1
10
23
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/4d129572a7284f980f63abd7e2bbebdd.jpg
cbf121362e9b5b69359a614c63800f27
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
James Hedrick
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Janey Blackeye-Bryan and Shasta Blackeye-Adair
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
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:59:30
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
Janey Blackeye-Bryan and Shasta Blackeye-Adair - Oral history (08/01/2017)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Janey Blackeye-Bryan and Shasta Blackeye-Adair, Western Shoshone from Duckwater, NV, on 08/01/2017
Description
An account of the resource
<p>In Janey Blackeye-Bryan and Shasta Blackeye-Adair’s second presentation to the Shoshone Community Language Initiative (SCLI) program at Great Basin College they continue to talk about their history and the traditions of the Western Shoshone. They begin by singing a Shoshone Honor song that was created by their father/grandfather Willie Blackeye from Duckwater reservation, NV. Then they move onto express the importance of the language program and moreover how important it is to stay in school and stay strong like our ancestors use to.<br /> <br />Presented at the 2017 Shoshone Community Language Initiative summer youth program (SCLI 17).</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_mazdmku1&playerId=kaltura_player_1502219206&cache_st=1502219206&width=560&height=395&flashvars[streamerType]=auto"></script>
<p><a href="http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/6wwsx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View oral history video in separate page if above player not working</a><br /> <br />Transcript pending</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 66
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
08/01/2017 [01 August 2017]; 2017 August 01
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
James Hedrick [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK
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/407
Language
A language of the resource
English; some Shoshoni
Community
Crossroads
Duckwater Reservation
GBIA
Shoshone
Story
traditional ceremony
traditional songs
traditions
veteran
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/fde931ad916766a8a6280b406f0ea4b8.jpg
140bfc5a294e5d755c48768903665e4b
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
James Hedrick
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Janey Bryan and Shasta Blackeye-Adair
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
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
01:01:56
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
Janey Blackeye-Bryan and Shasta Blackeye-Adair - Oral history (07/31/2017)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Janey Blackeye-Bryan and Shasta Blackeye-Adair, Western Shoshones from Duckwater, NV, on 07/31/2017.
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Janey Blackeye-Bryan and Shasta Blackeye-Adair presented a lecture to the Shoshone Community Language Initiative (SCLI) program at Great Basin College over the heritage of the Western Shoshone. They begin their presentation by going over women and men’s right of passages in regards to Western Shoshones. They talk about the traditions that they had to practice growing up which included hunting, dating, and so on. They also give us a view into the language and how it refers to the culture. Moreover, they give us an insight into their personal histories growing up in Duckwater, NV.<br /> <br />Presented at the 2017 Shoshone Community Language Initiative summer youth program (SCLI 17).</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_nomfkgyt&playerId=kaltura_player_1502209988&cache_st=1502209988&width=560&height=395&flashvars[streamerType]=auto"></script>
<a href="http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/31d17" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Play oral history video in separate page if above player not working</a><br /> <br />Transcription pending
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 065
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
07/31/2017 [31 July 2017]; 2017 July 31
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
James Hedrick [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK
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/405
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
MP4
Language
A language of the resource
English; Shoshoni
Community
Crossroads
Duckwater Reservation
GBIA
history
hunting
rights of passage
Shoshone
Story
traditions
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/fd6e9fafa81a66c5843b548cb10338f0.jpg
a048f291da11f622697fa7f524521253
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
Antoinette Cavanaugh
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
James Hedrick
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
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:52:53
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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Antoinette Cavanaugh - Oral history (07/27/2017)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Antoinette Cavanaugh, Western Shoshone from Duck Valley NV-ID, on 07/27/2017
Description
An account of the resource
<p>During the Shoshone Community Language Initiative (SCLI) program at Great Basin College, Antoinette Cavanaugh delivered a beading workshop. Antoinette covered many aspects of beading which included how to develop a pattern, what type of beadwork is difficult or easy, and even goes as far as to show ‘tricks of the trade’ when threading a needle.<br /> <br />Presented at the 2017 Shoshone Community Language Initiative summer youth program (SCLI 17).</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_xuwyzev5&playerId=kaltura_player_1502225160&cache_st=1502225160&width=560&height=395&flashvars[streamerType]=auto"></script>
<p><a href="http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/5o1o8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View Oral History video in separate page if above player not working.</a><br /> <br />Transcription pending</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 064
