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Ronnie
Dixon
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
043
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
November
5,
2014
BaBle
Mountain,
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 043
Interviewee: Ronnie Dixon
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: November 5, 2014
D:
My name is Ronnie Dixon. I’m of the Western Shoshone tribe, of the Battle Mountain
Band, and I was born and raised in Battle Mountain, Nevada. And I always say I was
original inhabitant there, because I was born right on the Indian Colony in the little moon
house, and delivered by my grandma. And my parents are George Dixon and Elizabeth
Dixon. I was raised by my grandmother Annie and Jack Muncy, and the story of me
being raised by them—but I don’t know if it’s fact, but—my mother had twins, and she
wasn’t feeling too good. So, my grandma offered to watch me until she got feeling better.
We lived next door, and when it was time to take me back to my mother, my grandma
just decided that she was going to keep me, so she kept me and raised me. But, she was
quite the lady. And people said I was pretty spoiled kind of a guy. And I went to a Native
gathering called GONA this summer, and some of the elders were talking about some of
the history of Battle Mountain. And a lot of people there. And I was feeling pretty proud,
you know, being included in the discussion, and one of the elders told a story about how,
as a pretty-good sized kid—I must have been—she said, “Yeah, I remember you used to
run around in big old cloth diaper! You must’ve been pretty big, because, man, you ran
and played with all the kids!” [Laughter] You know, I had to laugh at that, but that was—
I said, “Well, that’s because my grandma loved me a lot.” You know, she wanted to make
sure I was okay. But, I remember some of the old elders there that lived around the circle,
and the original building of Battle Mountain, I believe, was, like, the early 1900s there,
and there was a circle. And my mother told me about where they used to live, and I
believe that they lived and were raised right around Golconda area. And I believe about
the time the Owyhee reservation was established, our family was supposed to go to
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Owyhee, but didn’t. Chose to stay there around Golconda area and Battle Mountain area.
And where they used to live was where there was, like, water available. Because in those
days, they had the artesian wells that ran all the time. So, if somebody would let them live
on their land, that’s where they lived. And they wintered out in tents. And they said that
when little babies got sick in the wintertime, they usually didn’t make it. But then, she
tells about when the Battle Mountain Colony was put up. She said a bunch of, that the
Indians from Stewart Indian School came and put those houses up. And they felt pretty
good moving into the new housing. But I remember as a young boy, being in there, and it
seemed a long ways to Battle Mountain—to town to Battle Mountain—because there was
nothing in there, in between there, but now there’s a lot of buildings and businesses there,
because it’s grown. But I went to school there in Battle Mountain, and it was told that my
grandma took me to school first day of kindergarten. Because we all walked to school,
and took me to school. And I kind of remember—when he left, I ran away and ran home!
[Laughter] And then, he took me back the next day, and he and the teacher marched me
into the schoolroom, and she shut the door so I wouldn’t run away. I was kind of like a
wild animal, I guess; not used to being around taipos I guess! [Laughter] But, I went to
school in Battle Mountain, and I remember, you know, it seems like it snowed more in
those days. And I remember going to school through the deep snow, and my sisters
would make tracks, and all us little guys would walk behind like little rabbits or
something. But, I attended grammar school in Battle Mountain, elementary school. I
remember some of the old teachers that were there. And years later, I worked in old
folks’ home in Elko, and the old principal was there. And I reminded her of the times that
she used to take us in her office and lift up our shirts. And man, she had a leather strap
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she’d whip us with. And I told her that—I didn’t mean to, but when I told her that, she
started crying, you know? She felt bad about it. But those days, school could get pretty
rough. And of course, us Indian kids, we’d get roughed up pretty good, too: get our ears
pulled, and our hair pulled. But I started high school there in Battle Mountain, and in that
small town, the high school was the Battle Mountain Longhorns, and, man, it’s like little
kids wanted to be a Longhorn, you know? That was the goal. And played football for
