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Delaine
George
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
048
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
June
2,
2016
Duckwater,
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 048
Interviewee: Delaine George
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: June 2, 2016
G:
My name is Delaine George. And I’m from the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe. And my
family is from the Adams family, and my dad from the George family, and they came
from Beatty—around there, somewhere. My mom came up—as the story goes, she came
up from Beatty or somewhere from there, and she met my dad here, and they got off to a
good start, so they settled here. I have three brothers, two which have gone on, and one
sister. And we all live here in Duckwater now. And I have numerous nieces and nephews,
and grandsons, and one daughter—Lisa. But we just love it here. But we first settled up
there behind that white house by Virginia’s? That’s where we first lived, and we had no
water or electricity, and we just “lived off the land,” like they would say! [Laughter] And
we had lots of farm animals, and we were busy from morning to evening, and—well, I
thought it was fun. Well, now the thing I really remember is like, when visitors come to
our house and visit my dad, and we’d run and hide underneath a table to hear what
they’re saying—you know, the little kids—and my dad would say, “Okay, no kids!
Outside! You don’t need to be listening to grownups’ talk!” [Laughter] So, that was one
of my things that I remember about him. And to this day, I say that to my grandkids. And
they look at me funny. But that’s the way I was raised. So, yeah, we got water from the
ditch—oh, we got drinking water from a well. There was a well there. And then we’d
swim in the ditch; it was flowing close by our house, and we, my sister and I used to just
wade in there and play, getting the fish, and go swimming in there. And had a lot of fun.
And we had pigs, and horses, and cows, and sheep. And it was fun. Every day, we had
fun things to do.
[Break in recording]
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I really enjoyed going to school. That was the best part. At first, the elementary school
down—they have one here in Duckwater, that’s where I went. Then, I went to Currant
Elementary School at Currant, Nevada, because my dad had a job there, over there. And
so, we went there. And I graduated from there, the Nye County school. Then I went to
Stewart Indian Boarding School. And I really liked it there. I really liked what they did.
They showed us how to live right—you know, clean sheets, and wooden floors. And lot
of people, lot of kids to talk to. Whereas before, we used to stay on the ranch and have
nobody to talk to. And so, and we lived in a little bare house with—when I was with my
dad at Currant, we just didn’t have any good floors inside the house, we just had the dirt
floor, and had to haul water, and—. We just had to—life was a little bit hard. But, we
made it somehow. And after that, I went to Stewart, and that’s where they taught us all
the things, and I really enjoyed that.
[Break in recording]
I was about fourteen, fifteen? My freshman year, to when I graduated. And I really liked
that place. I know a lot of kids say that about Stewart, and I’m one of them. I just really
missed it when I graduated, and I wished I could’ve stayed on little more. I just really
enjoyed Stewart.
C:
So, how many different tribes were there at Stewart when you were there?
G:
Oh, my goodness! There were so many. And we’d watch the busloads coming in from
Arizona, and the Nevada kids were already there. And there was the Navajos, and
Apaches, and Pimas, Papagos, Hopis. There were just so much—Apaches. And so, I was
just in Heaven! [Laughter] There’s so many kids to talk to! And I can’t remember how
many other tribes, but it was the Washoes, Paiutes. And on weekends, there were movies
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that we could go to, and basketball games, and volleyball. And there was so much to do,
like go to the museums, and, or some people worked for families there and earned a little
extra money on weekends. And that was nice. And I enjoyed that, and I bought little
shoes and stuff with it. And there’s just about everything going on, and they had a beauty
pageant. That I can remember, because I was asked to be a pageant person to go from the
classes. But I would always go to the prom with my date, and be sponsored by my class.
That was a good feeling.
C:
So, what were the teachers like there? I mean, were they all non-Indian, or were there
some Indian teachers as well?
G:
I remember the one for English was a white guy. I think his name was “Talbert”; I
remember his name. [Laughter] And I think there was a couple. And Home Ec teacher,
she was from Alaska, she was really good. And I enjoyed that, working up in the Home
Ec department. And just fantastic, I just learned so many things my first year there. And I
didn’t know there were things to do and everything, because I, you know, I stayed home
all the time up on the ranch with my dad. So, I was in Heaven. Oh! [Laughter]
[Break in recording]
My sister went with me, too. She went to the grade school there in Stewart, so I was with
her at that time. But then, later on, they transferred her to the Fort Apache Boarding
School in Arizona. So, we were separated for a while, and she came back. And yes, I
enjoyed having my sister with me.
[Break in recording]
I went to—was going to say, I went to school at Haskell, they sent me to Haskell. And I
was a Home Decorating, I took that class. And I didn’t care for that too much, and then I
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transferred to the Commercial Cooking, and which, I cooked for whole bunch of people.
Because we all cooked for the whole pupils, and the people that worked there. Most of
the time, there’d be a lot, a thousand of them, and we’d have to learn how to—from the
recipe book, you know, you had to add or multiply. So. We did dishes, and how many
pots and pans to make that? And that was a good training for me, food science and
everything.
[Break in recording]
It could be all combined into one, because they had a high school there for the high
school kids. And they had—could be a trade. They had painting and all sorts of other
things that they could learn. And like my Home Ec classes, and I’m sure they were all
combined together. And then, high schools would play other communities, other high
schools. And we’d go there and cheer them on. I remember I joined the Pep Club, and
had a purple sweater with that big old “H” there on my sweater. [Laughter] And I
cheered, and that was fun. I enjoyed that, too.
[Break in recording]
Oh, they send me to another training school in San Jose. But that didn’t work out,
because I had an automobile accident, and I had crutches on, and I couldn’t get around
the campus too well. And so I end up coming back, and didn’t finish that. I think I went
to Reno. And then, after all that, I just end up working in casinos.
