatte,
taibo na sembe niikwen, “Go ahead and check this one out. [Shoshone? at 4:22]
Owyhee. See how you like it.” So he checked everything. Went up in the mountain, up
there. They got deer up there. They got groundhog up there. Then he checked all the
river. And then, it’s got squirrels, it’s got fish, it’s got everything here. So that old man,
he’s choose this one, so that’s why the people came in. Later on, a bunch of them came
in. The first five families that came down was, that Captain Sam, and then Captain
George, Big Dick family, and then Washington. That’s the only four I know. But there
was five, they said. I don’t know who was the other one. So they came down and they
stayed over here. And that, on the place they chose is right there by Sam Curtis’s place.
Down here? There’s a rock building that was sitting there, that was sitting down toward
the west. It’s all fallen down now. That’s where Washington used to live. And then that
Big Dick, he used to go way down, down below. [Shoshone at 5:46]. First one that came
down. Yeah. That’s how the old man checked it. He said, it’s got everything here. And
that’s the reservation he had. [Shoshone at 6:05]. And put him over here. Yeah. That’s
how it went.
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C:
So are there any relatives of Washington left on the reservation?
S:
Uh, no, I don’t really know them. But that’s what my grandfather—and he used to tell me
about that. But I don’t really know. The only one I really know was that Big Dick.
Taskey. That’s only one I know. But the rest… I know where they live, he showed me
the places where they live. But… That’s just about all I know on that.
C:
So, was there like a Indian agent that lived here with them, or…?
S:
Huh?
C:
[Shoshone at 6:54]?
AS:
I think so. I think that something like that way. [Shoshone at 7:00]. Because that—he
was the superintendant, we had that long time ago. He goes around in through here. Visit
them places on horseback. And then, that’s when them—I guess, he went down, he was
looking for Dick Caskey. So he went down out [Shoshone at 7:23], and he went down to
my grandmother’s place over there. Asked her—he asked her, “Where does Mr. Big Dick
live?” And then the old lady, right, she can’t hardly talk English too good. So, she said,
“Way down there,” her pointing that way. And he lives way down there. [Laughter] So
you can understand [Shoshone at 7:55] semme yekwite. Yeah, that’s only thing. That’s
the only thing she said! She says, “He lives way down there.” [Laughter] Yeah.
[Shoshone at 8:07]
C:
So, did the other Shoshones move up here later, then?
AS:
Yeah, lately. [Shoshone at 8:18] Then them coming in, keep coming in. That’s when the
Captain Sam was here already. So he invited them in. And then, later on, Captain Sam,
well, he said that—he was talking about Paddy Cap. He’s fighting, fighting the soldiers
all the time. That’s Paddy Cap bunch. And then, Captain Sam, well, he told them two
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runners of his, he said, “I want to really talk with that Captain Paddy.” So, he sent a
couple guys down that way. I don’t know where they got ahold of that moonshine, long
time ago, but I guess they had all kind of liquor long time ago, it sound like. So, he gave
them some. “Take this along. And then, give him two drinks. And when you get done,
you bring him this way.” So, they went down, looking for him. They finally found him,
where he’s at. They talked with him, and then they keep pouring him the drink. And the
old man, he liked that drink, boy! [Laughter] Keep on drinking and drinking, and then
pretty soon he got so drunk where he can’t hardly stand up there. Really, he about ready
to pass out. So, he really got drunk, and then them guys said, “Let’s go for a ride.” They
put him on horse some way, and brought him up. And then they had brought him right to
Captain Sam, over to his house. So—and then Captain, in next morning, I guess Captain
talk with him, with Paddy Cap. And then told him that he better quit this fighting. “I
don’t want you be doing that” [Shoshone? at 10:29] “I don’t want you to fight no more.
Your people going to be gone pretty soon, you keep on fighting.” I guess he understood
what he meant. “I want you to bring—go down back home, and bring the whole tribe,
your tribe. Bring ‘em up. And then we’ll give you a place over here to stay.” [Shoshone
at 10:58]. Right up here by Meadow Creek. You know, from Eleanor’s house. That fence
line that goes west. He’ll give you that piece right there. Six mile this way, and then 22
mile this way. “You could raise your people, your kids, right there on [__inaudible at
11:23__].” So, he settled down. He settled down right there, raised his families. There
used to be lot of people right there in Meadow Creek. There was families clear from—
you know where Lena Black used to live? Yeah, from on all over this way, clear up in
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here, and then, on the side hill, on this side. And then down here, there’s some more.
There’s, I don’t know how many families. There were quite a few families there.
LS:
Yakama-ne.
AS:
Yeah, Yakamas…
LS:
Damons.
AS:
Damon, Littles. Yeah, there was bunch of them. Yeah, finally, they all went. They’re all
gone.
LS:
[Shoshone at 12:11]
AS:
Huh?
LS:
Oh, shoot, now I can’t remember.
C:
So where did Paddy Cap’s, where was he before? Where did he roam?
AS:
Well, he was right in Umatilla there someplace. That way.
LS:
Thataway.
AS:
Yeah, Oregon. Oregon. Yeah. So anyway, that’s where he was raising problems. So, they
finally got him over here. They had a picture of him over there at the tribal office.
Captain Paddy Cap. He had a big war bonnet on. He was sitting this way. Yeah, this way.
Picture up on the wall of him facing this way. That’s where he was from. He just want to
fight all the time. Yeah, that’s the story about that one, there.
C:
So, how did—was the Boneys, was there a family here named Boneys at one time?
LS:
Yeah, Boney.
AS:
Yeah.
C:
Were they Paddy Cap’s band, or were they Shoshone, or…?
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AS:
No, they Shoshone. Bonny, Boney, Barney… They call themselves “Barney” now. They
used to call him “Boney.”
LS:
[Shoshone at 13:36]
AS:
Yeah, right there, you know, where that bridge—
LS:
Boney Bridge.
AS:
—by this side of the Rock Gym, the house over there? Right there. Right in that corner
there. This side the bridge right there. They used to live right there. The only one that’s
left out of them, the Barney—no, not—what’s his name? Kenneth. Kenneth Boney. He’s
only one that’s around. That’s left, probably. The only one. I don’t know if there’s any
girls or anything. That’s only one I know.
C:
How about the Priddy? Was there a family named—
AS:
Priddy?
LS:
Priddy, yeah.
AS:
Yeah, they used to live way down there by Pleasant Valley. Up that way.
C:
Where did his family come from?
AS:
From the Paddy Cap side.
C:
Oh, he was a Paddy Cap.
AS:
Yeah. Must have moved to them up there in Pleasant Valley, that came in from Paddy
Cap side.
LS:
The Dodges, too. The Thomas.
AS:
Yeah, Dodge, Thomas.
LS:
Roy Thomas. And then… What was Tupa and them’s name?
AS:
Adam.
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LS:
Adam. Tom Adams.
AS:
Tom Adams.
LS:
And his wife.
AS:
Yeah, all them people that used to live down there. Pleasant Valley.
LS:
But I don’t know that lady’s taibo name. Just Tupa. [Shoshone? at 15:05]
C:
[Shoshone at 15:07]? What ever happened to them?
AS:
They all died.
LS:
They all passed on, yeah.
AS:
They all passed away.
LS:
Had a lot of people here, no’himpaishen [15:16].
AS:
Mmhm. Lot of people over there. There’s not very much left. Nobody in Pleasant Valley
now.
LS:
Not good, but, you know, if it wasn’t for the liquors, there’d be lot of people. Lot of
elders would be still here.
AS:
Yeah, that Priddy—
LS:
Alcohol got them all.
AS:
That, what’s his name, that… Priddy, what their dad’s name?
LS:
Willie? Willie Priddy?
AS:
Yeah, Willie. He used to be a big family, that one. Lot of boys. No girls, innit?
LS:
No, mm-mm. No.
AS:
Nothing but boys. They used to get drunk, get sick, and then most of them got died with
alcohol.
LS:
Everyone.
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AS:
Drinking too much.
LS:
We’d have lots of elders. Now, right today, but…
AS:
Yeah.
C:
How about tuberculosis? Was tuberculosis, did people die from that, too?
AS:
Well, long time ago, people don’t know about the disease. They don’t know what they
have.
LS:
Because they never go to hospital, never.
AS:
Never have no hospital.
LS:
[Shoshone at 16:24]. I don’t know how they treats theirself. They cured with herbs.
AS:
Yeah, tuberculosis—well, all this sickness that they, they don’t know what they have.
LS:
[Shoshone at 16:40]
AS:
Yeah, the taibo forgot.
C:
So what did they use for medicine? [Shoshone at 16:48] Hawaki newe nattahsua’na?
AS:
I don’t know what kind. I don’t know what kind of Indian medicine—they used nothing
but Indian medicine then. The only one I know is sagebrush. I don’t know what’s that
others.
LS:
Uteweh daha newe tea, Indian tea, that antapittseh kwana. You probably—
C:
Yeah.
AS:
Yeah, I don’t know, I don’t know what the name of that one. [Shoshone at 17:15]
LS:
And then they used to have a lot of—
C:
[Shoshone at 17:17] Yeah. Osen kwa’i sembanai newe nanihan. Yeah.
LS:
Lot of cabbage, and then wild carrots they eat. [Shoshone at 17:24] Not really that much,
though, huh?
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AS:
No, unh-uh.
LS:
No. Not like today.
C:
So, when did the Native American Church—[Shoshone at 17:39] sick?
AS:
In the [19]50s, I think.
LS:
No. Then, they just [Shoshone at 17:48] ondat newe nanishundahai. Himpaishe.
AS:
I know. That’s when Raymond Warren came down. He’s the one that brought them down
this way.
LS:
Long time ago, though. Not in the [19]50s. Before. [Shoshone at 18:02]
C:
So who was Raymond Warren? Was he—
AS:
He’s from Fort Hall. Yeah, he came down there, and then they started with that. Start
healing people with that. That’s one thing, only thing I know about that, Indian American
Church.
LS:
And then the sagebrush, I still sagebrush for cough.
AS:
I don’t know—I know antapittseh kwana, but I don’t know the name of it.
LS:
The taibo name.
AS:
Yeah. That’s a white name for it, someplace. [Laughter] Because I don’t know.
LS:
Totsa.
AS:
Yeah. [Shoshone at 18:57] Sekke nanihante, I don’t know how you would pronounce it.
[Laughter]
LS:
[Shoshone at 19:00] taibo nanihade. But there is lots—herbs. Mmhm.
C:
So, when did the—when was the old hospital built? Or, do you guys remember when that
was built?
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AS:
[Shoshone at 19:17]. When I was going to school, it was already up. See, when I was in
school. I was, I don’t know, about seventeen?
LS:
Before.
AS:
Yeah. And it was up already. So, it must be around about, when I was around about
thirteen, fourteen? That’s when the hospital—this old hospital down here.
C:
Yeah.
LS:
[Shoshone at 19:48]
AS:
Yeah, long time ago.
C:
So was this the first hospital that was built, or was there one before?
AS:
Yeah, that was the first one.
C:
First one.
AS:
Yeah. And then this one here, not too long ago.
LS:
There was a, [Shoshone at 20:09], a church over here on this side.
AS:
Yeah.
LS:
No, [Shoshone at 20:16]. I know there was a—the Pursleys used to live over here, too.
Himbaishe.
C:
Uh-huh. So, when you guys were growing up, [Shoshone at 20:29], your grandparents,
[Shoshone at 20:32] hakainuhi teniwaa? What did they teach you, or what did they say
to—what were some of their teachings?
AS:
Yeah. [Shoshone 20:38] She’d been taught a lot, about Indian ways and what.
C:
Can you share some of that with us today?
LS:
[Shoshone(?) at 20:49]
C:
Yeah.
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LS:
Okay. [Shoshone at 20:52] Himbaishen ______ newe napuiten ne. Tsoon newe teniwate,
you know? [Shoshone at 20:58]. You know, the bad things, all the bad things. Itsappe
[Shoshone at 21:08]. The scary! Mmhm.
C:
So they taught you to watch out for things, and not to do certain things. Did they give you
a reason as to why not to do those things?
LS:
But, you know, when you [Shoshone at 21:30] Itsanai, like, you go to jail for that. And
then, [Shoshone at 21:34]. That’s some ones, there’s lot of things. Good things, but I
can’t remember them. Tsaante newe teniwaken.
