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Lester Shaw
Great Basin Indian Archive
GBIA 052
Oral History Interview by
Norm Cavanaugh
June 1, 2016
Owyhee, NV
Great Basin College • Great Basin Indian Archives
1500 College Parkway
Elko, Nevada 89801
http://www.gbcnv.edu/gbia/
775.738.8493
Produced in partnership with
Barrick Gold of North America
�GBIA 052
Interviewee: Lester Shaw
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: June 1, 2016
S:
My name’s Lester Shaw Jr. I was born in Boise, Idaho, from my mom—Lester Shaw and
Lillian Thomas Shaw. We are enrolled Paiute, Shoshone-Paiutes, here on Duck Valley
reservation. I have two sisters, Karen Temoke and Adrianne Whiterock. And one brother,
Virgil Shaw, and one deceased brother, Irwin D. Ridley. They are all enrolled here on the
Shoshone-Paiute reservation. I remember I went to school here in Owyhee all my life,
when I was—from first grade, to twelfth grade. I finished my school in 1961. Younger
days, when I was growing up here on the reservation, my dad and mom had hay fields
down here. Had to put up all summer! [Laughter] And we learned, had to learn how to
run equipment, like the mower and the rake. And we had a buckrake. Because in them
days, we had to use horse-drawn mowers, and horse-drawn rake, and buckrake, and stack
hay—loose hay—stack it up there. And all of us had to get out there for help, anyway,
even when you’re little, all the way up to, until I got into—almost got to high school by
then, before we switched over to tractors, and stuff like that. But it’s something that we
had to do. And I enjoyed doing it, but it was hard work. We all got together: my mom—I
worked with my mom, she even went up there to be our cook and stuff, to get on the
fields. And we had to move from one field way down to another, and clear down to
Pleasant Valley, that’s where we put up hay last. But then, in the springtime, everybody
has to get out for branding, ride horses, and gather up the cattle, push them out on the
range. Branding, and then, yeah, pushing cows, then up on the mountains again. It was
just regular ranch work, but it was just pretty tough, hard work. Enjoyed that. During my
high school years, I played in the band, high school band. And I was the president of the
FFA. I played basketball, football, track, and I was in the rodeo club. We did pretty good
�GBIA 052; Shaw; Page 2
in the basketball, because we were undefeated my senior year, but we got beat out in the
zone tournament by the lowest team. It just happened that way, I guess. I’d like to talk
about my younger days when I was playing in the Indian basketball leagues. We had a
team here in Owyhee that, we’d travel all over to a different reservation to play in a
tournaments. Lot of our guys are all, they’re getting pretty old now, they don’t play
anymore, but I like to remember that, when we win that championship, or I used to like to
go to Fort Hall because it always has good tournaments up there. Or sometimes, just to go
up there and play, you know just the regular games. And participate in tournaments down
Schurz, and Reno, and Elko. We’d play all over. And up here. At here, at home, we used
to have about five tournaments a year, basketball tournaments. We’d have young men’s,
and old men’s. Now, we have—one of the older, we got a older league, thirty and over,
and now it’s forty and over. Fort Hall, I used to go up there and play in the thirty and
forty and over. Now, it goes clear up to sixty and over! That’s guys still playing ball!
[Laughter] It’s lot of fun, but now I can’t do it. Most of us are injured. All injured. But
we had lot of fond memories, it was lot of fun. After I graduate from here, I worked out at
Spanish Arts to make money to go to school. I went, the fall I went to Haskell Institute
in Lawrence, Kansas. That was through study of masonry and construction. And I was
there for, got out of there in 1963. I worked in Raytown, Missouri as a apprentice
bricklayer for six months. And then, I moved back to—I moved to California, I moved to
San Jose. And I couldn’t find any work for my trade, so I moved back to Reno, then I
found a—I got a job as apprentice bricklayer for L.A. Dunson Masonry contractor out of
Sparks, Nevada. And I enjoyed working there with older guys that would teach us. I’d
learn. Learning, I did all the—you start doing the dirty jobs first. So like, helping to carry
�GBIA 052; Shaw; Page 3
mud, and pack bricks and blocks. Yeah. Then I, they taught me quite a bit, lot of those
older bricklayers. Got to work with them, and I enjoyed working with them, because I got
to know them and got friendly with them, and then I was kind of scared first time. Like,
kind of, because of my race I guess. But they kept—encouraged me, and that’s what I
enjoyed: working as a bricklayer.