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
07/27/2017 [27 July 2017]; 2017 July 27
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
James Hedrick [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK
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/403
Language
A language of the resource
English
bead work
beading
Community
Crossroads
GBIA
Shoshone
Story
traditions
workshops
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/8d2eb93328d1dfd9d888e1f2d8d77606.jpg
df14ae09ae5353c3a9ef4593f2376495
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
James Hedrick
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Elizabeth "Liz" Dann
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
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
01:40:17
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
Elizabeth "Liz" Dann - Oral history (07/18/2017)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Elizabeth "Liz" Dann, Western Shoshone from Crescent Valley, NV, on 07/18/2017
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Elizabeth “Liz” Dann addresses students at the Shoshone Community Language Initiative (SCLI) program at Great Basin College. She starts her presentation by offering a prayer, and then speaks about the importance of our traditions. She also speaks about giving her grandson an eagle feather, medicine bag, and other items while he was in the war. She also gives advice to the women about women, especially during ceremonies. Her daughter Sandy Dann speaks about her experience with the Sundance and what it consist of. Liz then speaks about making cradle boards, preparing hides, and tells some of the traditional Shoshone stories.<br /> <br />Presented at the 2017 Shoshone Community Language Initiative summer youth program (SCLI 17).</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_tlej0c55&playerId=kaltura_player_1501783265&cache_st=1501783265&width=560&height=395&flashvars[streamerType]=auto"></script>
<p><a title="Elizabeth Liz Dann 2017 Oral History video in separate page" href="http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/5gdrn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View Oral History in separate page if above player not working</a><br />Transcript pending</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 063
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
07/18/2017 [18 July 2017]; 2017 July 18
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
James Hedrick [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK
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/401
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
MP4
Language
A language of the resource
English; Shoshoni
Community
Crossroads
folktale
GBIA
hunting
Shoshone
Story
sundance
traditional ceremony
traditional foods
traditions
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/a6d92c28c92a49eb8e30a86a312703f4.jpg
cf26af8a34cece4a6f3e0705f0cbfb14
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
James Hedrick
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Shawn L. Collins
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
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
01:31:51
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
Shawn L. Collins - Oral history (07/12/2017)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral History Interview with Shawn L. Collins, Western Shoshone from South Fork, NV, on 07/12/2017
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Shawn L. Collins addresses students at the Shoshone Community Language Initiative (SCLI) program at Great Basin College. Shawn L. Collins is a Western Shoshone from the South Fork area. He tells some of the stories of the Shoshone, about traditions such as tanning and hunting, and he also speaks about how the Western Shoshone viewed and interacted with the world. He elaborates about whirlwinds, old animals (no longer exist), and water babies. He gives an overall explanatory talk about the heritage and traditions of the Western Shoshones. He also warns the younger generation not to brag because it’s against the traditional Shoshone lifeway.<br /> <br />Presented at the 2017 Shoshone Community Language Initiative summer youth program (SCLI 17).</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_lrvbszl2&playerId=kaltura_player_1501624865&cache_st=1501624865&width=560&height=395&flashvars[streamerType]=auto"></script>
<a title="Shawn Collins Oral History video in spearate page" href="http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/el3ic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View Oral History video in separate page if above player not working</a><br />Transcription pending
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 061
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
07/12/2017 [12 July 2017]; 2017 July 12
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
James Hedrick [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK
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/397
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
MP4
Language
A language of the resource
English; some Shoshoni
Community
Crossroads
folktale
GBIA
hunting
Shoshone
Story
sun dance
sundance
traditions
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/6d63b696bd95f455952cbbf791ff5253.jpg
d6465d5714add134db2975e18f63860a
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
James Hedrick
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Alfred Jackson
Location
The location of the interview
Great Basin College (Elko, NV)
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
Transcription in process
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
MP4
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:34:34
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
Alfred Jackson - Oral history (07/07/2017)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Alfred Jackson, Western Shoshone from Elko, NV, on 07/07/2017