C:
So, it was the facts of life.
LS:
Mmhm. [Shoshone at 21:54] Don’t be laughing at people. Don’t be laughing when
you—they might put a curse on you with this. [Shoshone at 22:05] Mmhm. There’s lot
of things, lot of—go the good way. That’s how come I don’t really care about this booze
business. This liquor? I don’t really care for it. [Shoshone at 22:20].
C:
Oh, you had a house above the hospital up there?
LS:
Mmhm. Yeah.
C:
What kind of house did you have?
LS:
I think there was a log cabin.
C:
Oh, log cabin house?
LS:
Yeah, and then [Shoshone at 22:32]. It’s a building. That’s how I, you know, [Shoshone
at 22:36]. We used to eat in cans of whatever, you know? No spoons, we have to use our
fingers. Mmhm. Then, in the springtime, when they real itto—you know this little ditch
right here? The water [Shoshone at 22:55]. Then we carry water, run over there, and
rinse our, you know, whatever we eat in. Yeah. It’s a hard, hard life, yeah, what I came
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through. [Shoshone at 23:11], you know, the people drink tease [more]. And then you
see a lot of it, and you don’t want to do that. Himpaishe.
C:
Osen suwain hakate hinna hipi [23:21], what did they drink?
LS:
I don’t know! That’s what I used to think, you know? Where did they get their liquor to
get—because I know I used to hear them say that, you know, somebody gets it for them.
Then I used to hear them—
AS:
Bootlegger ko’i.
LS:
Bootleggers like Boocher Jess, hagan tease? And Tiptoe George.
AS:
Tiptoe George. [Laughter]
LS:
Charlie the Barber. [Shoshone at 23:48]. But anyhow, a long time ago, [Shoshone
23:50].
AS:
Yeah. [Laughter] They’re the Mountain City bootleggers.
LS:
I guess so, I don’t know.
AS:
That’s where they get their drinks.
LS:
That’s what I always wonder about: where did they get their liquor—like, them folk?
[Shoshone at 23:59]. Yeah. [Shoshone at 24:05]
C:
So, when did Mountain City—do you guys remember how Mountain City came to be?
AS:
That’s long time ago. That was before my day. It was built before my day. It was long
time ago.
LS:
Did they used to have carnival, huh, way up there?
AS:
Yeah.
LS:
Or whatevers. Rodeos.
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AS:
I must been around about, maybe 14, 15 years old? But it was already up, Mountain City.
So, I…
LS:
We never go anywhere, you know. We don’t go anyplace. In 1971 was the first time I
was ever been on the highway.
AS:
And that’s when, your, the grandparents—Old man Cavanaugh? That’s when they were
kids, were riding them ponies up there to Mountain City, for that carnival. [Laughter] Old
man was drunk, he got on one of them ponies and riding around with them kids, ride!
[Laughter]
LS:
They were silly, though, them old people.
AS:
So many people laughing! [Laughter] Only big guy in a bunch of them little kids!
LS:
They were funny, though. Silly guys, himbaishe, older people. They make you laugh. It
wasn’t like this, you know. They don’t fight or anything. Not that I know of, you know?
But now when, there’s just, when they drink, there’s fighting. Long time ago, I never see
those things. Yeah.
C:
So, what did everybody do? Were they all ranchers then, or how did they survive?
Hakane [Shoshone at 26:07] or what kind of work did they do?
AS:
Well, they used to work with the CC. They call them “CC.” They built this whole
reservation. The fence line, up through north, east, south, west. That’s their job to do.
Took them quite a while to do that, finish that fencing. This, real big. Go a long ways. I
don’t know how many miles, it go from big dam on over, clear back there. And from
there, across. This way, and this way. That’s how they—they used to work for only a
dollar and a half a day. Yeah, that’s how my dad used to work, for the CC. Dollar and a
half a day.
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LS:
And some people have a wheat farm. Yeah, himpaishe. They trade with the—well, we
had to couple trade over here at Williams’ store. William [Shoshone at 27:18].
Maybe—who had it first time?
AS:
Sherman’s.
LS:
Sherman.
AS:
That old lady.
LS:
They trade with her wheat—you know, their flour. They had flour mill here, too. Yeah. I
know my grandpa and my grandma used to bring their flour here and trade for food.
Mmhm. [Shoshone at 27:36]. Yeah. And they kept garden. Now, we don’t even have
gardens. Because we have canned food. [Laughter] Yeah, that’s how I remember. They
get along real good, too. They help one another. Now come they don’t. It’s real strange.
Yeah. Sometimes, when I wake up in the nighttime, I always say, “I wonder why people
don’t get along,” you know? They should all get along. Then we used to have horse—you
know, wagon, [Shoshone at 28:14]. Then we’ll, somebody’s walking, and we’ll pick
them up. [Shoshone at 28:22] Some people have cattle. Not real lots, though, huh?
AS:
Mm-mm.
LS:
They used to have returned heifers, tsu ha. Remember?
AS:
Mmhm.
LS:
[Shoshone at 28:34] They sell their thing, and then they pay that back. [Shoshone? at
28:40]. And then they used to have a sheep in here, long time ago. [Shoshone at 28:47],
they use that money for something, I don’t know what. Mmhm, yeah. [Shoshone at
28:54] I don’t know. Everything’s really changed. And then I always think that, you
know, our elders, when they were in the council, [Shoshone at 29:07]. And then they,
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[Shoshone at 29:12]. They all get along. And so, pass it on. [Shoshone at 29:18]. They
ask the tribe. And then they used to gather over here at the resource center. Sukkuna
gather, and then they tell the people what they went for—to Washington, D.C., or
whatever. Wherever they go. And they tell the people. [Shoshone at 29:34]
AS:
Well, they had them—they had maybe two, maybe three guys go for them outside. And
then, when they come back, that one guy will get up and tell the people what they went
for. [Shoshone at 29:49]. “That’s what we went for.” And then he’ll talk English, taibo
taikwanna. Tell them in English. Pretty soon, he’ll want to tell you in Shoshone.
[Shoshone at 30:05] Tell them in Shoshone. “I’m going to tell you guys in Paiute
[Paiute? at 30:11].” So, and then he’d tell them where they’d been to in Paiute, there.
And explain everything to them—to the people, to the tribe. They used to do that, long
time ago. But now, you can’t hear nothing about that. [Laughter] They won’t tell, no
matter where they’ve been to, they wouldn’t tell you. Nobody want tell you.
LS:
[Shoshone at 30:40]
AS:
Yeah, they tell you.
LS:
[Shoshone at 30:44]
C:
So, that’s when they had their moon houses?
LS:
Yeah. [Shoshone at 31:15].
C:
The women stayed away from the family when they were—during their period?
AS:
Yeah.
LS:
Mmhm. Then, they have to take a bath in a tub before they come to the house. That’s—
had to starve. [Laughter] They wash you. Then you feel clean when you come in the
house. But I never get to do that, but when I had my baby, [Shoshone 31:39]. I had to
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stay out. For whole month. Mmhm. That’s what they’re supposed to do. [Shoshone at
31:50] They live in the houses. That’s a good way, though, you know? To keep that up.
Then you don’t [Shoshone at 32:01].
AS:
[Shoshone at 32:09], like people, they [Shoshone at 32:12]. Some of them are strong.
They can take what’s coming, and they can take it. But some others don’t. They get sick
with it, [Shoshone at 32:23].
LS:
[Shoshone at 32:25]
AS:
Yeah. [Shoshone at 32:26]. Yeah, and hurt them so bad that—
LS:
[Shoshone at 32:32]
C:
So, who were the spiritual healers? [Shoshone 32:51]?
AS:
There was, that [Shoshone at 32:56]. John Damon.
LS:
John Damon.
AS:
John Damon… What’s the other guy?
LS:
Willie Dorsey.
AS:
Willie Dorsey. Yeah, Willie Dorsey.
LS:
Hugh Thomas.
AS:
Hugh Thomas.
LS:
And Alex Cleveland.
AS:
Alex Cleveland. And then that, Nat Paddy.
LS:
Yeah, Nat. [Shoshone at 33:18]
AS:
Yeah, and those were five of them. There used to be five Indian healers here.
LS:
Mmhm. Spiritual healers.
AS:
Yeah.
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LS:
Not going, there’s nobody.
AS:
Nobody. Nobody here.
LS:
Mmhm.
AS:
Well, there—
LS:
We went to [Shoshone at 33:34].
AS:
Yeah.
LS:
[Shoshone at 33:43], nothing.
AS:
Yeah, no place. I don’t think there’s any Indian doctors. Something, maybe in the Navajo
tribes, there might be some there. But not over here. That guy from, there’s one over
there in Fort Hall that I know. But he comes down through here. And then, every time he
comes down through here, he says—it don’t look too good up this way, he said. One
time, he came around this way, he said. He came through Elko—to Wells, Elko, down
this other way. Soon as he came up here by Wild Horse, he said, been getting darker and
darker this way. The way he looked at it. Coming along by the canyon, got over here.
This whole thing was dark, he said. This whole valley. Real dark. “Don’t look to good to
me,” he said. He’s a faith healer, sort of. He’s called Indian doctor. But he try to get rid of
it some way, he said. Also, he doctored a lot of people over here [Shoshone at 34:54].
Comes around. He’s a Shoshone. Talks Shoshone with you. [Laughter] Yeah. Talk real
good.
C:
Hagan nanihante? What’s his name?
AS:
[Shoshone at 35:08] that guy that came down on the pickup?
LS:
I don’t know. Can’t remember.
AS:
Hii no naniha—I used to know his name. Can’t remember now.
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LS:
Some kind of Sweeney.
AS:
Sweeney. Yeah, Sweeney something. Yeah, he comes down. He’s got his own truck
when he comes down this way. Said, “Every time I come here, everything don’t look to
good up this way.”
LS:
[Shoshone at 35:36]?
AS:
Yeah.
C:
Did he say why it didn’t look good, or how—
LS:
Black clouds going on.
AS:
Yeah, black clouds, he said, covering this valley.
C:
What’s it from? Did he ever say?
AS:
No. I don’t know, I don’t know.
LS:
He just didn’t say. He should have at least cleared it up for us. [Shoshone at 35:56]
AS:
That other one, too, that other Indian doctor that was here before, before him. They used
to—stays over there with us guys here. [Shoshone at 36:16], you know, the one that runs
that—that [Shoshone at 36:21].
LS:
Eagleheart, huh?
AS:
Eagleheart! Yeah. He said, he was telling me the same thing. He said it’s, don’t look
right.
LS:
I always wondered why they couldn’t do anything about it.
AS:
“I don’t know why it’s like that,” he said, “but it don’t look right to me.”
LS:
[Shoshone at 36:40]
AS:
Yeah, everything dark. He said everything’s not running right, he was telling me.
LS:
[Shoshone at 36:49]
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AS:
He could see a person.
C:
[Shoshone at 36:53]
AS:
He had a black handkerchief about, like that. Just like a x-ray machine. He’ll just hold it
loosely, like that. Look at you, and he’ll tell you. See what’s wrong with you. [Laughter]
That’s how good he was! His handkerchief was x-ray! [Laughter] Yep. And then after,
when he get done there, he’ll run a sweat bath. ‘Course, he gets it real hot. I was in there
with him, once, in that sweat bath? He put too much water on that rock. I can’t hardly
breathe! [Laughter] I let him a holler, “I can’t stand this heat, so I’m going to stick my
head out!” He let me out then. Then them other guys, they took it. “Yeah. I don’t know
how you guys could stand that heat,” I said. It’s real tough in there! [Laughter]
LS:
[Shoshone at 37:57]
AS:
Yeah.
LS:
But now, go in and they’re mixed, I think. [Shoshone at 38:05].
AS:
Yeah, you’re not supposed to mix it with ladies. Just nothing but men. And if the ladies
want to do it, they can do it on their own, they said. Nothing but ladies.
LS:
But everything’s changed. Those’ll change it, yeah. It’s hard nowadays.
AS:
They’re still doing it with ladies, now. These young generation, they’re still doing it with
them girls and that. But they’re not supposed to do. But… I guess never been taught or
something.
C:
So when they did the sweats long time ago, it was just one for women and one for men,
huh?