That was the love of my life, that masonry and construction, because you finish the job,
you look at it, and you could see, “Hey, I built that! Helped build that building!” And lot
of buildings in Boise that we completed, and I look back and when I go up there
sometimes, I look and, “Hey, look at that old building we built long time ago.” Like the
university, Boise State University, we worked lots on there: the student union, the
dormitories.
[Break in recording]
When I was young, I started out with three sixty-five an hour. [Laughter] It’s not even
nothing now. It’s probably up about—it’s about twenty-five, twenty-six dollars an hour
now, as far as I know. I don’t know, I haven’t been—what, real long time, since 1972,
since I done any kind of brick work, or block work, or stuff like that. It’s good, though. I
got drafted in 1964. July. And I went into the Army. I went to Fort Ord, California. I
finished my Basic Training in Fort Ord, and then I came home on leave, and then went to
my AIT training in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. And I was there for another eight weeks, and then
I got my orders to go to Germany. And there, I spent eighteen months over there on
artillery, as artilleryman. We were on eight-inch howitzers. And when I was about ready
to get out, I re-enlisted and got sent back to the States. When I was about done, then I
spent five months at Fort Hood, Texas. And then, I got orders to go to Vietnam, Republic
�GBIA 052; Shaw; Page 4
of Vietnam, and that’s when I went to the Vietnam War. I was assigned to the First
Cavalry Division, Airmobile. And I was—our base camp was An Khe, Vietnam. From
there, I was out in the field most of the time on different landing zones. And then, I lasted
out there for five months, until I got wounded in January 3rd, 1968. We come under
hostile mortar attack and rocket attack, and we were about almost ready to get overrun. I
got wounded. I knocked out a rocket position with my squad, and then I received a
Bronze Star from that, for heroism. It was pretty tough over there. I don’t remember
getting loaded up in the medevac chopper, and next thing I know I was in Qui Nohn,
that’s a hospital there. Then there for short time, and then I was sent to Japan to see what
they could do to fix up my wounds. They couldn’t do anything for my jaw right there.
My jaw was disappeared, and knocked out all my teeth, and my left mandible was gone.
[Laughter] So, they sent me back to the States, to Letterman General Hospital in San
Fransisco. There I spent the rest of my tour, at the Letterman’s. I finally got out, and I
was home on convalescent leave about three times when I was in there. Until I had to go
back for more surgery, and then I finally got my honorable discharge. And then, I came
back here, home, here in Owyhee. I spent about a year just kicking back. I couldn’t do
much. I finally, after I got on as a bricklayer, apprentice bricklayer, in Boise Idaho, and I
worked there for the Local #2 Bricklayers’ Union, until I got my journeyman card for
bricklaying. Then I worked there until I decided to go on to school a little bit more, and I
went to Idaho State University vo-tech, and I got a certificate for furniture maintenance.
Trying to rebuild furniture, and upholstery and stuff. But I used it for about maybe five
months or so, but I decided I couldn’t do that, because the pay wasn’t too much, but it
was worth something—something I had to fall back on if I needed to. And then, from
�GBIA 052; Shaw; Page 5
there, I came back here to Owyhee, and worked for the BIA maintenance department.
Worked down there for, let’s see—I have ten years there, service, as a maintenance
worker. As a laborer first, then I moved up to a maintenance worker, and that I worked
for a while, then I finally worked for the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe as an instructor for the
AIT program. I worked there until I got hired at the Human Development Center as a
coordinator of events and building superintendent. Then I worked there for a short while,
and then I also worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a forestry technician, in Boise
National Forest in Idaho. And then, I transferred to Ruby Mountain Ranger District with
the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. After that, I finished there, then I decided to look
for something else, and I found work at the Owyhee Community Health Facility as a
maintenance mechanic helper. And that’s all my work I did so far. Plus, I worked on
various ranches. But I didn’t count that too much. [Laughter] That was lot of interesting
fun, though. The last job, that’s when I was injured on the job and I had to take a medical
retirement. So now, I’ve been laid up for—can’t do much for, oh, sixteen years now. I
was injured in year 2000. I’ve enjoyed going to powwows, watching kids play basketball,
and just staying home with my family. My wife is deceased. So I live here, but I have my
nephews and whoever come over and visit. I am a member of the American Legion, Post
48—Jack Hanks 48. And I’m Adjutant for them, and I belong to the Military Order of
Purple Heart. And Disabled American Veterans. And I enjoy working with the veterans,
keep it going here at home. And I like to go to their meetings, and we keep everything up
with our old post. We started after World War II, with Art Manning as our commander
and stuff. We’re down to about very many—oh, we had about seventeen when I first
joined. Now we’re down to about ten. [Laughter]
�[Break in recording]
GBIA 052; Shaw; Page 6
I was a teacher for, to teach these young guys around here how to lay blocks. So then
they started on a building, a shop down here that they built. Went up with my teaching.