[Break in recording]
I was a change girl; carry lots of money! [Laughter] And that was fun. And then, one day,
I got married! He worked at Stewart. He’s one of the ones who worked at the offices, and
so we got married, and I moved to Utah—Myton, Utah. It’s over there by Fort Duchesne.
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His parents are from there. But he end up going into the Army, and being gone for two
years, and I stayed with them—the parents there, at Myton, Utah. And then, I went back
to Nevada and worked in casinos again. And dealing with money, change girl. You know,
being away from my husband, I took the graveyard shift. And drank lot of coffee!
[Laughter]
[Break in recording]
He came back, and we went down to Phoenix, with me and Lisa. Lisa and I; she was a
little baby then. We stayed in Phoenix for long time, because he worked at the BIA office
on Thomas Road. And he worked there quite a bit. Then, things didn’t work out, so I
come back.
[Break in recording]
I didn’t return to Nevada; I went to see my sister. She was working in the Bay Area, San
Francisco. So, she let me come stay with her, and I got to do lot of things; go to the
beach, and—go to the beach, mainly, because Lisa loved the ocean. And take pictures on
the Golden Gate Bridge. We’d go roller skating; Linda used to love that, so. Lisa loved
that, too, so. We all went roller skating. And I made some friends. And it’s, was great.
Having my sister there, and my daughter, and used to do lot of things together.
[Break in recording]
My mother had died, and so, we came back to Duckwater. And I end up staying with my
dad. He was staying here at my brother’s house up there. Doug George’s place. And he
had a little trailer there, so I end up staying with him. Then I end up getting married to a
rancher—here in Duckwater. He had a ranch, and I used to help him with the cows. Just
about everything on the farm; haying, and driving the tractor. [Laughter] Riding horses.
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Well, he’s gone now, but his name was Donald Sam. And his family was also from here.
And so, had a good time. I enjoyed the ranch work—because I was younger, and I could
do those things. And riding horses. But I left him, and filed for divorce, and married
another guy from here. His name was Allen Lenbeck. And so I went to stay up there with
him, by Virginia Sanchez’ house—up there? By Bank Ranch. And we had lot of fun. We
went, turned to the church, and he was one of the guys that helped run the church,
Mormon Church. And I helped them sing. So, we were involved in church for a while,
and those were good days. And then, things didn’t work out, so I was, I moved on, and
got a divorce, and married Mitchell Mays. And so, I lived on First Street. And we were
happy. And he was a medicine man, and I helped him with his medicine work, because
he helped—he enjoyed doing that. And he, I went all over with him. And we did helping
people; they called, and he went, helped them.
[Break in recording]
It depended on what was wrong, or what they were praying for. If it was something that
he had to do twice, we’d go back, and he’d do that. And we went to lot of camp-outs.
Remember going to Yomba. They had vision quest up in the mountains, and I went with
him. And that was good. I learned lot of things from that. And what it involves, and, so.
And I was there to help him. And people gave whatever they wanted to. If not, they
didn’t have to. And just something, he was there to help them.
[Break in recording]
It’s at the Tribe here, at the Health Department, and my job was to help the Indians do
cultural things, like I showed the kids—I had a little class of kids, and we’d go out in the
ditches and find the willows, and we’d show them the right kind. And there was a person
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here from, she was my mother-in-law. And she helped me, because she was very good at
making willow baskets and stuff. But first, we had to get in the ditches and get the right
ones, and how to soak the willows, and how to split them, and—it’s quite a good project.
And I had community involvement, and some of the teachers would help too, and they’d
come. And you had to get them before they flowered, so it won’t be so hard to get the,
scrape off the leaves. The class and I and that lady who made, we made little, small,
miniature cradle boards. And I also taught them how to make moccasins, and how to do
beadwork on them. And I remember just being with them, and showing these, and the
kids enjoyed that.
[Break in recording]
Some young people, they disrespect their elders. They come into a room, and they don’t
have a seat, and the kids are all sitting down, and not one of them will get up and offer
their seats. And they’ll not acknowledge them, or just go walk past them and don’t say
hello. And I think that’s one of the things that really bother me. And I know my
grandson, Alex, is good at that. He likes to help people. He’s never mean to the elders.
Because I taught him not to be mean. I’m very glad for that. And I wish more kids would
be nice to the elders, and they could learn a lot from them. They could show you how to
do things. And I think that’s missing in our culture today.
[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
Delaine George
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:21:16
Location
The location of the interview
Duckwater Reservation, NV [George residence]
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/558
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
DVD, MP4, and AVI
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
Delaine George - Oral history (06/02/2016)
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Delaine George is a Shoshone from the Duckwater tribe, and she is part of the Adams family. Her mother and father came from Beatty, NV. She had 2 brother and 1 sister along with a lot of nieces, nephews, and grandsons. She grew up in Duckwater with no water or electricity, but recalls when her siblings would go to a creek to fish and swim. She then speaks about going to school in Currant, NV, Stewart Indian School, and then to Haskell Indian School among others. She then speaks about the different occupations she had and how she traveled around and ended up back at Duckwater Reservation.</p>
<p>.</p>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B6tX0u-oIbs" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<p>Interviewed by Norm Cavanaugh</p>
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 047
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
06/02/2016 [02 June 2016]; 2016 June 02
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; Marissa Weaselboy [GBIA]; Scott A. Gavorsky [VHC]; James Hedrick [GBIA/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/343
Language
A language of the resource
English
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Delaine George, Western Shoshone from Duckwater Reservation, NV on 06/02/2016
Community
Crossroads
Duckwater
Duckwater Reservation
GBIA
Haskell Indian School
ranching
Shoshone
Shoshoni
Stewart Indian School
Story
traditions