AS:
Yeah.
C:
And was there a leader? Somebody that was in charge?
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AS:
Yeah. This one person in there prays for you in there. He’s a main man. And the ladies
do the same thing. They get one lady to be praying, do the praying for them in there. But
no man is in there with them, just ladies.
C:
So they don’t—now, they do them both together, huh?
AS:
Yeah. Yeah, it’s this young generation. They—no matter what you tell them, they won’t
believe you. [Laughter] That’s the way we view the young kids, now.
LS:
[Shoshone at 39:37] No matter how you tell, you know, them not to be doing this and
that? They won’t listen to you. This long time ago, [Shoshone at 39:48]. I said, “It isn’t.
You’re supposed to carry it on to your kids” [Shoshone? at 39:55]. But, they don’t listen.
So I tell them, don’t be, don’t go out drinking, you know/ There’s a bad disease out there
nowadays, I told them. Better watch out. Be careful. Take care of your life. Mmhm. I
said, “I’m trying my best to take care of my life. I’m an older person now. I’m still
talking!” But they don’t listen to me. Mmhm. I don’t know about my grandson, I don’t
know if he’s listening to me or what. And I will tell him, “Don’t abuse girls. That’s not
nice.” Don’t abuse one another. [Shoshone 40:41] It’s hard, nowadays. Very hard. The
kids don’t listen to you. It’s upsetting.
AS:
Now, if you do tell them something, they said, “This is 1909!” That’s what—
LS:
[19]90?
AS:
Yeah.
LS:
[Shoshone at 41:04]
AS:
Yeah, that’s what they going to say. When you talking about it, it’s past already.
[Laughter]
LS:
They will say, “This isn’t the [19]50s, or”—
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AS:
This is [20]09, they say! Not in the [19]50s, they going to say. I heard three, a few, kids
say that to me. Try to tell them something, yeah. “Well, you know, it’s [20]09, now. The
one you talking about is way past,” he said. [Laughter]
LS:
You know, if the parents, they have to stand together to raise kids. If one says no, the
other one let them have the cars. And if I say no, he’ll let them use the car. And that’s not
right at all. I told them, “You got to be together to raise kids nowadays.” Right? Mmhm.
That’s what I been saying, but they don’t listen to me at all. Of course, some of these
days, they’ll—they’ll learn I hope. Because I told my boy before he passed on, I said,
“You’re the leader. And the kids are going to follow your footsteps someday.” See, now,
doing—they’re drinking now.
C:
Okay, in summary, Alvin and Lorraine, if you were to give your words of wisdom—I
guess is, that’s what we could call it—to the young people of today, what would you like
to say to them?
AS:
[Shoshone at 42:40] like I was saying, about that drinking. First thing I would say, about
drinking. Them kids, don’t want them—I want them kids not to be doing that. And then
mixing it up with that dope. Smoking. Want them kids to stay away from that. I mean,
there’s lot of it going on around here now. Main thing—that’s the main thing I would say.
Stay away from it. Try to stay away from it. Because they might not live long doing that,
too. But they got to think about their life—ahead. If they don’t think about their life, they
might just pass on. That’s what I would say, is quit that stuff. They could quit, in their
own willpower, they’ll quit. That’s what I would say. Just like in smoking. See, if you
want to quit, you could quit. Like I did, I just quit. Been lot of offers, lot of drinks offered
to me, but I just, I told them no. I quit this stuff already. That’s passed on. Smoking, too. I
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don’t smoke. That’s what them kids got to learn. Yeah, they got to quit that on their own.
Lot of that stuff. I don’t know what kind of pills they take, too. That’s another thing.
They mix it some way. Smoke that, and they they still gets into drugs. So that’s what I
would say to the kids. They’ll be all right. If they quit, they’ll be okay. The best thing is
to quit. Might be, some of it might be going in the school, too, I don’t know. Lot of them
kids there.
C:
Is there anything you’d like to add to that, Lorraine?
LS:
[Shoshone at 44:55] Aishen kwa’i, himpa’ha ______ some of these days, they might be
sitting in the leader place. That’s the way I look at it. [Shoshone at 45:07].
C:
So they should learn to work together as a team.
LS:
Yeah, mmhm. [Shoshone at 45:13] and don’t abuse one another. [Shoshone at 45:19].
But there’s more. [Shoshone at 45:26].
C:
And then how about education?
LS:
Yeah, [Shoshone at 45:32]. They need to [Shoshone at 45:34], I had to quit for my
younger ones, when I [Shoshone at 45:40]. And then I, in seventh grade, I went to school
in seventh grade, because I had to quit school for my younger kid, younger sisters.
[Shoshone at 45:56]. Yeah, Leah Manning used to tell me to come back to school.
[Shoshone at 46:03] Because, you know, [Shoshone at 46:10]. That’s the way I grew
up. Drinking. And I sure don’t care for that. [Shoshone at 46:17] You know? Come
home, and [Shoshone at 46:24]. I lived in fear the rest of my years. Yeah. [Shoshone at
46:34]. And then Ray Allen and Dawena over there were small, [Shoshone at 46:41]. I
was just afraid, [Shoshone at 46:46], for him to come in. You know, “Come in!” [46:51]
And I was real happy. [Shoshone at 47:15]
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C:
So cedar is used for, a medicine, and praying, huh?
LS:
Mmhm.
AS:
Yeah.
LS:
[Shoshone at 47:28] That’s what I did, on my own. Yeah. [Shoshone at 47:33]. You
know? When life is, when you have no kids, it’s real lonesome. [Shoshone at 47:53].
That’s the way I got my girl. Cutting school [Shoshone at 47:59].
C:
So you guys adopted a girl, huh?
LS:
Yeah. We adopted a girl. [Shoshone at 48:24] Just kept on working and working.
[Shoshone at 48:28]. You know, go hay. Cut hay and whatever with him. [Shoshone at
48:40]. It’s just, you know—[Shoshone at 48:44] so you have to be careful. [Shoshone
at 48:49]. You got to be careful, take care of your life. Their lives. [Shoshone at 48:55]
You got to trust one another, when you’re married. You trust your woman, right? Mmhm.
[Shoshone at 49:08]. You supposed to trust one another. Don’t say you want to go see
this one, [Shoshone at 49:15]. Life was tough for us, himpaishe. [Shoshone at 49:36]
ration clothes hannikai. Ration shoes, ration, everything’s rationed. Your sugar,
whatever. You know? When it comes here, it got the [Shoshone at 49:47]. Long time
ago. Yeah.
AS:
Now, over here at Sherman’s store, there. [__inaudible at 49:57__]
LS:
You know where the courthouse is? [Shoshone at 50:01]
C:
So who was, who gave up the rations?
LS:
I don’t know. [Shoshone at 50:14] from somewhere.
AS:
Yeah, brought them in [Shoshone(?) at 50:18]. They brought it in a truck sometime.
They give us so much sugar, coffee, all of that stuff.
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LS:
You get stamps for sugar, and you get pound, maybe a pound of it.
AS:
Yeah.
LS:
Pound of sugar. Have little cards for that. Mmhm. [Shoshone at 50:39]. It was for his
shoes, he had little stamp, and then, [Shoshone at 50:47]. [Laughter] Yeah. So he’d have
to wear boots.
AS:
What you’re not supposed to do, [Shoshone at 50:53]. [Laughter]
LS:
[Shoshone at 50:55]. Then later on, I’ll tell him, “[Shoshone at 50:59].” Mmhm, yeah.
Them grandparents so nice. You just [Shoshone at 51:07].
C:
So your grandparents were nice people, then.
LS:
Mmhm. Yeah, they were kind people. Then they always say, “You feed people, whoever
come visit you. Then, if you don’t have no food, if you have coffee, give them a coffee!”
[Shoshone at 51:38]. So I’m still like that, mmhm. [Shoshone at 51:43] Yeah.
[Laughter] [Shoshone at 51:50]. [Laughter] Yeah. [Shoshone at 52:01]. Mmhm, yep.
C:
Okay, well, I guess this concludes our interview for today, and I want to thank you, and
Lorraine, thank you, and Alvin, I want to thank you, for taking the time to share these
stories and your words of wisdom with us. So…
AS:
Yeah.
LS:
That’s what I really want, is the kids to, you know, be nice to one another, don’t abuse
one another. Leave this alcohol and leave the drugs out! Yeah. Just keep it out!
[Shoshone at 52:40]. Don’t let the enne’tsi [ghost; dangerous spirit] get ‘em, let the
Devil get ‘em. [Shoshone at 52:48].
C:
Yeah, aishen tsaa. [Shoshone at 52:55]
AS:
[Shoshone at 53:00] Told about everything.
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LS:
[Shoshone at 53:08] I just know the Itsappe. No, the Bear and the Deer [Shoshone at
53:18].
C:
Oh. Okay, [Shoshone at 53:23].
AS:
Yeah. [Laughter]
LS:
[Shoshone at 53:25]
AS:
Yeah, that’s what they say.
LS:
[Shoshone at 53:29]
C:
[Shoshone at 53:33]
AS:
[Laughter]
[End of recording]
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
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Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
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GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
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2006-2015
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Norm Cavanaugh
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Lorraine and Alvin Sims
Location
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Duck Valley Reservation (Owyhee, NV)
Original Format
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DVD and VOB format
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00:55:48
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http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/563
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Lorraine & Alvin Sims - Oral history (11/30/2009)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Lorraine and Alvin Sims, members of the Duck Valley (Sho-Pai) tribe on 11/30/2009
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Lorrain and Alvin Sims are both members of the Duck Valley Sho-Pai tribe. Alvin speaks first about his parents Edna Charles and Jack Sims and where they came from before moving to the Duck Valley reservation. He also spoke about how his father worked for the Conservation Corps. Moreover he speaks about his relative Captain Sam and how Duck Valley became a reservation. Both Alvin and Lorrain talk about the usage of traditional medicines, and the medicine/spiritual leaders who were traditional doctors within the tribe. Lorrain also speaks about the traditions surrounding right-of-passage and pregnancy. They both recall the traditional way that sweat lodges were also used. They also tell us about how items such as sugar, clothes, and food were rationed when they were younger. They end by cautioning the youth to keep away from drugs and alcohol.</p>
Video pending <br /> <a title="Lorraine and Alvin Sims Oral History Transcript" href="/omeka/files/original/cc71cefaafddeea7b0dfcb83d2bc679c.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read Lorrain and Alvin Sims Oral History Transcript [pdf file]</a>
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Great Basin Indian Archives
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 023
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
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11/30/2009 [11 November 2009]; 2009 November 11
Contributor
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Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
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Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017.
Consent form on file (administrator access only): http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/items/show/id/371
Language
A language of the resource
English; Shoshoni
CCC
Community
Conservation Corps
Crossroads
Duck Valley Reservation
GBIA
medicine man
ranching
Shoshone
Story
traditional ceremony
traditional medicines
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/b965b64509cb891eb3487f6579ba3b18.jpg
4225eef6ec37eff068ae5b839bc7e30d
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/6f59b3830b97effc7197139ec5224afb.pdf
e646eb888f2b5a6bef2ded3e69b0efe9
PDF Text
Text
Delores
Cummings
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
017
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
June
20,
2008
Owyhee,
NV
Great
Basin
College
•
Great
Basin
Indian
Archives
1500
College
Parkway
Elko,
Nevada
89801
hCp://www.gbcnv.edu/gbia/
775.738.8493
Produced
in
partnership
with
Barrick
Gold
of
North
America
�GBIA 017
Interviewee: Delores Cummings
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: June 20, 2008
DC:
Okay, my name is Delores Cummings. Shaw is my middle name. My parents are Marie
Jones and Kelly Shaw, Sr. My mother was from around the Golconda area. She was of
the White [Knife]1 clan. And my dad came from Paradise Valley, Nevada. And after that,
they both came this way. My mother came through—with her parents—came to
Tuscarora, where they worked, her mother worked, in various ranches, like, cleaning, and
cooking, and all of the things that were what people required of them doing on ranches.