They built it, they laid the blocks, all these younger guys here that learned that trade. I
enjoyed teaching them. Yeah, it’s something they can fall back—if they want to continue,
they have to go further up, though, to get their journeyman’s card and stuff for that.
There’s not too many, very many brick layers left around here I don’t think. Most of them
are either passed on or moved away. And they have to go to town, move to the city
mostly, to find good work. But you get in that apprenticeship program, you can start off
as a apprentice, bricklayer’s apprentice, or cement finish. Or then they—you have to get
indentured into, with a contractor. And most of them recommend to get into the union so
you can go to work, unless you know somebody that does that kind of work. You can
work for him, then work your way on up. It’s good. Good trade.
[Break in recording]
I like to see these younger people stay with their powwows and their, the Indian, Native
American language. They have to try to keep that up, because it’s going, we’re going to
lose it pretty soon if we don’t. There’s lot of—here at home, they have classes for the
Shoshone language, and Paiute, and to keep it up. You got to listen to the elders and try
not to—because it’s kind of getting lost now because of, they don’t listen. Nobody tells
you, the younger ones, what’s going on with our culture and stuff. It’s good to keep that
up. And I sure enjoy it, to watch these younger little ones out there, the peewees, clear up
to the golden age, that are still dancing. It’s good to see. And I believe in that eagle staff,
you got to watch our eagle feathers and stuff, we got to keep that sacred, and not to abuse
�GBIA 052; Shaw; Page 7
it in any way. Yeah, the eagle feathers are the main things I like that the—to me, that’s
what we respect. To our Mother Earth here, and our water, and our wild game, and the
fish in the water. And that’s what we survived on when we were little, and we ate rabbits,
and deer, and antelope, and elk, and—just keep up the language, that’s what I say. But I
want the younger generation to know that, just continue learning your language and
listening to the elders up here.
[Break in recording]
What I recommend to the kids of the younger generation now is to continue your
education, because it’s getting pretty hard to get any kind of employment. You got to
have education to find any kind of work, you know? If you go off the reservations, hard
to find work, a job or something—a decent job, anyway. Even here at home, it’s hard to
get on something like a—get trainings or something anyway, so you can have something
to fall back on to support your family. That’s what I recommend. I’ve been through a lot,
and I enjoyed every bit of what I did. Went through hard times and good times, and lot of
fun times. So, just think about that. Thank you.
[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
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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
Lester Shaw, Jr.
Duration
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00:20:40
Location
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Duck Valley Reservation - Owyhee (Shaw residence)
Transcription
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http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/528
Original Format
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DVD, MP4, and AVI format
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
Lester Shaw Jr. - Oral history (06/01/2016)
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Lester Shaw Jr. was born in Boise, ID and was son to Lester Shaw and Lillian Thomas Shaw. Lester currently resides on the Duck Valley Reservation where he attended school until 1961 and became president of the FFA and participated in various sports. During this period he helped out at his dad’s mom’s ranch pushing cattle, branding horses, and putting-up hay. After he finished High School he worked at Spanish Ranch to save up to attend Haskell Institute in Kansas until he was drafted into the military in 1964. While serving in the military he was sent to Germany and Vietnam during the war, at which time he received the Bronze star and was inducted into the Military Order of the Purple Heart. He also spent much of his life learning masonry which he taught to the youth which he advises to keep up their traditions and Native language.</p>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MgUniui0jCQ" 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 052
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
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06/02/2016 [02 June 2016]; 2016 June 02
Contributor
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Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; Scott A. Gavorsky [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/id/172
Language
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English
Subject
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Oral history interview with Lester Shaw Jr., Western Shoshone from Duck Valley Reservation (Owhyee) on 06/01/2016
Format
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MP4
Community
Crossroads
Duck Valley Reservation
GBIA
language
masonry
ranching
Shoshone
Story
traditions
veteran
Vietnam war