Battle Mountain, and really liked it. Really liked sports, sports kind of kept me in school,
because I wasn’t too keen on staying indoors, because I was always looking out the
window, and always wanted to leave. But it was pretty good experience. And my family
was, there were like nine of us, and my oldest sister passed away, and then my other
siblings passed away, and there’s like four of us left. And I remember later wondering
how my mother healed up, with losing all her children. And I realize she had a good faith,
and she had a good spirit. My grandma always says that she was like a mother sage hen,
where when her little kids were in danger, she’d lift up her wings and all her little kids
would run in under it. And my dad, he worked on the ranches. And he was gone. He
would go for months at a time, because in those days you expected to stay out there. And
we’d see him, and when he’d come to town, and he’d be happy coming to town, but he
had a drinking problem, too, so—you know, he’d go on a binge, and then they’d take him
back to ranch, and we didn’t see him too often. But I didn’t finish high school. I dropped
out my senior year, and didn’t connect it to drinking, but it was connected to drinking,
because on our school break, I was drinking with some older guys. I went back, and tried
again, and I wasn’t interested anymore. But after high school, worked on the ranches for
a while, and then I was drafted into the Army, and had some eye-opening experiences
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there, because, I mean, it was like I just come out of the brush. You know, small-town
boy. And we got our draft notices and caught a Greyhound bus up to Salt Lake. Whole
bunch of Nevada guys would get on that bus, and they eventually was inducted into the
Army. And I didn’t know what was going on, and these drill sergeants was shouting at
us, and, man! I was wondering, “What’s the matter with these guys? Why’re they mad at
us?” [Laughter] Because, you know, I hadn’t experienced that before. So, we stayed there
Salt Lake overnight, and caught a plane from Salt Lake to San Fransisco, California.
Never been on a plane in my life. And that was just quite an experience. And then, so, we
landed in San Fransisco airport. And that was towards the end of the [19]60s, and I got to
San Fransisco airport, and that was first time I ever saw hippies. And man, there was a lot
of hippies at the San Fransisco airport! So, I looked at them, and I just started laughing,
you know? I couldn’t help it, because they’re strange-looking people! And here I was,
with the big belt buckle on, and my tight jeans, and shirt, and they started looking at me
and pointing at me, and they started laughing at me! So we just kind of laughed back and
forth, back and forth, and then we caught a bus to Fort Ord where we’re going to do our
basic training. And man, we pulled up on a bus at one in the morning, and all these big
drill sergeants come charging at us! And they had those Smokey Bear hats, and they was
screaming at us, and cussing us, and it was culture shock, you know? God, I’d never been
treated that way in my life! But it was quite a shock. And the first thing, the next day, I
was just thinking, “God, I miss my mother, my poor old mother!” [Laughter] You know?
But I went to Basic Training, and then went to Advanced Training, and then spent a year
in Vietnam. And that was another culture shock, and experiences that were so different
from what I went through. And I had a drinking problem in Vietnam, too. I drank a lot,
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because a lot of things were allowed. So, returned to the States, and still had some time to
do, like six months, so I finished it up in North Carolina. My MOS in Vietnam was in an
ordinance unit, working an Ammunition Depot. And at that time, it was long bed, and it
was the largest ordnance storage depot in the world at that time. And so, I finished up in
North Carolina, and came back to Battle Mountain and started—well, at first I hired on at
the mines, because I had a good record with the military, and they hired me. And of
course, I started partying at the mines, and I didn’t last at the mines, so I started working
on the ranches again as a buckaroo. And a good experience was, that’s the most time I
had with my dad when he was sober. Because I worked on the same ranch he did, and I
got a different view and different feelings from him. Because people told me he was
pretty smart guy, talented guy, and I was able to see that because I worked a number of
years with him. So, I got to appreciate that. And at the time I started, there was still a lot
of the old-timers there. I mean, these guys were, man, seventy, seventy-five, eighty, and
still riding! And I remember not thinking of them as old men, because they were so
active. But I did that lifestyle for a whole bunch of years.
C:
Do you remember the names of some of those old-timers?