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Alfred Jackson addresses students at the Shoshone Community Language Initiative (SCLI) program at Great Basin College. Alfred Jackson speaks about the decay of the Shoshone culture, but also speaks about the steps necessary to preserve such a unique culture. He also speaks about his experiences growing up in the area, as well as how language is important in keeping up the traditions and values within the Shoshonean culture. He also tells the students about his experience Sun Dancing at different areas within and outside of the Great Basin region.<br /> <br />Presented at the 2017 Shoshone Community Language Initiative summer youth program (SCLI 17).</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_mvwnaw8x&playerId=kaltura_player_1500576905&cache_st=1500576905&width=560&height=395&flashvars[streamerType]=auto"></script>
<a title="Streaming video of Alfred Jackson in separate window" href="http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/5erfz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to view video in separate page if above embedded viewer not working.</a>
<p>Transcript pending</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 059
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
07/07/2017 [07 July 2017]; 2017 July 07
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
James Hedrick [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah [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/390
Language
A language of the resource
English; Shoshoni
Community
Crossroads
GBIA
language
Shoshone
Story
sun dance
sundance
traditions
-
https://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/files/original/f7cab43263abdae392441f39c5fe66eb.jpg
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
�GBIA
030B;
Jones;
Page
2
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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http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/583
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Virginia Mae Jones - Oral history (06/2012)
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Oral history interview with Virginia Mae Jones, Shoshone-Paiute from Duck Valley Reservation (Owyhee, NV) on 06/2012
Description
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<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>
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Great Basin Indian Archives
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 030B
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Great Basin Indian Archives
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06/2012 [June 2012]; 2012 June
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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):
Language
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English; some Shoshoni
Community
Crossroads
drums
GBIA
heritage
Shoshone
Story
traditional medicines
traditional songs
traditions
-
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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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12
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
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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
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 026
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
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05/2011 [May 2011]; 2011 May
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/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
4b6a6c0876d2c97152d0e4a09144ce62
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]
�
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
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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
Illaine Premo
Location
The location of the interview
Duck Valley Reservation (Owyhee, NV)
Original Format
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DVD and VOB format
Duration
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00:45:58
Transcription
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http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/566
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Illaine Premo - Oral history (11/30/2009)
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Oral history interview with Illaine Premo, Western Shoshone from Battle Mountain, NV on 11/30/2009
Description
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<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
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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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PDF Text
Text
History
of
the
Ghost
Dance
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
012
Oral
History
Presenta4on
by
Harold
Miller
&
Raymond
Hofer
November
12,
2007
Reno,
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 012
Interviewee: History of the Ghost Dance (Harold Miller and Raymond Hofer)
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: November 12, 2007
M:
My name is Harold Miller. I’m from, originally from Yerington, which is what I’m going
to talk about a little while. I was born over there in brushes over there by Nordyke, they
call it. Nordyke, Nevada. That’s a little alfalfa mill along the railroad track. Before the
railroad track was well-used through that country, used to be wagon train going through
there. They grind up the hay. And they had a big mill there. They pump water out of the
river and run steam machines to grind up the alfalfa, and they load it up in wagons and
take it down to Mason. And load it into box cars, and they ship it off all over the country.
You know, that’s where I was born. Lot of Indians lived there, in that place I’m talking
about. It’s a Nordyke. And now, right today, big lifestyle rancher’s got a house there. He
got big cattle ranch there. And every once in a while, they’d be building something,
digging up a fencepost, or building a yard for the cows to eat out of or drink out of. They
dig up some of our artifacts. And they dig it up, and they take it up here to one guy,
Claude Chisholm name. Call white guy, contractor, and he’s got a lot of rocks. The
rocks go all the way around his house. He got about two, three thousand rocks of all
different kind. All kinds of grinding rocks, and flat rocks, and tusu, and all of that.