My father worked on ranches, too. Well, her fathers did that. They worked in the hay
fields and everything. And somewhere along the way, I don’t remember my mother
calling my grandfather by his Indian name. I can’t recall that. But one of the ranchers that
they worked under took him in and named him Charlie Jones. That’s where the name
came from. In the Battle Mountain area, around in that area, there were Jones ranchers
there. And I’m assuming that’s where he got his name, then. And then, as they came from
Battle Mountain, they came over to—well, I’m getting mixed up. They started from
Golconda, and they worked their way over towards Tuscarora, where they got jobs and
everything. And then, eventually, they worked their way over here to Duck Valley. And
that’s my mother’s side. My dad came with his grandpa, who is the late Louie Dave’s
father. And he came over with them on horse and buggy. My father at that time might’ve
been about five or six years old. And he lived here until they died, his grandpa and
grandma, and he lived around different people around here. And believed that Joe Simms
was one of his uncles. And he lived with them. Because my dad always said Jack Simms
was his cousin. And as he grew older, my dad was sent to Chemawa Indian School, the
1
Ms. Cummings says “White River” here, but it seems to be a misstatement (see p. 3).
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boarding school. And that’s where he got his education. And he stayed around in that
area, working after he got out of school. He never completed high school or anything, but
he worked on farms over there. He was a good farmer. And when he came back to Duck
Valley, he had got his own little forty acres, and we had to clear that by hand—the
sagebrush and everything. And he, about in the [19]40s, I remember him having oat
fields and wheat fields. At that time, my mother was just a housewife. She took good care
of us. But going back to my mother again, when they first came over, she used to say that
they came over on wagons. They stopped in White Rock. One of my aunts, I believe it
was Katherine Jones—Kate Cota, the late Kate Cota, rather—she was born in White
Rock, coming over. When they got here, they made their homes out of white sagebrushes
and rye grass. They weaved the rye grass and lived in that. And right now, it’s over—the
place where they all lived was over there by Donald Jones’s. Where Donald Jones lives
now, in that area. They kind of all lived in little groups there, the family. Some of the
families that came over at that time was John Paradise and his family. And the Sopes,
the Strawbucks… My mother always said that Sopes were relatives of hers, too. I guess
back then, way back then, they had been living with one another, the Shoshones and
Paiutes. So… My mother is Shoshone and Paiute. My dad is Paiute. His mother was
Paiute, from Paradise. And they lived here, and eventually my mother and dad married.
And of course, I was born. I was the first in the family. And as I remember, in our little
homes, in order to keep warm during the wintertime, my mother used to put rocks, little
round rocks—[__inaudible at 7:19__] rocks—those rocks that we have. And during the
winter, she’d put them on the stove, and then she’d roll the rocks up in rags or whatever,
and then she’d put that in our beds. That was one way of us keeping warm at night. And
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we only had two beds. Them days, the big beds were double beds. And I think there was
about three people that slept in one bed, and three in the other. I believe we had a good
life then. My father and mother were very good providers. I think I was one of the more
fortunate kids around here. Some of our people, like I remember Darlene John used to
live up here on the hill going towards Paradise Points. And they just lived in little tents. I
remember sleeping up there, spending the night up there with Darlene and her sister and
her mother, and they were real poor, they were pitiful. They had just one stove. And she
just, she didn’t have wood, she used to just pull wood from around their house there to
keep warm on. And they never had much to eat. I remember her mother making gravy,
just plain old gravy, out of lard, and mixing it up with water, and flour. And they’d dip
their bread in it, and that’s what we had for our breakfast. I remember that so vividly.
And did I mention White Knife in there? Anyway, going back aways, from where my
mother came from, she was from the White Knife clan, which I’m real proud of. And I
remember, growing up, my mother had this rock. She used it when she did her hides, to
tan her hides. And I wish I still had that. We probably threw it away as kids. But we had
hard times, too. I can’t remember of anybody really being sick unless they died of
pneumonia. And probably, like some of the others were saying, I think there was typhoid
fever that killed a lot of people off over here. And my mother raised her nephew, who
was Bobby Jones, because his mother had died of that typhoid fever. And he was six
weeks old when he died, so she raised him until he became 18, until he died. It, to me,
everybody in the valley had cows and horses. There might have not been that many cows,
but I believe each family had a few head of cattle. And how they did it, they survived
with that much. They bought maybe shoes once a year, and you had to wear them,
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whether they got small on you or not, until after school. Usually everybody ran around
barefooted after that. And…
NC:
So how many brothers and sisters did you have?
DC:
Oh, I’ve got two sisters and one brother. We lost a baby, an infant brother. And, what else
should I say?
NC:
So as you were growing up, would your mom or grandmother or grandfather tell any
stories of creation stories, or any stories that you remember or recall of how things should
be and so forth?
DC:
Okay, my mother used to tell us stories. One was about the Itsappe and his brother, the
Wolf. And I can’t recall that too well. But every night, that was our bedtime stories. One
was—the one that I really especially liked was called, “The Mother Bear and the Mother
Doe and Her Fawn.” And that was my favorite. I should write a story on that sometime.
It’s something like the story that Beverly Crum told. It’s almost the same thing. Only, it’s
a little bit different than what she writes, from how my mother told it, or how I gather in
my mind. And…
NC:
Can you share that story with us?
DC:
Now?
NC:
Yeah.
DC:
It’s, it goes along for a while.
NC:
That’s fine, we’ve got time.
DC:
Okay. When they used to tell stories, you had to repeat to them almost everything that
you say. When they were telling it. Like, my mother used to say, “Himpaisen. Tepitsi
himpaisen. Soteen weta”—the big weta, the mother weta and baby. They lived up in the
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mountains. And the mother deer and her baby lived up there, too. And just like anybody
else, us Indian people, like Indian people, they had to go out and hunt for food for their
babies. So they had their little homes out there. I always pictured it as being a cave,
where they lived. And she said they used to, the momma deer and the mother bear used to
go out, and they’d gather what they could for their babies, and they’d bring it home, and
feed their babies. And they’d, while they were gone, out looking for food, the kids, like
all children, got out and played together. They did all kinds of things. They chased each
other around with sticks, and they’d be all dirty and everything when the mothers would
come home. And they’d always, like children, always got into mischief and everything.
Well, one day, the two fawns—there was two of them. There was two cubs, and two deer
fawns. Well, they were out—they got tired of playing, and they decided that they wanted
to do something a little bit different in playing. So they decided, “Well, we’re going to
smoke it. It’s going to be called ‘smoke out.’ We’re going to smoke each other out.” So,
in their houses, they went and put something in front of the house, in the door. They built
a fire inside. And they all took turns of going in first. The baby bears went in, and they
stayed in there until they couldn’t stand it any longer. You know how the smoke burns
your eyes and everything. If you start to cry and everything, then you let them out. This
went on for a while. And the little cubs would go in, too. Same thing would happen.
Finally, they sent the two bears in. And the two deer kept them in there a little bit too
long. After a while, it got real quiet in there. And they were crying, they says, “Let us
out! Let us out! Our eyes are hurting, are burning!” By the time they took the door down,
there they lay. They were both dead. They died of smoke inhalation. So they didn’t know
what else to do. The two baby fawns said, “What are we gonna do? What are we gonna
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do?” And then, so, they planned it. They went ahead and they put one cub on this side of
the door, and the other cub on this side of the door. And then, they went and put the bear,
the mother bear’s pisappen, huge on their faces. Dressed them up like that. And here
comes—that evening, when they came home, there was the mother bear, looking at them.
She said, “What’d you guys do? You guys got into my rouge!” She slapped them. One
fell over and didn’t move. And she went back and did the other one. Slapped the other
one. The other one fell over. And she was mad walking around. She finally realized that
her babies were dead! And she, right away, she started sniffing around, and looking
around. And she, right away, she knew what happened, because she followed the
footprints of the little fawns. And by then, when they got home, the mother deer started
looking for her fawns. Her babies. She took off looking for them. She followed them.
And the mother bear was sniffing along, she was tracking them. They were going on and
on and on. They went down, they were running along the—they knew that the bear would
come after them, so they were going as fast as they can. The younger deer was just barely
making it. But the older one was urging him along. They come across this river, then.
They said, “How are we gonna get across? How are we gonna get across?” I’m making
this short, now. And there’s that koonta, sleeping. A crane. He was sitting there sleeping,
and he had his legs crossed. He was sitting there sleeping, and then finally the deer says,
“Oh, we’re really, we’re running away from this mother bear. She’s after us.” And the
little fawns said, “Our uncle”—they were talking to the crane, that was their uncle—
“help us! We need to get across over there! How are we gonna do it?” He says, “Yeah,
I’ll help you. So he stretches out his long leg, and he puts it across the river. And those
two little fawns, they ran across the river. And then pretty soon, here comes the mother
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deer off the mountains. She seen that happening, so she went after them. And the old
crane was sitting there, half asleep, with his leg out across the river yet. She come along,
and she asked him, “I want a drink of water, I’m real thirsty.” So the crane says, “Well,
here’s my cup.” So she takes his cup, and she goes across on his leg, and halfway across,
she decides she’s going to take her drink. And when she was doing that, she took her
drink and she was watching the little deer going across on the other side, running. Well,
she took her drink, and after she took her drink, she went and hit the cup on the crane’s
leg, and hurt him. And he says, “Ataa!” He pulls his leg up, and the mother deer falls into
the river, and she’s carried away down the stream. And that was the end of the story.
[Laughter] But that’s just, I’m not saying it all the way like my mother had said it. I did
write it down somewhere, but I can’t remember—I think I let my sister have it. But she
hasn’t returned it yet, and that’s been a while, so hopefully I’ll get that back.
NC:
Yeah, that’s a nice story, Delores. Okay, in terms of, when you were growing up, were
there things that your mom shared with you as to how important it is for young girls
growing up to, type of practice, or whatever you should do in terms of getting into
ladyhood?
DC:
Mmkay. Well, this is what my mother did when I started my monthly flow: she said,
“You got to start learning how to take care of yourself. First thing you’ve got to do is go
out into the willows, and bring some willows home, and you build a fire. You heat your
water, and you take a bath in it. And you clean everything up that you slept in. You also
cannot eat any meat that is red,” like deer meat, beef, rabbits. Anything like that. The
only thing you were allowed to eat was vegetables maybe, if you had it, and maybe fish.
And then, too, you had to take care of your utensils that you used. You washed them and
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put them away. And that’s where it stayed. You will always use that, from the time you
become—when your flow starts again. And you couldn’t be around men. She always
said, “[Shoshone at 23:17]” [Laughter] You stay away from them until you’re through.
And after, too, after you have your baby, again, you stay away from a man for a whole
month. You’re not seen in public places with your child. You stay home and take care of
your child until you’ve passed that. And then, you cannot ride horse, is one of the things
that they always stressed. You don’t go anywhere hunting with your man, when you’re
on your monthly period. And what else? And you’re always next to your baby. Of course,
that’s how it was when we were, years ago—you didn’t have anything else but that. And
that kind of—set your babies two years apart. You don’t wean a baby until about two
years after, and that’s when most babies were born. Two years apart. Anymore,
sometimes you have your babies nine months apart. But I think that was a really good
thing. When you did that, you had to bring your—before my time, when my mother was
a young girl, she said they had what they called moon houses, hunnaikahni. That’s what
the Shoshones call it, hunnaikahni. And you stayed in there. You did a lot of sewing. You
took care of, maybe, your little brothers’ and sisters’ stuff that your mother taught you
how to sew. And too, we also had—listening to the other ladies, too, they talked about
blankets. Rabbit blankets. They say they sewed theirs, but I remember my aunt Anna
used to take the fresh rabbit and they twisted it some way. And then they kind of weaved
it, this way and that way. And then I guess they tacked it down, you know, with, I don’t
know, cord of some kind. Probably rawhide, is what I’m thinking. But I remember
sleeping under that, and like the other ladies were saying in their interview, it was just
nice and comfortable. And that’s all they had. And, let’s see…
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NC:
So did you ever watch your grandma or your aunt make those blankets, those rabbit
blankets?