D:
Yeah, there was my dad, George Dixon. In fact, there’s Benner Wines from Owyhee,
and there was Jess Lazarica, and Ferguson Johnny from Fallon, and Tony Ormachea
from Fallon, cattlemen. And in those days, they—I remember leaving the main ranch in
March, and we didn’t come back ‘til July. We stayed out and we camped in the
mountains. But there was a lot of good teaching there, you know? Values. I remember my
dad would—that desert country, that was a different kind of riding than when I went up
north. Because went a long ways, and not much water, and I remember my dad telling me
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that wherever we camped, that was our home. And I remember, we’d be under brush, and
by a little water hole. Man, he’d tell us, “This is our home. We got to keep it clean. We
got to keep it good, and we got to treat it with respect.” And then, when I first started, it
was pretty good, pretty new, and then that’s all I wanted to do at that time. And I kept
doing it, and later I went to work for a place where I did a lot of living alone. I’d stay in
little cabins, and I wouldn’t see people for, like, two weeks at a time. Then I kind of got
so I didn’t socialize much with people. I wouldn’t talk very much. And I remember when
I came to town and started partying, that’s when I really talked and socialized, but they
didn’t like me around, because I didn’t really—I kind of forgot it, strange as it sounds.
But then, again, what I experienced out there was a good spirit. Good spirit, being out in
the open, you know? And felt a good freedom of movement. And the way those guys
treated the land and Mother Earth with respect and kindness, and they knew how to live
those ways. And a lot of traveling by horseback, too. But during those days is when I
went through a period of drinking, too. But I didn’t realize it, though, that I was picking
up some spirituality, and from the animals, that would come later in life, you know?
Come together. And then, so, those guys—unknowing people would say, “Well, if you
got married, you’ll settle down.” So, I did get married to a young lady who was really a
beautiful, good person. And we had three children. But it didn’t help me settle down,
because I kept doing my old behaviors and my old ways. And that went on for many
years, until she realized that she had to leave with the children. But one of the things my
mother told us was, regardless of what’s happened, we take care of our own, and we take
care of our own people. We stayed together for a while, and then left, and then— So, I
still would keep the part-time jobs, and work for a little while, and just kind of moving
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around, moving around the country. But, it was in 1988, after really having some
problems with alcohol, and I was a binge drinker, is where she had worked in a treatment
center, and then she used to tell me about the recovery. And I had reached my bottom at
that time, and it was like I had a lot of near-physical deaths, you know? And not just in a
lump time, but I’ve had, like, three airplane rides—life flights—and two helicopter rides,
and eight or nine ambulance rides, because I just, I guess I was accident-prone, and just
kind of do—even now, kind of doing some reckless kind of things. But I ended up in a
treatment center, and realized that what I was missing was the spirit. And what I was
really missing was the Native American—even the Native American spirit, and the
Native ways, our tribal ways, and our family ways. And I had drifted away from that,
basically, by drinking the alcohol. So it’s funny how in the treatment center, those
feelings started coming back to me. And the pride of being a Shoshone started coming
back to me, and one of the things that, in the treatment centers and the recovery circles, is
they really appreciate and like to hear the Shoshone stories, and the Shoshone ways, and
the Shoshone spirit ways. And the blessings of being the first peoples in this country.
And what a blessing, because I was able to come back to the sweat lodges, and now listen
to the Native teachings, and even, nowadays, I regret that there was so many years away,
in, like, I don’t know, a strange soul place, you know? But nowadays, it’s like—it’s a
wanting. Wanting to be around my people, and appreciation to being around my people.
Because presently, I’m employed here in Owyhee in the Behavior Health Department as
Substance Abuse counselor. But coming back to this country, and being around my
people, has been such a blessing, and spiritually uplifting. I’ve been here before, and it
just feels so good to be in the mountains. And I just recently moved from a little mining
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town, of Battle Mountain, and to be up here, and the air is pure—and like I say, I can feel
the spirits, you know? Feel the goodness up here. I can even see the water flowing, and
listen to the water. And a lot of my relatives are up here, and a lot of my friends are here.
But one of the things that happened to me during my sobriety—and it’s been over
twenty-six years now that I have had sobriety and the spirit, and a good soul feeling, and
closer to the teachings of the Shoshone people. And I’ve just experienced the closeness,
the closeness of the people. And getting at that, being an elder now, and listening to the
elders speak, and listening to them talk, they talk in a special way, in a good way, in a
quiet way, and can throw a lot of humor in there, and if you haven’t been around them,
you don’t know that they’re doing some humor. And they may not be smiling, but they’re
sure smiling aside to watch how you react. And nowadays, the storytelling is so
important. And I just think about, going back to my grandma, when I was a little boy, and
it was nighttime because we didn’t have any electricity, either. And then, so nighttime,
people went to bed pretty early. And I remember every night, she’d tell me a story.