Anyway, I was raised next to this old guy. But I used to hear him do a lot of things. And
one day, I became sick. And this guy, my mother went over and got him. And he said,
“Well, so we’ve got to have a doctoring.” So they doctor me up. And I was about three
years old, little fella. And one of the other Indian doctors, they didn’t like it. And he
wanted to get rid of me, because I was kind of half-breed guy. And he wanted to put me
away. So this guy, Wovokatten [2:46], his Indian name, Indian doctor, Jack Wilson his
white man name. And he told my mother “Well, I’ll go see him, see what I can do.” And
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I was telling Raymond about this stuff where he gave me a white aippin, that whitelooking milk, it’s—white people nowadays use it for pepto bismol. They put a lot flavor
in it, the same kind of dirt. But anyway, he put lot of that stuff in me, because I was
bleeding at both ends, and he wanted to do me in. So anyway, I grew up next to him like
that, and then—he teach us lots. Lots of old ways of life. I can’t reveal—one thing, I
can’t tell you a lot of things he did in his Indian doctoring. I have to keep it to myself,
otherwise the spirits will punish me. And I believe in the spirits quite a bit. And that’s
why when I make prayers in my language, we always say, “Grandfathers.” There’s a lot
of grandfathers. We got buffalo, we got rabbits, we got eagles. All those is our sacred
animals. Sometime, we get hungry, we kill our sacred animal to eat. They keep alive.
And that’s how we use the eagle feathers for—sometime, we go around to the nesting
place, and we get the feathers, and make bonnets and medicine quirts out of them little
feathers we get. Lot of things that he teach us, and we can’t bother it. We’re not supposed
to bother them, just get the food, what I use for that day. Don’t go and get hoggy about it.
Take everything down and leave nothing. Always leave some kind of tobacco there,
when you get the medicine, or get something when you kill it. Leave a tobacco there for
the spirits to smudge everybody with, when they eat the meat, or when you kill. Lot of
things he tell us like that. The food, everything. He teach us lot of things about songs,
how the songs go, what kind of songs they are, what they used for. Lot of religious songs
he teach us. Once in a while, I’d be driving down the road in my car—in modern days,
nowadays, everybody’s modern—and he, a lot of his songs come to my ear, and I start
singing along with it. But I’m not supposed to sing any of the songs, in our way—his
songs. But I know what he sung when he was singing with us guys. I helped sing with
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him lot of times. Even when we was little kids; kids got real squeaky voice, and highpitched voice. That’s what he like to have, kind of girls and women sing with him. Boys.
And he had lot of fun with them. He told many times, “Don’t let these songs get out of
your mouth. Just keep it to yourself. Don’t teach the white man that language,” he said.
Just anything else that he teach you, don’t go reveal it too much. So that’s what I’m going
to tell you now, that I can’t reveal it too much of it, but I grew up with him, next to him.
That guy, he was pretty smart old man. He went back east, where the Sioux Indians had a
big battle. White man was killing them. He went back there and talked to them white men
over there about our ways of life here, and he stopped that manslaughter to the Indians
over there. All up and down the valley back that way, back east. And lot of Indians didn’t
want to surrender, they got killed. But lot of people talk about him, the people back there
talk about that old man in their language. Some of those language, they almost sound like
our Paiute language when they talk. When we talk our language here. I heard some
talking up here one day, up here, in the place up there where the top part of this
auditorium. And those Indians from Oklahoma, they talked just like we do. And the
Shoshones, too. They must be brother and sister language. But anyway, that old man, he
taught us lots. Lot of things, can’t reveal it. Can’t reveal all in one day. I can tell a little
bit here and there, but not all of it. And Raymond here got some pictures of old guys here
that—his relation, and his uncles, and them guys, how they paint each other with that
kind of white aippin, they called it. Paint, white paint. And they signify themselves as
ghosts, and they sing by that at night. Make fire all night long, and they use all kinds of
medicine to go with it. And that’s about pretty close to about all I can reveal to you guys.
And thank you for listening to me that far.
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H:
Okay. My name’s Raymond Hofer. I’m the culture coordinator for Walker Paiute Tribe.
And I just want to give you a little history of the Ghost Dance, just to get everybody up to
speed. “The Ghost Dance” is not what it’s called. That’s a misnomer. That was what the
white man, and the Indian agents, and other people called it to scare people away. And it
worked very well. To this day, it still works. There’s a lot of people that won’t come to
ceremony because of that, and what, the teachings of the BIA bureau schools, and that.