DC:
No, I never did. I wished I had. But, I seen them do hides. My aunt Anna made beautiful
buckskin gloves. My mother made—she didn’t work with beads, but she made work
gloves, that the men use when they do their fences. And also—going back to, when, your
monthly flow, and everything, you couldn’t even go down to the Fourth of July grounds
if you were that way. You couldn’t be hanging around there. And one of our traditions,
here in the valley, was—this is going to be on the Fourth of July. Lot of people from all
over came to celebrate the Fourth of July here. Our people started making their shades
like a week ahead of time. And our Fourth of July grounds still exist down there. I think it
was somewhere else before they had it where it is now, today. But before you went to the
grounds, you had to purify yourself. We had little sweat huts—my mother said, back in
their days—and you had to clean up, clean yourself, before you went down to the
grounds. It was like a sacred grounds, I guess. And I thought that was good. And then, the
last night of—no, I shouldn’t say last night. The last day of, when we broke camp, they
would sing during the day, and then they went clear around. And it was like blessing,
blessing our grounds again for the next year. And that always stuck in my mind. I didn’t
really get to know my grandparents. My grandparents that I adopted was Willy and Lina
Wines. They were my grandpa and grandma. And they, she taught me a lot of stuff. And
hers was giving. She was always giving. And I think all of our people around here always
gave something. You know? Grandpa Wines used to buy us anklets. And that was to take
during the Fourth of July. He used to give me—and I used to get kind of jealous of my
brother, because he would buy him more than us girls. He bought him cowboy hat, and
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boots sometimes. Where they got their money, I’ll never know. Because our people
weren’t the richest. But those people always had money to give. And I think our grandpas
and grandmas always had a little money tucked away somewhere for each and every one
of their grandchildren, because they always had little bit of money to give. I’m—there
was a lot of handgame and cards, those days. We used to go to different homes, and they
gambled. And I remember my Aunt Daisy, before she went, she used to put this rouge on
her face. That’s to keep the spirits or bad medicines they brought against you. She was a
great believer in that. I’m proud to say, too, with our old people, they did leave us
something. And it’s making cradleboards. And today, that still exists. And I’d like to
mention those names of who the cradleboard makers were, and I start it with my aunt,
Daisy Teller, because she made my cradleboard for my first child. And that was a gift.
And she never charged me anything, she just gave it to me. Nowadays, cradleboards run
you to two or three, four hundred dollars, and even more. They’re decorated with
buckskin and beads. But Minnie Jones was the other one. Lucy Hall, Nellie Harney,
Rosie Dick, Elsie Hall, Jessie Charles, Alice Whiterock, Mamie Thomas, Allie Thacker,
Jessie Little, and… I’m not sure who else did, there probably was some more out there.
Today we’ve got Pauline Whiterock carrying on this tradition yet, and Rosie Shaw. And,
I believe Pauline has taught her grandchildren, and some of her—well, I guess just
grandchildren, because she didn’t have any. Oh yes she did; she’s got some of her girls
working on cradleboards, too, which is really nice.
I’m going to talk about death now. How, from years back, from what I seen, I believe a
lot of our Indian people practiced it. How they said they kept the body for five days.
Well, when my cousin Bobby died, that’s what we did. My mother kept him for five
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days. People came to our home when his body came back from Elko. And we kept him in
a tent, not a tepee—in them days, they didn’t have tepees. I believe tepees at that time
were used for just mostly peyote meetings. But anyway, we kept the body there at the
home for five days. We cooked all those five days. We usually killed the—my folks,
when Bobby died, they killed their cow, they butchered. And everything was given away.
They cooked—what was left after the funeral was given to the people around. With the
person that died, they took his clothing, his personal belongings, and they burned them.
They’d go towards the west, and they’d burn the clothes. That, I think, was a practice
from way back. But as I recall, one time my mother was telling me that when my dad’s—
my grandmother died, her one and only horse that she had, they took that horse after the
funeral, after the body was buried, they killed the horse on top of the grave. They sent
that horse, I guess, along with the person that died, to the other world. And I don’t
believe they practice those any more. But that was a good way. Lot of people had used
ashes. They felt that the spirits came back. We call it haantma [34:54]. I don’t know
them days what they called it. But there was a, they called it spirits, I guess. They’d get
ashes, and they’d put ashes around the house so the spirit wouldn’t come in. And then
they’d get that cedar, and they’d cedar your house out. That’s so that your dead won’t
come back and bother you. I think Lorraine did that to my—Lorraine and Alvin did that
to our house when my mother and dad passed away, different times. I felt real good about
that. You never felt that they would be around, and they never were.
NC:
So when they did the cedar, did they smoke it, or did they just leave it around, or what
did they do with it?
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DC:
They smoke it. They build little fire, and then they, where the ashes are still hot, they
sprinkle the cedar on them, and then they go through the house, in each room, and they
pray, and they say, “You’re gone now, and you’re in a different world now, so just go on.
They’ll be all right here. Your family will be okay.” And I experienced that with what
Lorraine and Alvin did for us, and that was really appreciated. I think it helps you,
sometimes. Anymore, when somebody dies, what do we do? We go out and get drunk,
and we try to forget about our people that way. We cry and everything. But I believe that
really helped me, when I lost my folks. So that was a good thing. And one thing I think
we’ve lost now is our medicine men. Some of our medicine men that I remembered
was—I’ll name them. One was Alex Cleveland. John Damon. Billie Shaw. Hugh
Thomas. And there might be some more out there that I don’t know of. But that’s been all
gone. And I wish that somehow—I think you had to be gifted in order to be a medicine
man. And I don’t know how that was, whether they named those people, agreeing that
they, this is what they were going to do, or what. I don’t know. But, I’m glad that we still
carry on the peyote tradition. It hasn’t gone away. In fact, I believe it’s coming back. A
lot of our people have gone into that. I do believe it’s helped in a lot of ways, especially
now with meth and everything out there. Some of our younger people have gone into
that. And I’m really proud to say that this has helped them. Some of my relatives, I
believe, have gone into the peyote meetings, and I believe it’s helped. And we also, the
Sundance still exists here, too, and I think that is a good thing, too. That we have
Sundances. And I believe that, to me—I respect all that. That’s their tradition. I wished I
could be a Sundancer; I believe that’s a real hard thing to do! But I’m always there to—
what’s the word for it, now?—to support them along the way. Same way with, when they
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have their peyote meetings. I’ve tasted the juice, and it’s helped me, it has made me feel
good. I haven’t done the other, where they eat it. It’s very bitter. And I have a lot of
respect for those people. I think they’re kind-hearted people, the peyote people. When my
folks were sick, they always remembered those people out there, no matter who they are.
If they were ill, if one of your relatives was serving in the service, they always
remembered them. They prayed, they prayed to the Great Spirit, that they be safe. I know
my grandson—my great-nephew, I call him my grandson, it’s my sister’s grandson—
Kendrick Owyhee. He went over to Iraq two times. And he had difficulties. But with
those prayers, I think it really helped him. He was, I’m really proud of him right now.
He’s a sergeant now, still in the service. I believe he’s making it his career. But I think
with the help of those people, the medicine people out there, they came in and helped.
Even Pete Putra, he came in the day before my grandson went to Iraq for the second time.
Pete went down to the house, and he prayed for him. And I believe that helped him, also.
And I’m just proud of what he’s done in this life, so far.
NC:
Are there any medicine men, or healers, that you know of today that practice healing
people here in the valley?
DC:
I’m not too sure, but some of them come in and they pray for you with their own—maybe
not medicine, but they just pray to the Great Spirit that you’re helped. It’s just like going
to church, I guess, where you’re asked for blessings, and sometimes they’re not really
involved with peyote and all that. I believe lot of times, when you go out and pick up
some medicines like the roots—the antappitseh kwana, and totsa—those are healing
stuff. And usually, what our people do—at least, that’s what my mother did, is when we
went out to get totsa, she’d talk to it, to the totsa, and ask that it would help us in some
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way. We use totsa in smoking when we got a cold, and then when it’s dry we use it like
tobacco, I guess. And they even cook it. They boil it. And with that, they put it on your
wounds, if you’ve got a sore that’s not healing properly. Or sometimes, I remember, my
mother got this totsa, and she gave it to little Stevie Hall. Stevie Hall had this baby—I
call it a “baby disease.” It was, something was wrong with the body at that time. You get
it on your cheeks real bad, and some on your legs. And my mother used to—well,
Stevie’s mother said, “I’m getting tired of this, now!” Because I kept encouraging her,
“Why don’t you try that on him? That might help his face.” Little guy would be sitting
there, digging, scratching his face. So she finally says, “I’m tired of all this. Will
Grandma help me?” And I says, “Sure, take him over there.” So they boiled it, and they
put that on him, and they prayed with it and everything, and she sent Judy home with that
medicine, and she put it on his face. And it cured it! And I think a lot of people did—they
were healers, I might say. The same way with the antapittseh kwana. And when my sister
was sick, laying in the hospital, she was paralyzed from the shoulders down. Some kind
of a disease of the nerves, I guess—because she couldn’t walk for a month. In them days,
too, the hospitals thought that peyote was bad. Or any kind of Indian medicine. But my
mother used to take a jar of that. They just kept my sister in the hospital for about nine
months up here. And she used to boil that antapittseh kwana. It’s just leaves. And she
used to have her drink that, with a straw. And my mother noticed that when she started
doing that to her, she had catheterization, so she wouldn’t be wetting her bed. And it
cleared it up. Her pee became real clear. Eventually, my sister started walking again. And
maybe it was through that, too, but she got blessings from Guy Manning, and Tom
Premo, and then—Tom Premo, and who was the other man? Louie Dave. They went up
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and blessed her. They anointed her with oil. And after a while, she started walking again.
So they were healers, too. In the whiteman way, through the church. And I believe that
we should always respect religion in some way. Because I believe it’s helped.
NC:
Okay, next, in closing, Delores, what are some—I guess advice, or important things that
you’d like to pass on to your grandchildren, or to the young people, that are important to
you, that you think that they should be made aware of, and that they should maybe
practice or… along that line?
DC:
Well, one thing I got for my grandchildren, and I gave my relatives around here to use—
they’re all relatives here, in some way—is, have respect. I think that respect can take you
a long way, when you respect everything around you. You respect your elders. You
respect your mother and father, and you listen to them, regardless of whether you don’t
like what they’re telling you. They may have been through it before, and they don’t want
you to be doing what they had done. And this is one reason why they would like for you
to be better. And respect food, healthy foods. Eat that instead of junk food. We’ve got
some hard times coming. I think it’s almost starting now, I think that’s happening. And
one thing I really like: I talked with some of my grandchildren, [__inaudible at 47:49__]
a little bit with Rachel’s boys, but—respecting a woman. I’ve told them that. You come
from a woman. You were born through a woman. You’re part of your mother. And you
don’t go and take a girl out and take advantage of her. And then make fun of her. Don’t
go with anybody else and rape anybody, gang a girl. That is very wrong. And that’s one
thing that I’ve talked with them. I’m hoping that the rest of the kids around will do that.
And one thing that I have done, which I am doing now, is I take my little grandson,
Monty, to the senior citizen’s when I can. And he’s got to go over there and shake the—
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“grampies” and the “grammies,” he calls them—their hands or hugs them. And he goes
over there, and he empties their plates and put it in the trash. And so, I think that’s my
way of trying to teach respect to him. So he could help them as he get older. I’ve noticed
sometimes some of the kids will say, “Who’s that?” And they don’t know. And I always
say, “You don’t say that! You know everybody here! If you don’t know them, they needs
something done, go over there and ask, and say, ‘Well, I’m Delores’s grandson. Can I
help you?’” Or something. And—I feel old! [Laughter] But, I think respect is something
that we should all do. And sometimes, we have our bad days, maybe this person is
hurting and they may growl at you sometimes. But diabetics are bad. They have bad days.
You don’t know when they’re having good days. Sometimes, like before when my mom
was sick with diabetes, and would go down there and start talking, you know, “I’m happy
to be here with you.” I’d ask her, “How you doing mom?” She’d say, “Lousy!” And that
tells me that she’s not feeling so good. She’s hurting somewhere. And you have to
respect that. You just don’t turn around now and walk off or anything. But I think we
have to show respect, and not lose that. I think a long time ago, our older people did have
respect for one another. That’s about all, I guess.