Creation stories, when the little animals used to talk to each other. And in fact, I just
remembered, I had a dream last night or night before last. And I dreamed—this connects
with right here tonight—I had a dream that there was, like, a noise in the air. And I
looked up in the sky at night, but I could see this big, colored snake going across the sky.
A big, huge snake. And that’s one of the stories she used to tell me about when the
Shoshones were way out in the hills and the mountains. And she said it was different
those days, when there wasn’t any roads, and there wasn’t any white men around. When
you was out there alone, you were really out there alone. And there was a hunter out there
in a canyon, and heard a terrible racket up in the sky. And he looked up in the sky, and
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what he saw up in the sky was two big snakes with wings on, and they were fighting. And
it was a terrible sound. And finally, one of them fell to the earth. And the hunter went
there, and it was a big, long snake with wings. And they had been fighting. But she’d tell
me all kinds of stories. That, and how every little animal talked, and every little animal—
and everybody, they all got along. They all got along. And I called her Kakutsi, she’s my
kakutsi. So every evening, I’d say, “Kakutsi, tell me a story.” Because I got a story every
night. And every evening, she’d tell me a story. And I’d say, “Kakutsi, tell me a story.”
And she’d bawl me out every time. She’d say, “They’re not stories. They’re real! They’re
not stories.” And I’d listen to all the stories, you know? But every once in a while, that
feeling, that good spirit of the old folks will come back to me. And where I was living in
Battle Mountain, I was living in her old house. And man, the spirit felt good! Spirit felt
good in there, and you could feel the prayers of the elders and my old grandpa. And I just
remember some of his teachings. And he’d say it over and over. He’d say, “Boy, when
you work, work when you work, and when you go to school, go to school when you go to
school. When you play—play when you play.” And I didn’t get his meaning at the time,
and I’d say, “Oh, Grandpa, you always say that!” But I understand what he was saying,
you know? [Laughter] Focus on what you’re doing, and do the best at what you’re doing
now. And to go on about my old grandpa and grandma, in those days, nobody—hardly
anybody had vehicles, cars, you know? So my old grandfather, they’d just invite
themselves and go stay with somebody. Wherever—Elko, Winnemucca, wherever. And
he had bedroll, like the old buckaroos, canvas bedroll? And I remember it, we’d leave
early in the morning, catch a bus, and he’d throw his bedroll on his shoulder. We’d go to
catch the Greyhound bus, and we’d go up—uninvited, we’d knock on their friends’ door,
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and they’d let us in, and roll our bedroll on the floor. We’d—they’d stay there a week!
[Laughter] You know? Because that’s the way it was in those days. You didn’t have to be
invited to go in somebody’s house and just stay there. But there was some good times
being with old folks, and that was a blessing in those days. And now, I’m Grandpa, and I
have two grandchildren, you know? The blessing is, is I can—I do spend time with them,
and I’m able to teach them the good spirit ways. The good, kind ways, with the feeling of
being connected to the good spirit, and to Mother Earth, and to our Father. Our Father
above. And teach the eagle feathers, and teach the prayers—and feel the prayers more
than just the talk and chanting someplace. I just heard somebody talking the other day,
and they said, “Boy, when something gets hard—you got a task, you got a hard
experience—do it as a prayer. Do it in a spiritual way.” Which kind of takes me back to
when I did sober up, and was just really feeling that spiritual experience, and the miracle
that people talk about; the change. And I came from a mean, angry background. But felt
the softening of the heart, and the change within, the change of personality. And I started
listening to other people. And at that time, I was prejudiced. And I blamed the white man
for everything, you know? For just intruding on our people. And then, so, when I got into
the recovery for alcohol, I was told by an old Native American Indian elder, and he said,
“Alcohol and drugs haven’t been in our country very long, because the European hasn’t
been here very long. But they brought over that stuff. And they used it back there for
centuries and centuries, and they know how to use it, they know how to drink it. But
when it’s brought to our Native people, we’re just not made for it, and we just have a
hard time with it. We don’t quite understand it; even our medicine men, even our healers,
we don’t know how to work with the strange disease, as it’s called.” And he said, “Where
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you need to learn about it is, you need to sit among the white man. You need to sit at a
meeting, because they’re the expert on it, and they know about it. And what will happen
is, you’ll get to be a better-feeling person, and also you’ll get to be a better Shoshone.”