Stripped everybody down: language, religion, everything. So we had to put the pieces
back together. And the way it started out was, you know, the language class in our
school. And as we went along in the language class, the kids start asking more and more
questions about, you know, “What kind of ceremonies did we have?” “Did we have, you
know, certain ceremonies that we should know about, or”—you know—“we don’t know
anything about?” They didn’t even know who Wovoka was. And so, we had to start from
scratch. And as we went along, the culture committee says, “Well, we’re talking about
having a powwow.” And then, Inez Jim, who’s the great-great granddaughter of Wovoka,
says, “Well, if we’re going to do that, why don’t we have a Ghost Dance? Because the
kids want it. We have to teach them what we know, still. If we don’t, it’s going to be lost
forever.” And so, with that—and they gave us the instruction to put together a Ghost
Dance. And that wasn’t an easy task. We went to Fort Hall, and danced with the
Bannocks. And they had probably the last viable Ghost Dance in the Great Basin that we
knew about. And so, they taught us some of the songs and stuff. And what we found out,
was that the songs that they were singing, a lot of them were exactly the same that we had
in the Pinenut Dance. And we’d always heard that the Ghost Dance was hidden within the
Pinenut Dance, because the government outlawed all Indian ceremonies. And so, they
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either had to do it in secret, or, you know, within the Pinenut Dance. So after we found
that out, we knew that we had songs of our own that we could use. And Wesley Jim had a
big part in that, because he remembered a lot of Wovoka songs. The one about crossing
over the Milky Way, and other sacred songs like that. And the majority of them are all
about nature. They’re not about calling in, you know, ghosts, and all this and that. It’s all
about nature. It’s about pinenuts, and about water, and it’s about, you know, the crops
that are coming in. Animals. And all these different things that have nothing to do with
war or battles or anything, because that particular dance, you’ve got to understand, was
for the people—to protect the people. And so, Wovoka, he spread that word, you know,
that was protection for the people if they did that dance. And so, as it spread, it spread all
over the West. And it’s documented that there were up to 20,000 people who migrated to
Walker River to hear him speak. That’s a lot of people. It was like almost half a football
field stadium. And then, after that, we had Sitting Bull. He was also at Ghost Dance one
year. Sent a pipe to Walker River, along with some in-studies. And their job was to trade
that pipe for some Ghost Dance medicines. And so, they took that back with them. And
they said, as they were riding their horses back, he was flying above them, teaching them
the songs. And that’s what they took back with them, and that’s what they reported to
their chiefs. So, as they went along, people were being rounded up, people were put on
the reservations, starving, no food and no clothes, no protection from the wind or
weather. They were suffering. And so the dance was to help them survive. Help them
survive up to now, because, you know, we’re all sitting here right now. And so, we
thought, and we prayed, and we’ve been—I talked a lot with the elders that, you know, if
this dance does take place, then we’re going to pray for ensuring the safety of our Indian
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people for another hundred years. And so, it was the kids that started this. And it was the
kids that built the arbor, and they helped us all throughout the Sundance.1 And it was
funny, because you didn’t see anybody 40-plus there. None of their parents, or, none of
their grandparents showed up. And I guess it was obvious that it was their fear of that
word “ghost,” or, you know, that type of thing. And then, after that, Wounded Knee took
place, and Wovoka went basically underground after that. Because he didn’t want that to
happen to the other tribes who also believed in the Ghost Dance. Anything to add to that?
I know I probably missed something. Oh, yeah. Let’s talk about that a little bit. Woziwob,
in 1870, started the Ghost Dance. But it wasn’t—it just a Numane na’anakkah [14:15],
which goes back, you know, way back. Who knows, I don’t know how long. Probably
thousands of years. And he started that, and then we had another medicine man who also
was using the Ghost Dance medicine. His name was Fish Lake Joe. And then, Wovoka
came along 20 years later, 1890, picked up that Ghost Dance also, and started using it.
And that’s who made it famous, was Wovoka.
U1:
Is it about the society, that you have to go into—or, when you say it went underground?
H:
Oh, I don’t know how it—you know, that was a hundred years ago. I don’t know exactly
what happened. It just says he went underground and didn’t practice it no more because
he was scared of what was going to happen to him. You know, probably would have
killed him, if he had continued to advocate Ghost Dance. After the government outlawed
Indian ceremonies, was when Wounded Knee happened. And that’s been a controversial
issue, because, you know, there are some Lakotas that say that Wovoka caused the death
of 300 of the people. But, we didn’t pull the triggers. We didn’t have our hand on no
triggers, you know? It was what they took, and they were surrounded by 7th Cavalry, that
1
Presumably, RH misspoke and meant “Ghost Dance.”