[End of recording]
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
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Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
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GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
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2006-2015
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
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Norm Cavanaugh
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Delores Cummings
Location
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Owyhee, NV [Duck Valley Reservation]
Original Format
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DVD and VOB Format
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00:50:30
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http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/459
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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Delores Cummings - Oral History (06/20/2008)
Subject
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Oral History Interview with Delores Cummings, Western Shoshone from Duck Valley Reservation, NV, on 06/20/2008
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Delores Shaw Cummings was the daughter of Maria Jones and Kelly Shaw Sr. Her lineage is that of the Dosa Wihi (White Knife) clan. She explains her family’s journey towards Duck Valley Reservation by means of a horse and buggy. She describes growing up on the Duck Valley Reservation, and the native traditions that were practiced in regards to the rights of passage and death. She also tells us a story of the Mother Bear and the Mother Doe and Her Fawn as told to her by her mother. She also speaks of the traditional practices associated with the Fourth of July gathering in Duck Valley and the peyote meetings. She goes on to leave a message for the younger generations – respect.</p>
Video pending <br /> <a title="Delores Cummings Oral History Transcript" href="/omeka/files/original/6f59b3830b97effc7197139ec5224afb.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read Delores Cummings Oral History Transcript [pdf file]</a>
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archives
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 017
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
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06/20/2008 [20 June 2008]; 2008 June 20
Contributor
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Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
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Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017
Consent form on file (administrator access only): http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/items/show/321
Language
A language of the resource
English
Community
Crossroads
Duck Valley
folktale
GBIA
ranching
Shoshone
Story
traditional medicines
traditions
-
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361216bbd1d7027551c78ef95335be36
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/e00c728b8423a3852003888a38ab8462.pdf
eab8e0617deb77c60e97e9a7a1fc5736
PDF Text
Text
Darlene
Hooper
Dewey
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
046
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
April
10,
2015
Yomba,
NV
Great
Basin
College
•
Great
Basin
Indian
Archives
1500
College
Parkway
Elko,
Nevada
89801
hDp://www.gbcnv.edu/gbia/
775.738.8493
Produced
in
partnership
with
Barrick
Gold
of
North
America
�GBIA 046
Interviewee: Darlene Hooper Dewey
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: April 10, 2015
C:
Today, I am out on a trip to Yomba Western Shoshone reservation. And it’s out here, in a
desolated place in Nevada. And I’m getting close. And today, I will be interviewing an
elder out here. But it’s a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful landscape, as far as mountains, and
open spaces, and—can’t ask for any more.
This is a sign alongside the road on the way to Yomba. Getting close to Yomba. Here’s
another outcropping. Believe it was an old barn or homestead. And what’s left of it.
This is downtown Yomba.
D:
I’m Darlene Hooper Dewey. I’m from Reese River Valley, the Yomba Shoshone
Reservation. And I’m—I’ve lived here, I’m born and raised here. And my mother and
father, Art and Alice Hooper. My grandparents—my tsoo and my toko is Bill Kawich and
Jenny Kawich. My father’s mother and father is Joe Hooper and Annie Woods Hooper.
And we, Reese River Valley was a luscious valley with a lot of vegetation. The valley
was full of meadowgrass, wild grass, and it was really high, above your knees, when they
first came in for the reservation. And there was a lot of snow. Snow that lasted until the
spring. And there was a lot of different plants here. The Natives here, that lived in this
valley, they lived throughout the river, here and there. And that was in, before the
ranchers came in. And then, the population started to decline. In 1881, ranchers took over
some of the land. They had around eighteen ranches in the valley. The Newe people
worked for the ranchers. And in 1936, the land was purchased for a reservation. And we
are located central Nevada. And we’re between two mountains: Toiyabe Mountain on the
east side, and Shoshone Mountain on the west side. And there was a river that flowed
northward through the valley, and as of today we don’t even have any more water, and so
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there’s no river. So, I don’t say “Reese River,” I say “Reese Valley.” So, in 1936, the
reservation started. They purchased four ranches from the ranchers, and with the help of
the Western Agency—Stewart, Nevada. The superintendent was Bowler. And they
formed a council to get some equipments, and they went under the IRA. And my mother
was a spokesperson, and she was also the interpreter for the ones that didn’t understand
how to read, or what they were talking about. And she did a lot of traveling. And the first
ranch was, the lower district is what they called it, and that was Bowler Ranch, and that
was in 1937. And there was twelve families that moved in to Bowler Ranch. And there
was a house there, and they put up tents, and they lived there around that house. And the
second ranch that came in was the Doyle Ranch, and that was on the upper reservation.
So they call it the upper district. And that one had 12,201 acres. And Derringer came in
1940. And in 1941, Worthington Ranch. And that had 957 acres. The Bowler Ranch
where they stayed, there was twelve families, but in 1939, the brick homes were coming
in at that year. And our family moved down into the lower district. And we lived there for
a while. And our family was large family; there’s thirteen children counting me, I’m the
thirteenth one. And some of the children, they were not born here in the valley. There
was four of us that was born here in the valley. One was born at Bowler Ranch, and then
another one down at the Bradys, where the Brady Ranch is now. And then the two of us
up here at the building that’s down here now, that’s the—
U1:
Derringer.
D:
Derringer Ranch. That’s where I was born. And my grandmother, she was the one that
helped my mom, and so the four younger ones, we were all born here in the valley. And
later on—we had moved up to the upper reservation. That’s the Doyle Ranch. And that’s
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where I was raised. And my father did a lot of ranching, so he was—we had to get up
early in the morning and get our chores done. At the time, when they started the
reservation, there was a school that was—where the children had gone to school, they had
six Hooper kids, four Bud Decker kids, two Bobb kids, and two Jackson children. And
altogether, with the children from the ranches, there were fifteen children that went to
school there. That building is no longer there. And later on, they’ve gone to the Ione
school, which school that I had started to go to school. I think I went there first and
second grade. And there, we went to school with some of the white children that lived in
that area. And there were also a small village that was there in Ione. When you go there
now, you can still see some of the structures there. And right now, Ione has only two
families that live in that vicinity. In 1939, the brick homes were built. And there may be
around twelve brick homes that came in. The first tribal council they formed was: James
Bobb—he was the chairman, and Bud Decker, Willie Williams, Willie Bill, Wixon
Charlie, and Harry Frank. And my mother was the secretary, Alice Hooper. And they
formed the by-laws and constitution. And they were able to secure the reservation land
and loans under the IRA, and then, in 1940, they were able to borrow 2,400 to buy cattle
and whatever else they needed. In 1940, they purchased three hundred head. In two years,
they totalled 1,554 head of cows. And that was in 1944. And they taken them different
areas, to Ione, Gabbs Valley, and BLM, and the Forest Service, to graze their cattle. And
they also had springs that they had—different springs where the reservation had—and
down the years, they started to lose their springs. The BLM was taking over some of the
springs. So now, they hardly have any springs left. There may be around thirty-two
families here, and they have—we have twenty-four HUD homes, that is rentals. And we
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don’t—during the time the reservation first started, there was a school here. I don’t
remember exactly how many children were here at the time, but they closed down the
school and relocated the children to Gabbs. So, the Gabbs school is around thirty-two
miles from here, and they travel on the bus every day back and forth to school, to Gabbs.
And over there, they have grammar school and high school.
Fandangos that we used to have, now they call it “powwows.” But that’s a different way
of dancing. Our Fandangos, they did a lot of praying and dancing, different way of
dancing, where they took turns singing. And they sang about their, the weather, about
their snow and their rain, and their way of living—like, being happy, and having a good
time. And we don’t have that anymore. I would like to see that come about. Here in the
valley, when they first had the reservation going, we did have Fandangos up on the lower
district, and that was where we lived. And they went four days—well, mainly four nights,
dancing. And people from different areas came. And they all took turns singing. And they
had games for the children, and games for adults, and handgames. And card games. They
all enjoyed each others. And we don’t see that anymore. I’m not too sure of the year
when they stopped the Fandangos. It may be in the late [19]40s, or early [19]50s, was
when they stopped that Fandangos for some reason. And they also had rodeo at that time.
So, that’s how we all got together, and had a good time. And that may be the reason why
we don’t have our weather. And we are all, should get together and have a good time.
And our language has gone away. We don’t do our language. We don’t, because we were
punished for speaking our language when they did have the school here. And the
children, I believe, would be, from the fifties on down, they’ve gotten away from the
language. When you speak your language, it seems to—if you and your children
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understand your language, they seem to listen more. And you don’t know how to correct
the children, because you don’t know how to speak to them anymore. All my children,
they don’t know. But my grandchildren, I tried to, here and now and then, I speak
Shoshone to them, and they say, “What’s that? What’d you say?” And I’d tell them what
it meant.
I would like to keep teaching the language, which we have. I go down to the tribe twice a
week, and I—sometimes I get a little, a few people there that’s interested. And the others,
they don’t seem to be very interested in it. And also, learning about the plants, and the
food, and the way people had survived. We’re survivors. Our people, our grandparents
from way back, they’re survivors. And that’s reason why we’re still here. And that’s what
I tell them, you know: “You’ve got to be proud to be who you are. Don’t—when
someone says something about, ‘Hey, you’re an Indian,’ you know, and say, ‘Yes, sure!
This is where I’m from, and I’ve been—I’m from here, and we are survivors!’”
There was a lot of vegetation here at one time. And I tell—when we go up in the
mountains, we go up and just take a look at the area, and I’d see what’s there—what I
know. I don’t know too much about what all was here at that time, but what’s left here, I
see that we have four different kinds of sagebrush. Different sagebrush, like, for the sage
grouse—we call it sagehens? That’s our food. And that’s also the sagehen’s food. And
we use that for medicine. My mother used to use a lot for, like, colds. Put it on your
chest, or either—you know, take a good smell of it. It clears your throat. And she also
used to use it to put on her head for headaches. And for bites. You could put it on, like, if
you got stung by a bee or something, you can chew it and put it on there. And that’s what
we used for our—sagebrush is good, and they also was good for clothing. You find the
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long sagebrush that’s tall. You peel off the bark, and you stitch it together. And that was
what they used for clothing long time ago when there was no material. And they also
made their shoe. And different things you can use to—you can weave with the bark. So
that, our sagebrush, is a lot of different things that you can use sagebrush. It is very
important that you learn how to use sagebrush, and sometimes you hear people, they get
after the sagebrush. I’ve worked with some people that don’t like the sagebrush, because
it does grow all over. And we have the rabbitbrush, which you can use—in the fall, they
bloom, and you can use the blossoms. And that is also used for medicine. And you can
also use that for baskets. Small baskets, whatever kind of basket you need. And then, we
have the balsam root, sunflowers. And balsam root is close to the sunflowers. You have
the Indian tea. You boil it, and drink it, and that is good for, like, to purify your blood, or
whatever illness you have, you can drink your Indian tea. And you have your wild roots.
It would be, well, I’ll go back to our plants. The mint, the wild mint you have, and the
spearmint that grows. You can use that as tea. And then we have stinging nettles, and
that’s also for medicine. And the stinging nettles, you boil it and drink that as a tea. And
you also have your Indian paintbrush, and your lupines, which is good for your colds, and
for headaches, or for coughing. You could always use your wild iris. And we have a lot
of that; that grows in the fields, or by the streams, by the creeks. And what I was told, I
don’t know what part you use, but it’s good for toothache. And there, you have—we have
wild yarrow, wild rose. Use the rose hips. And you can also make, you can also have that
as a jelly. And for—and we also have totsa that grows in the mountains. And totsa, that’s
good for your cold, and you boil it, and it’s also good to purify your system. And you can
also smoke it: dry it, shave it, and smoke the totsa. We have parsnips, and columbine.
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And our trees, we have around this area, we have mahogany. Mahogany, you scrape the
bark off, and you use that for tea. You can dry it, and use it later on when you need it.
And it’s—and then, we have our pinenut trees. We have plenty of pinenut trees here. And
you can use the pitch, and that’s good for, like, if you had a cut, or if you have a cut that
doesn’t heal, you can put that on it. Or you could use it for your water jugs, to cover the
water jugs, to hold the water. And a long time ago, we used to use it as, just pick it off the
tree, and chew it, and use it as gum. So, our pine trees is very important, and it also gives
us a lot of pinenuts and keep us going. And then, we have the cedar, the juniper. And you
pick off the juniper seeds, and that’s some, another medicine. Or, you can use it for
smudging. And we also have cottonwood trees. And birch, we have birch up in the higher
mountains, and we use that for cradleboards, for the frames, because it’s nice and strong.