And sure enough, without it, it sure helps me keep in touch with my people and my spirit.
And one of the things I do, is I love sharing with my Shoshone people. In the recovery,
and in the spirit, and whenever I’m able to. But it seems like that’s when the real spiritual
experiences started happening, is when I got rid of that soul poisoning, and that spirit
poisoning. And so, as far as the good spiritual things that happened to me is, I learned
that it takes for me a spiritual way to stay in the recovery. You know, they call it, the
recovery program, “a power greater than myself, more than me,” something. Because I
tried so hard by myself, and other people tried to help me, but it didn’t work, until—there
was something within, and some people say we have that good medicine within ourselves
anyway. We have a good medicine, and when we start using that good medicine within
ourselves, good things start to happen. And good things did start to happen. And one of
the happenings in my recovery is, I went to working with horses, and I returned kind of to
the—well, I wouldn’t say I “returned,” because when I used to cowboy in my drinking
days, and meanness and my mean spirit, I used to treat livestock rough. I mean, I used to
fight them, you know? Fight a horse. But with the change in spirit and what I call the
good medicine is, I was able to now start to treat an animal, and everything around me,
and people included, in a good way. Because I was starting to treat myself in a good way,
too. And so, today, I believe in the horse spirit, and I believe in all the spirits that
surround us. Grandfather and the ways, and the sacredness, I believe is all around us. It’s
not just in a certain spot, or we don’t have to go to a certain spot, or I don’t have to go to
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a certain spot, anyway. But with my recovery and the spirit of animals, that’s what I do,
and that’s what I started, and that’s what I do now. But it’s just, I spend most of, a good
deal of my time working with horses. And I feel the good spirit, and I even—well, one of
the things that somebody told me, when you get ahold of yourself, and you know where
you’re at, you know what you’re doing, you have a balance with the world, and balance
with Creator, is, what happens during troubled times is a person loses traditions. And I
was told now, as we’re moving along, we give all up our traditions. We can develop or
hook onto our own traditions as we go along. And I notice that now, is traditions, every
once in a while, I hear somebody say, Norm or somebody, “That’s what they do! They do
this, and they do that. They go there and they do that.” Well, to me, that’s a tradition that
that person as an individual is practicing. Even when somebody says “Boy, that guy tells
jokes, and he smiles, and he tells stories, good stories,” to me that’s tradition, and that’s
being the blessing to be able to stand for something and live that lifestyle. But so many
things come from working animals. I even—my corrals are all built round, you know?