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before had been wiped out by the Lakotas. So there was a pendious thing going there
also. So all these things added up to, you know, that. But, you know, what we still have to
remember—we got to remember, the basics of that ceremony is for the good. Was
survival of the people. So, we come right to present day, 2006. And that same year, I
went, and I was around Arapaho Ghost Dance. I wanted to make some offerings, and
you’ve got to see and talk to the three old men in there before you can go in. And I sat
there and talked to them for a while, and one of them says, “Oh, yeah. We know Wovoka,
we remember Wovoka. He came here and helped us with our medicine.” They dance at
night. That’s the only Sundance I’ve been to where they dance at night. And the Ghost
Dance is done at night. And I don’t really know if that’s some of the influence that took
place or not. That was coincidental to me. And, we started in 2006. There’s a person in
Walker River who still has Sitting Bull’s pipe. And they brought it out in 2006, during
the sweat lodge ceremony. And they could feel the people dancing inside the lodge. It
was a very powerful pipe. And we also brought it out into the dance altar that night. We
use a lot of smoke. We use a lot of cedar, and we use a lot of sage while the ceremony’s
going on. And from a distance, people were observing, and they said they could see
people—smoke was rising, and they could see people in the smoke as it was going up.
And also during that time, we had security. We’re not too far from the old Ghost Dance
grounds, where we used to have it. And they could here the old ladies crying down there.
And so… there was some very sacred things happening during that time. We had help
from Wind River. And the Shoshone people helped us out a lot, all the way from Fort
Hall to Wind River. You know, they still have songs, and they still Ghost Dance, also.
And they sang for us. Come out to sing. And they also doctored the people. All of the
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sudden, the people were just lined up in the arbor, and then, just, he was smoking down
one person and fanning on him. Next thing you know, all these people just start gathering
around, and standing in line, because they wanted that doctoring. And it was good. It was
good—it was something we hadn’t planned on, you know? Something that just took
place. And it was good. As he continued to doctor, I was—I was so tired, just laid down,
and he goes, I heard my name being called. And he called me over there, and he said,
“Look at the moon.” And then, so we looked at it, and I looked out there, and the moon
had started getting these rings of different colors around it. And he says, “That’s the
medicine. This is how strong this dance is. It can move the planets. It can change the
course of the planets as they are in the sky.” One of the security people as they were—
you know, it’s pretty late at night, probably 3 o’clock in the morning—they just seen a
star come down, and it just split right on the lake, Walker Lake, in just all directions,
scattered all over the place. There was a lot of sacred things happening that night. The
second year, 2007, this year, we had two young men come in, and they said, “We were
sent here by our elders, and we were sent here to help you.” And we said, “Where are you
from, and who are you?” And he said, “We’re from”—what do they call that? The Clear
Lake area, and they were Pomos. And they were sent there by the elders. They were
singers for the Bighead Dance there. So they helped us sing, and it was really nice that
they came over. So they sang their Ghost Dance songs, and they were very powerful. Lot
of people in the second year saw Wovoka at different places in our altar. Altar is
something like this, and then about a circle—let’s see, there are two poles, and four
directions… And then, willows in here. Willows all the way around. And people that
were dancing, there’s only one pole in the center. With one eagle feather on top. And
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what people saw was, Wovoka standing in these gates at different times. Sometimes, they
would see him in the fire. So everyone seen, he was around there during that time. And
like [__inaudible at 22:37__] said here, lot of this is really sacred stuff that I’m giving out
to you, but I feel it’s relevant, because, at this time, and this period, this time on earth,
we’ve got serious problems. We’ve got—and they were all predicted by Wovoka. The
floods, the earthquakes. The catastrophes that happened. Katrina. We’ve got the hole in
the sky that’s getting ready to burn people up. And these things can only be cured if we
can have a balance on Mother Earth. And this dance is one of the ways that we can put
balance back to what it was. So we’re working on that end, trying to help out as best we
can. Try to, you know, somehow, get that cold force before everything burns up. You can
go to Walker River right now, and you go down any road, and there’s not one green field.