Once it dries, we use that for cradleboards. And we have the willows, we have a lot of
willows, and we also use that for cradleboards. Or whatever kind of basket you need, like
your pinenut cleaning basket, and your big burden baskets—which, you don’t see people
use it anymore. But a long time ago, this is what our people, our ancestors, used. They
used all these supplies because they had to. There’s no way they would’ve survived
without using all these different things that we have in the valley. We are surrounded
with a lot of things that we don’t really, anymore we don’t really realize how our people
have survived. And our wildlife, we have deer, antelopes, fish. Lately, we’ve had elk.
And rabbits. Sage grouse. And I always tell the kids when we go out, everything’s alive.
Everything has life. Everything was used for our people. And I tell them, this was our
grocery store. Our—you know, we didn’t have to, they didn’t have to go and buy it. It
was here. It was here for them to use, and that’s how our people have survived. We don’t
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have anything—clinic, or stores, or school, or—we don’t have any of that here. We have
to travel to Fallon, and that’s like two hours from here. And we have CHRs that will
transport, and they have a clinic in Fallon that Yomba Tribe is, they can go to that clinic.
When we were growing up, I was not sick too much. But whenever we were ill, my
mother took care of us. And she did use her—you know, the way she was taught, and
things that she had here she used on us. So, I’ve never really been to a dentist, or the
doctors. And I was so afraid of them. Only time we see the doctors was when they came
out to give us our shots. Different—every year, they would come out and give us our
shots for, like, smallpox, or—I can’t remember what all they had, but that’s what they
used to do. But I’ve always been afraid of doctors.
Recently, we had Roger Ike come, and had shown us how to make cradleboards. And one
person, she was so excited that she was able to do a cradleboard, and how to start it, and
how to get out and look for the willows. She didn’t even know what kind of willows. And
that was one thing that was really good about Mr. Ike coming and showing us how to put
a cradleboard together. And when I was young, I was never interested in doing any
basketry or sewing, or beadwork. My mother, she did a lot of that. And she tried to show
me. But I was never interested. She’d say, “Sit down. I want to show you something.”
And she’d show me how to split it, but I’d try few times and it would break, and off I’d
go. I wasn’t a person to sit and try to keep trying it. But I watched her. She showed me
how to pick, and when to pick, and what to look for. So I used to help her pick the
willows. So, later on, when I thought about it, and I seen a lot of willows growing, I go,
“Hey! You know, I want to try it.” So, I sat down, and I kept at it, kept at it, and now I
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can split willows. Not as good, but I can, you know, I know how to do it. And I showed
my daughter, and my grandson, and they do willow work.
So I’m still sewing, now and then. Not as much as I used to. When I first started, I was
sewing for a small sewing factory. That was in Bishop. And I remember I didn’t have a
job when we moved to Bishop, and they had an advertisement for when they needed
sewers. And I went down and I talked to this lady, and she said, “Well, we have a job for
you if you want it.” And I said, “Not sewing!” And I was never really into sewing. And
then I thought—second thought, I thought, “What am I talking about? I need a job.” I
said, “I’ll take it.” So I went to the guy, and he had a little factory going, and it was
making covers for computers, and cases for computers. And there was three of us that
went there for interview, and he had picked me out. So I started sewing for him. And
then, down the few years, my daughter was going to high school and she needed some
money to go to—she was selected to go to Hawaii with some of the seniors that was
going to Hawaii, and she didn’t have any money. So I said, “We can figure something
out.” And there was a Pendleton in my closet that I didn’t use, so I thought, “Oh! I’m
going to do something with this.” So, I had a hard time cutting it, you know? I couldn’t
cut it. “I cut it, I might ruin it,” because I wouldn’t know what to do. Then I thought
about making a jacket, a Pendleton jacket. And this was when there was hardly any
Pendleton jackets out. So, I made a Pendleton jacket, and we raffled it off. She had more
than enough to go on. And the people seen that, and they said, “Can you make me one?”
And then, I started making vests instead of jackets because it was taking too much, and
the Pendleton is pretty expensive. And then, someone wanted a bag, and so I made a bag
to match the jacket. And then, next thing I know, there was everybody wanting bags. And
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then, I thought about, “What am I going to—am I going to have a little business making
bags?” And so, my friends and I, we got together and we thought about, “What can I
name my little business?” So, one morning, I woke up, and it kept coming to me:
“Kawich.” I go, “Oh, yeah! I’ll use that.” Because he was a chief that was not really
recognized. So I used it. So that’s one I’m still using, Kawich, on my bags. And it got
where I got too busy making bags, and it just got too much time putting in. And I got
tired of it. So, I kind of cut back on it. But I still, you know, people still now and then,
they said, “Hey, I want a Kawich bag. Can you make me a bag?” I go, “Oh, I’ll see.”
[Laughter]
Chief Kawich was my great-grandfather. He comes from down at the Kawich Range.
That’s down on Nellis Air Force Base. And at that time, when they lived there, there was
no base. They lived down there freely. And he had a band in, I don’t even know what
year it was. But when the settlers came, they’d taken his band, his people, out of that
area. It was probably already, they wanted it as a base. I don’t know why, what the reason
was. But they were taking his people into California, taking them out of that area. And he
had turned them around and brought some back, and they were—it was the cavalry that
taken them out of there. And at that time, there was a river, down—Owens River. And
now it’s dry, because the water, there’s a water piping down into lower California, down
into the southern California. But anyway, they had them crossing that lake. But he had
taken some of his people back towards his land. My mother’s from that area. And now,
it’s in 19—late 1940s, the Nellis Air Force Base had taken over, and there were several
other families that lived in that area. So, they had to move. They moved them out of there
and fenced the area. And we’re unable to go in that area. You have to have permission to
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go in there. And he was the chief for that area. And, so, once they came and made a map
of that location, so now there’s a mountain, valley, springs, different areas that’s named
after him. And that was his only—that was his, all he had as a name. He didn’t have any
other name. And his son is Bill Kawich. After he passed away, he was the younger chief.
And he was my grandfather. And the old man, the Chief Kawich, he’s buried there
somewhere near that mountain or on the mountain, of Kawich Mountain. I was able to go
in that area, the Nellis Air Force Base, because there was an archaeologist that the base
has. And he kept running into all these artifacts—baskets, whatever he was seeing—and
he asked different ones to come in and explain why these things were there. All the
grinding rocks and different things that’s there, and there’s rock caves. They call it the
rock shelters. And most of the rock shelters are up higher. And they always say, “Well,
why did they want to live so high?” It was because there was water. There was plenty of
water that was in the valleys. So, I’ve had chance to go down into Nellis. But whenever
we go into Nellis Air Force Base, they always have guides. They never leave you alone.
You’re unable to take pictures, you can’t take cameras. We’ve gone to different
shelters—I know this one shelter, it was facing toward the east, the opening. And there
was several baskets, maybe four or five different baskets in there. And they had, looked
like it was cedar branches put over it, and they were all mashed, so you couldn’t tell what
kind of basket it was. But you can tell they were different kind of baskets—you know,
different shapes. And it was kind of sad there. There was a, like—to me, they asked,
“What do you think, why this is here?” And to me, I said, “I think the person is buried
under there.” Just the feeling that I had. And the baskets that’s there was her belongings.
And that’s what our people, that’s what they did. They break up your baskets, whatever
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you used, that way someone else won’t use it after they pass on. And that’s how I
pictured it. But there’s a lot of things there, and one area was where they had the grinding
rocks turned over, and it was another rock shelter. And you can see the little rock circle
there where they had fire going. But they had these different rocks where they turn them
over. And the way I see it, someone of the family would come along, and when they’re
going through, they would use it, and just leave it there again and go on. So, it’s really
interesting in there. You don’t see people coming in there and collecting, because it’s all
fenced-in. That’s one thing I see about Nellis Air Force Base is, it’s protected. But only
thing, it’s kind of bad and it’s kind of good. But that was how we, different of our Native
people got to go into Nellis to look at the things that’s there, because that archaeologist
wanted to know why they were there.
This song was originated—my uncle, his name was Dave Clifford. He used to sing this
song, and what I was told was that you’re not to sing this song until he passed on. So ever
since he passed on, this song was sung at different things like rodeos, and maybe at the
powwows, or the language conferences. This song was started at the beginning.
[Singing and drumming from 44:45-45:33]
[End of recording]
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
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Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
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GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
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2006-2015
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Norm Cavanaugh
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Darlene Hooper Dewey
Location
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Yomba Reservation, NV [Reese River: Dewey residence]
Transcription
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http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/514
Original Format
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DVD, MP4, and AVI format
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00:45:53
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Darlene Hooper Dewey - Oral history (04/10/2015)
Subject
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Oral history interview with Darlene Hooper Dewey, Western Shoshone from Reese River [Yomba Reservation], on 04/10/2015
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Darlene Hooper Dewey is a Western Shoshone who was born and raised in Yomba, Nevada. She gives a detailed account about how and when contact between the indigenous and immigrants took place, and how many of the Shoshones worked for many of the immigrants on the ranches or homesteads. Darlene then tells us about her family and others within the area and the creation of Yomba reservation as part of the Indian Reorganization Act (1934), and how the families purchased cattle. She also speaks about the history of the Fandangos, and the different types of native plants and their uses. Darlene then speaks about her Great-grandfather - Kawich - and how he was honored by becoming the name of her business. Dewey also tells us about the archeological importance of Nellis Air Force Base.<br /> <br />Interviewed by Norm Cavanaugh</p>
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Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archives
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 046
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
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04/10/2015 [10 April 2015]; 2015 April 10
Contributor
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Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; Andrew Moore [GBIA]; Scott A. Gavorsky [VHC]; James Hedrick [VHC/GBIA]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
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Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017.
Consent form on file (administrator access only): http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/items/show/341
Format
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mp4
Language
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English; Shoshone
Community
Crossroads
GBIA
Indian Reorganization Act
ranching
Reese River
Shoshone
song
Story
traditional foods
traditional medicines
Yomba Reservation
-
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6a11b112bc87f6aee09f3ba17b337425
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/246998fd63591b882e50af2e0f4c0104.pdf
c5e189399edf78c9d161fba6de5adcaf
PDF Text
Text
Katherine
Blossom
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
029B
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
August
28,
2014
Elko,
NV
Great
Basin
College
•
Great
Basin
Indian
Archives
1500
College
Parkway
Elko,
Nevada
89801
hCp://www.gbcnv.edu/gbia/
775.738.8493
Produced
in
partnership
with
Barrick
Gold
of
North
America
�GBIA 029B
Interviewee: Katherine Blossom
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: August 28, 2014
B:
Good evening. I’m Katherine Blossom. Ne newe nanihan Piapenkwi. I’m from the
Tepatekkate Tribe from—my mother came from the Reese River area. I was born in
Schurz, Nevada, which was a Native hospital for the Native people. But I went to school
in Fallon, Nevada, and then I attended UNR for a while. I could not finish because of
illness in the family. And I returned to Fallon, and that’s where I raised my two older
children. I’ve been a very busy person. Always involved in activities, whatever activities
were around. But I’ve always tried to work with my people. I always had a feeling for my
people that they needed help. With that, I got married, and I eventually moved to Elko
where I’m residing now. And I worked for the Elko School District for thirty years,
retired, and then went to work for Corbin Harney at Puhampaa1, which was a healing
center, and he worked with the healing water, which is mineral water. And he was my
mentor in the spiritual realm, teaching me about the way our forefathers did things. Our
Native people, how they prayed, and what they did with their life—the daily working. At
that time, I was an office manager for Corbin, and I was also the maintenance person. I
didn’t do electrical, but I knew how to turn off the water, and fill the pool house, and the
swim pool that we had, and took care of the bookkeeping, and did housekeeping for
visitors that came for help with their healing. After I left there, I traveled to different
places. I attended ceremonies which became my life. I went to the Sun Dance, and
because I only have one kidney, I cannot Sun Dance, which I wished I could. But in that,
I would pray for the dancers, and would sing for them, and encourage them when I could,
if I was able to talk to them. But in all that, I—my life has been very full. I feel very
1
KB says this in Shoshone; the center is often known as PooHaBah
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honored that I have been able to do what I’ve been able to do. I mentioned that I only
have one kidney: in 1972, I donated a kidney to my youngest brother, William Streech,
which many of you probably know him by Bill. And because of that, I’m limited—or,
they told me I was very limited in what I could do. But except for the Sun Dancing, it has
never bothered me. And I have been truly blessed with that. Also, I have been taking care
of my son for the last five years, so I have not been really participating in the spiritual
ceremonies like I would like to. But that’s okay. I feel like I’m at the place where I need
to be. But my heart is, of course, with my people. And my work, I feel, is to pray for
everyone, to help when I can, to extend a helping hand if I can. But always, prayer is my
foundation. Because when I was little, that’s how I was given a second chance at my life.