[Laughter] People ask, “How come your corrals are all round?” And I’m not saying that’s
the way it is, but to me, I like the circle, the healing circles. So I—because I use a lot of, I
use portable corrals, so I can put them around. So all my corrals are round. And I just
believe that our life is in a good roundness and in a good, spiritual, round way. Where are
day is in a circle. It’s not linear and a dropping-off place, it just keeps the good moving as
life’s cycle, it is in a good movement. So, I call my corrals my good spiritual circle. And I
say—and I tell myself and other people, we don’t go in there when we’re in a bad way,
we’re in a bad mood, or we’ve been doing something against our principles and what we
build on. But even careful to let somebody in there with what I call bad medicine. I know
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they’ve got something not right, not going too well in their lives, same as in our homes
and in our lives and in our spirit. I think when we have that good spirit, we’re aware of
protecting ourselves and our families and our friends, and those people around us, and to
me, it’s the warrior way. And a warrior to me means both a man and a woman. Because
there’s certain people out there that I know that they feel strong in a spiritual way, and
they feel good in a spiritual way. And I’m really attracted to them. And then there’s other
people that are talking like they’re in a good way, but I don’t quite have that feeling being
around them. But some of the blessings that I see these days is, I see our younger people
striving and going for an education, and higher education. And just from what I observe
is, with that higher education, they’re able to strive for their goals, and they’re able to
think, and they’re able to accomplish what they want to, and some of them are breaking
out of families that have never gone on to school. But, to me, their thinking also clears
their way to thinking, or return, or to become stronger in their Native culture. Because
they can think, and the kids can see that the way to—or the way to return. Because some
of the younger people that I am around, they are like my mentors, you know? And I may
not be real close to them, but I hear and see what they’re doing. And I can pick up some
good movement, and some good spiritual movement there. And what’s so good these
days is, the culture that’s coming back, and the language that’s coming back. There are
people here in Owyhee that I knew years ago that was starting to teach the language class
to ladies. And they speak pretty darn good now, you know? Because they kept at it, and
they kept at it, and they kept at it. And I think—where I can understand it perfectly, but
then when I go to speak it—which I don’t very often, I’m not around hardly anybody that
speaks it. I will to myself when I’m doing my prayer, and it’s kind of funny, I’ll be in the
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shower and I’ll be singing about, “Ne appe, ne pii.” [40:17] [Laughter] My relatives, and
I don’t have much words, but I kind of say those things over and over. It’s funny. I can
feel it, you know? I can feel the good feeling inside. Speaking it out, I had my old aunt
Jessie Lee, she—my mother passed away at ninety-three, and my aunt passed away at
ninety-six. And I remember those two old ladies, they’d visit my—and they’d visit all
day. And they’d talk in Shoshone all day long. And telling stories, and gossiping, and I
mean, it lasted for a good seven hours, seven-eight hours. But they had so much inside,
that good Shoshone spirit coming out. And I used to love to listen to them, and they’d
forget that I could understand them, and they’d be talking about something, and I’d
correct them: “No, that’s not the way it goes!” But it’s just, being around the Shoshone
people and being here is just so—such a good feeling. Such a good heart feeling. I told
somebody in Battle Mountain the other day that, I said, “Man, it feels so good up here.
The mountains are so pretty and so beautiful, and the air is clean, and boy, and I just feel
the good spirit of my people in a good way.” But the things that are happening nowadays,
I see more and more, they’re—great-grandfather, Creator’s way. Just learn to accept
things that are meant to be. Even coming back to here was meant to me, I had some
experiences connected with Owyhee that—I used to kind of blame Owyhee for some
tragedy, you know? I had—my brother committed suicide up here years ago. And that
was something that I never could handle. And it was kind of sad, because at the time that
they had his funeral, I was drinking, and during the funeral I was up here. And I just
thought of my mother, my poor mother; she must have really been worried about two
suicidal sons. And then, later, I was up here, and I was in the Miner’s Club, and I was
shot there. And nearly died there. Went through crazy, crazy experiences. But those were
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some of the things that I thought was, you know, “Man, that Owyhee’s a bad place for
me!” And then, so I had been working up in a treatment center in Salt Lake, Native
American treatment center, and by golly, got a call from Owyhee. And they needed a
counselor from up here. And I thought of that. I thought, “Man, should I go up there?” I
had years’ sobriety. And I kind of debated it. But I thought, “Well, I might as well go up
there.” And I came up here, and you know—and again, it was a blessing, and a spiritual
blessing to be here. Really started an inner healing process that, for whatever reason, our
Grandfather, our Creator, directed me to come here to Owyhee, Nevada. And really did
some healing, and realized that not only Owyhee, but wherever place that I blamed for
my own wasn’t—it wasn’t the problem, the problem was me. So, what’s neat about the
problem being ourselves and we identify it is, by golly, with the spiritual help and a
spiritual awakening, we can change that problem. Because we have the blessing to, like I