At two years old, I ate quinine, and it almost took my life. My eyes set to one side, I lost
all my hair, I could not talk, and all my organs stopped. I could not eat, I could not
swallow—even water. And I could not urinate or any bowel movement. Everything
stopped, and my eyes started setting one way. And my mother, when I first got sick, she
took me to all the doctors that she could afford to take me to around Fallon and Schurz
area. But the last doctor that came in and looked at me just shook his head and turned
around and walked out, I’m told. But with that, my mother prayed, and she told the
Creator, she said, “You gave me my daughter. Don’t take her from me; I want her.” And
she begged. She pleaded that my life would be spared, which it had been. And there was
an interesting thing: my aunt at that time had married a chief, and his name was Chief
Grayhorse. And they were in Oklahoma, my aunt and Uncle Ben. And the Creator heard
my mother’s prayer, and they came from Oklahoma. And my mother told her sister what
had happened, and what little that they knew about my condition, and she said that she
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didn’t want me to leave. That I was a gift given to her, and she wanted to keep the gift
from the Creator. In that, my uncle said that he was going to go to California and get
singers, which they did. He went to California, and he brought back singers. And my
understanding is that, with the herbs that he brought back with him, they administered—
made tea out of the herbs, and told my mother to try and get me to drink it. And she said,
“Well, she can’t swallow.” And he says, “It’s all right. Don’t worry about it. What her
stomach needs, she’ll swallow it. So don’t worry about it, just give it to her.” And, so she
did the best she could. And evidently, I was able to swallow it. And it was about maybe
three, four hours later, my understanding is that I sat up for the first time in weeks, and
looked around, and I started vomiting. And they said that the poison that I vomited was
like that goopy-doo the women used to wear on their hair. It’s real thick green stuff.
Well, my uncle told me at that time that that’s what I had vomited from my stomach.
From that time, I started getting well, but I had to learn to talk again, learn how to eat,
learn how to walk, and do all those things that I was able to do before. So my life has
been very blessed. I’ve not noticed any weakness in my body. In fact, I’ve been very,
very fortunate that I’ve come all these years and not really being sick or sickly. I’m very
thankful. And I truly have been blessed. But I want to share that with you, because it’s so
important that we as Native people keep our prayers strong, because your old people
from way back—I’m sure you can remember if you would think, and have a feeling—
you can pray. And it is our job as Native people to pray for everything that our Mother
Earth—which we call our Mother Earth is, the earth because, we call her “mother”
because she gives us everything. There’s nothing that we wear, we eat, or drive;
everything we have—our homes, our clothing, everything has come from her. And in this
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way, we should take care of her, pray for her, and not be wasteful with the food she
provides for us, which she is still providing today even though she’s being traumatized
with what we as human are doing to her. We’re tearing her open, not returning anything.
But our Native way is we must always remember: if you’re going to go and harvest, you
must pray first, and get yourself ready. Clean up; clean your body, take a bath. And then
go out with a clean body and a good mind, and take water with you, our precious water,
and offer it to the plant or whatever you’re going to harvest. And pray for it. Thank it for
being there. And just take what you need and leave the rest. Don’t tear up and leave scars.
But as much as you can, just take what you need and leave the rest so others coming
behind you—the animal life, the bird life, whatever—will also have plenty to eat. And in
that way, we’ll always have food to eat, and our water is so precious. We cannot live
without water. And because our water is being contaminated, we all know that, we need
to pray for our water every day. Every morning, we should pray for it. That first cup of
water you take, we should pray, and be thankful, and ask it to bless our bodies. And that
we can have a good, sound body, and a good, sound mind, and a kind heart toward each
and every one. And that only comes by prayer. And we need to take care of what we have
in a good way. And by our prayers, it gives us a good foundation. It will help you to have
a clear mind, and to have good thoughts for everyone. And that’s what our Native people
have taught us from way back when. And we’re not to continue to be negative. We need
to be positive. And yes, there are always hardships to go through, but this is part of life.
And how we go through the hard things is what makes you and I a stronger person, that
we can face the next mountain that we need to climb, or whatever the situation comes in
our lives that we can overcome. We can go through it. But you can’t do it alone: you need
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prayer. You need our Creator to hear and answer your prayer. And you’re never alone.
And that’s a real blessing, to realize that, and to know that. So, I encourage all of our
young people, and grandpas and grandmas, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, all people:
start praying. Pick up your prayers. And for our young people, our Native young people,
learn your language. Because this is our culture. This is our foundation. And it’s only in
speaking our language that things become very clear to you, and you have a deeper
understanding than just speaking English—at least, that’s what I’ve found in my life. And
I didn’t know how to speak English when I was a young girl. I was not taught it, because
my mother went to a boarding school. And the trauma she went through, she didn’t want
me to go through that, and to suffer as she did, because when she spoke her language she
was abused in all the ways that you can think of and imagine. But she never talked about
it. I never realized what went on in the boarding schools, and why some of our old people
never talked about it. But I learned about what happened in the boarding school when I
went to work for the school district. I used to attend the National Indian Education
Conference. And back in Minnesota, I remember an elder man got up, and he was talking
about what he went through in a boarding school at Carlisle. And this elderly Native man
just stood and cried, because he could remember all the horrible things that happened to
him. And then, it came home to me: that’s why my mother would not let me go to a
boarding school. She was very adamant: “No, you’re not going. You’re staying in a
public school.” And little did I know what she had to go through—and all our old people.
And that’s why many of our young people today do not speak our language, because of
the shame that our older people have to carry in their hearts and in their lives. And I
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believe that’s about all I have to say. But I encourage you to live your life in a good way,
the best you can.
I would like to share with you—when I worked in the school district, I worked with the
Native students. Our children were really having a hard time, because some of them
didn’t even know who they were. And some were very angry; they didn’t know why. But
you know, it’s things that happen to you as a youngster that you don’t really remember
why you’re angry, but you’re angry. And if someone should ask you, you wouldn’t know
what to tell them. But it’s good to find somebody that you can trust and tell them what is
bothering you. Because there is no person that’s in this world that’s perfect. We all make
mistakes. But hopefully, we learn our mistakes. And when we do wrong—own up to it.
Own up to what you did, what I did. Because that’s part of your healing, is to say, “Yes, I
did that, and I’m so sorry.” And be sorry for it, if that’s how you feel. But you need to
find someone—I would say to our young people—find someone you can trust, someone
you can talk to. And have them listen to you. And you know, like I say, there’s nothing
that you have done, or has been done to you, that hasn’t happened to someone else. And
so we’re all in the same boat. We all have come from our mothers and fathers, and some
of us have been abandoned by our loved ones; but, you know, find someone that will
care, and take care of you, and help you along your way. Sometimes, you have to search
and look for that one person. Sometimes, it just doesn’t happen. But other times, if you’re
willing to listen, you’ll find somebody that wants to really help you along your life path,
and that will help you to get a good start. I know when I was working with the young
people at Elko High School, I had a young Native girl that came from a reservation, a
large reservation. And she seemed a little timid, but she just seemed so eager to want to
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learn. And I encouraged her at that time to continue to—and I asked her what she wanted
to be, and at that time, she wanted to be an English teacher. I said, “Well, good for you!
You can do it!” And that young lady went on, and she became even a superintendent of
schools. And she was Native. She is Native. And so, you know, nothing should stand in
your way of success. What is success to you? Success isn’t something that means the
same thing to all of us. It’s what you like to do, and what you can make a living at, and be
happy in your own self, what you’re doing. That’s your success. All our stories are
different. But in your own right, you become successful for you. Don’t do it for someone
else. What is it that makes you happy? This is your life. This is your walk. And you live it
in a good way, and it’ll help you to be healthy and strong, and if you work hard as a
young person now? Get your education, go on and pursue an education. We need that.
But don’t forget where you came from. Don’t forget. If you’re Native, don’t forget that’s
who you are. And if you can have a chance to talk to the old people—your grandpa, your
grandma, or whoever is available; your aunt, your uncle. Go to an older person and talk
to them. Ask them about your lineage, so you will know. Because that is your foundation.
Don’t forget it, because it’s so vitally important for all of us to know who we are. And
one thing I’d like to say to you, I’d encourage you, don’t try to be somebody else. Don’t
try to be somebody that you’re not. Because we all have—Native people have come from
a strong line of people, but yet we’ve been told so many times, and our older people—our
mothers, our fathers, our grandfathers, grandmothers—have been told that they’re stupid
and savages. But in your own heart, you know that you’re not that. So don’t believe what
people tell you, but search your own heart, search your own life, and pursue your own
happiness, whatever that is. What makes you happy? What makes you laugh? And you
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know, it’s a good thing to laugh. That’s what helps us to lift ourselves up. And sometimes
it’s hard to laugh when you’re all by yourself and things are not going right. But you
know what? There’s always those little things you can look for in life to make you feel
better about yourself. The other day—I have to share this with you, talking about
laughter—I was smelling the flowers in the grocery store. And they were roses, and I
came across these beautiful yellow roses, which happen to be my favorite. And I stooped
over, and I was smelling it. It smelt so fragrant, I was tempted to buy it, and I thought,
“No, I don’t think I can afford it, no, I don’t think so.” But I just kept that fragrance with
me, and I was thinking about it, and I went on. And then I came across—as I was going
to check out, I came across some more flowers they had in another area. And I stooped
over, and I was smelling the flowers, and a woman came up behind me, and she said,
“Oh, you’re smelling the roses!” But she said it with such laughter and glee. And she
says, “May I smell them, too?” And I looked at her—I was so surprised—and I said,
“Well, of course you can!” She says, “Well, this one don’t have much fragrance.” I says,
“You should go smell the yellow roses.” But she had the biggest smile on her face when
she stopped to smell the roses. And that’s what we need to do. We need to look for little
things that make you happy. And it’s okay. You’ll always find somebody that will laugh
with you. But sometimes it’s hard to find somebody that will cry with you. But it
happens. So I’d like to encourage you—all of you, whoever hears this, or sees this tape—
to be encouraged in your own heart, because you’re worthy of being happy, and be at
peace with your own self. And sometimes, that’s hard to find, when we have this dark,
black cloud hanging over us. But there is a way to reach out and get rid of that black
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cloud. And just, what I’d like to say to you is: keep your prayers strong. Know who you
are, keep your foundation, and pursue your own happiness.
[End of recording]
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
2006-2015
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Norm Cavanaugh
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Katherine Blossom
Location
The location of the interview
Elko, NV [Blossom Residence]
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/470
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
DVD, MP4, and AVI Format
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:23:05
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katherine Blossom - Oral History (08/28/2014)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral History interview with Katherine Blossom, Western Shoshone from Fallon, NV, on 08/28/2014
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Katherine Blossom was born in Shurz, Nevada and was part of the <em>Dubadiccada </em>(Pine-nut eaters) Tribe from the Reese River area. She tells us about going to school in Fallon and then UNR, and also how she helped Corbin Harney at <em>Puhambaa </em>(healing water). She also speaks of her time with the Elko County School District where she retired from, and a story of a girl who she helped to achieve her dreams. She also gives us insight into her mother’s time at the Stewart Indian School, as well as, an instance of her getting sick and being helped with traditional ceremonies and medicine. She then goes on to give advice to the younger generations on ways they should carry themselves in life.</p>
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Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Basin Indian Archives
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 029B
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
08/28/2014 [28 August 2014]; 2014 August 28
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; Andrew Moore [GBIA]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; Scott A. Gavorsky [VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017
Consent form on file (administrator access only): http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/items/show/327
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
DVD, AVI Format, and mp4
Language
A language of the resource
English
Community
Crossroads
Elko Country School District
Fallon
GBIA
Puha baa
Reese River
Shoshone
Stewart Indian School
Story
traditional medicines