said, pull that medicine out from ourselves. But again, what is so important is the spirit,
and the spirit ways. And I talk to some of my friends, and we might be having some
problem with the dominant society and getting upset about this, but I always say,
“Remember, we are Shoshone.” We are what I call a natural people. That’s not to cut
everybody else down, but is, we have our place, and our place is in these mountains, and
besides these waters, and all this open country of northeastern Nevada, you know? The
Shoshone people were a movement people. And I think we learned to live the land, and
we learned to live the ways, and we had great respect for Creator’s blessing, and for
ourselves. And I just think that what’s some sadness is when the people were moved onto
the Colonies, the little Colonies, you know. On the reservation there’s more space, but
being raised in Colony, and even nowadays in my little hometown Colony, there’s lot of
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problems. There is problems with alcohol and drugs. But I still think, with the younger
generation that are coming up, and with the educational opportunity, man, there are some
good opportunities, and employment opportunities. Which gives the Shoshone people a
good chance to do some movement there. But I think it’s going to take what it’s going to
take now, with what’s happening right now. And me sitting here and being given the
opportunity to share some of my experiences and some of my feelings. But I think it
takes people like the program, Great Basin College, and Norm’s effort to reach out to
people. To reach out to people because I think within the Shoshone people, we have a lot
of talent there, we have a lot of spirit there, we have a lot of teachings. And sometimes,
we can be kind of a quiet people, and we don’t volunteer to speak, but when somebody
asks us to, we can talk pretty good. [Laughter] But, I appreciate being given this
opportunity, and of course there’s some things that I was intending to say, but I probably
will remember later when this is over. But again, I appreciate it, and to share my talk
from the heart. And bless all of the people, and respect all of the people, and you know,
for the young people, after you make your circle and do what you’re going to do out there
to return to the Shoshone way, and strive to keep our language, and strive to keep our
tradition and our spirit and our feelings. And respect each other, and talk to each other,
and smile at each other. Say hi to each other. And with that good feeling, because we are
really a good-feeling people. When you get a bunch of Shoshones together, there’s
laughter, and there’s good times, and there’s kidding, you know? Because we’re so
happy when we get together, and all our families. I’m related to a lot of people here in
Owyhee and Elko area. And one of the things I need to do and intend to do is take time to
visit. Go visit somebody, talk to somebody. Smile. Smile with somebody. And since I’ve
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been here in Owyhee, I’ve been eating a lot—because man, there’s a lot of food offered
in Owyhee! But this is a good place to be, and it’s a good day to walk this Mother Earth,
and the blessings of the Creator, and all the opportunities we have, I believe that’s a good
time. And that’s about all I have to share today, and thank you.
[End of recording]
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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
Ronnie Dixon
Location
The location of the interview
Battle Mountain, NV [Battle Mountain Colony]; Owyhee [Duck Valley Reservation]
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/505
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.)
00:50:35
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
Oral History - Ronnie Dixon (11/05/2014)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral History interview with Ronnie Dixon, Western Shoshone from Battle Mountain, NV, on 11/05/2014
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Ronnie Dixon is a Western Shoshone from the Battle Mountain Band, born and delivered by his grandmother on the Battle Mountain Colony, and was raised in Battle Mountain. He was also raised by his grandmother and grandfather. He tells us about the history of his grandparents, and how he went to school with his sisters and friends. Ronnie then goes on to tell about his times drinking, being a cowboy with his father, and how he was drafted into the Army during Vietnam. He tells us about his time in the Military. And then goes on to tell of his job in Owyhee as a Substance Abuse counselor, and his philosophy around spirituality and drinking.</p>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/p/2096981/sp/209698100/embedIframeJs/uiconf_id/39808892/partner_id/2096981?autoembed=true&entry_id=0_n1wdhptm&playerId=kaltura_player_1501803397&cache_st=1501803397&width=560&height=395&flashvars[streamerType]=auto"></script>
<p><a title="Ronnie Dixon Oral History video in separate page" href="http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/8nb72" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View Oral History video in separate page if above player not working</a><br /> <br /><a title="Ronnie Dixon Oral History Transcript" href="/omeka/files/original/1e307282699a2808a68b24ed0332bb7d.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read Ronnie Dixon Oral History Transcript [pdf file]</a></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 043
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
11/05/2014 [11 November 2014]; 2014 November 11
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; Andrew Moore [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/files/show/488
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
mp4
Language
A language of the resource
English
Battle Mountain
Community
Crossroads
Duck Valley Reservation
GBIA
Owhyee
ranching
Shoshone
Story
Substance Abuse
traditions
veteran