They’re all dry. It looks terrible. The leaves are dying. I know it’s a heartbreaker to me,
because I’m used to having a lot of animals around, and lot of green leaves. You know, it
was nice, beautiful place. But now, there’s no small animals. No raccoons, no beavers, no
porcupines, no animals, no—there’s nothing anymore. Birds are gone. You know, it’s a
prediction of what I feel is the end of the world at some point. A major catastrophe that
somehow, we have to pray in our Indian way in order to survive. And there’s answers to
that. If you pray like that, you will get answers. You have to be sincere. And even alone,
if you’re just alone, you can do that. Let’s see, now. You got any questions?
U2:
I have relatives in the Schurz area, and I remember, like you said, when we were kids, we
used to go—I’m from Bishop, we used to go over and visit them for days, and swim in
the river, and just have a gold old time there. And I remember it was green, and lots of
plant life and whatnot. What caused that, that event? Was the water not—the water’s not
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there anymore, or…? I mean, what—because I’m from the Owens Valley, and our
dryness and everything disappearing is due to Los Angeles taking our water. Just kind of
wondering what—is there a cause, that caused the river to go down? Because I
understand the river’s mud.
H:
Yeah, it’s just barely a trickle, and Walker Lake is dying. They only give it a couple years
before all life is dead in Walker Lake. And that’s a major byway, too, for birds. A lot of
it’s upstream. Yerington, Lyon County just has major fields. And they have a wildlife
area right above the reservation, and they have like 60-acre farms where they just drain
the water right into it. And so, we had the water negotiations, to try to get things going,
but our tribe chose to pull out. And I think that was a major mistake. Because that’s—
when they pulled out is when Lyon County was getting really dry. And now we have no
water. And so, they asked—to save Walker Lake, they asked tribal members to not
irrigate their fields for two years. And so, within those two years is when everything is
going to die. And it’s not going to be good trying to get those crops back up. And I don’t
know if we’ll ever get our water back. I kind of don’t think so. I don’t know. You got
something to say about that? Then, okay.
U3:
Well, I was going to assign in your—you said you were doing your research, or you
needed to make offerings to the three elders, that was a direct link to—you weren’t
relying on books that were written by white people. It was directly given to you from
your elders.
H:
Well, it was a combination. You know, we did a lot of research in books also—you’ve
got to pick and choose what’s correct and what’s not. And you can do that, because you
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can tell how a white man writes. And you can tell where he’s getting it, and if you know
what to copy—
U3:
Well, one time, my father said something like, you know—well, he kind of—he didn’t
tell them everything, because he says they don’t need to know everything.
H:
Right.
U3:
So a lot of that information that anthropologists has—like you said, it depends on your
own research from your own elders, is where you’re going to believe that. Because
sometimes they told them something out in left field, just because they know they’re
going to believe anything they say. So that’s why I was saying, I thought your
information from the elders, going about it in a proper way.
H:
Well, a lot of it was guidance of the pipe, also. You know, we followed the pipe and
where it led us, and that’s where it led us. And I went up on our sacred mountain, Mount
Grant. I stayed up there three days and four nights. And during that time, I prayed about
that. And it was just, basically, I was given kind of the information to use the different
paints, for each direction. The black, the yellow, the red, and the aippin—the white. And
so, we used those, those different paints, on each consecutive night, for four nights. And
so, we enter through those gates in the four directions. And then we go out there and
dance. And then we have fire in pits here, and our singers are here.
U4:
What would be a good idea, to transplant wild game into those areas that’s disappearing,
like your cottontails and so forth. Is there a way they could rebuild that with Fish and
Game, and maybe it’ll reach out to the lake?
H:
You know, we could probably do it. But we need water. That’s the thing.
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U4:
Well, another solution would be, have a rain dance with our tribal members. We do that
in our northern country. When things are drying off, we have rain and snow dance at
these powwows. That time, we got Mother Earth to rain down some moisture that—
H:
Mmhm. We did that here about two or three weeks ago. And we got a nice little
thundershower. And I guess we weren’t doing it enough! And it just came and dumped a
bunch of water and left. And that was—but it was good, you know? It was blessings. It
was good. And we could get—I’m sure we could get our animals back up, if we had
water. But that’s the thing, you know?
M:
Yeah, our animals slowly diminishing. White people got license now, going out, and
can’t even go hunt your own rabbits anymore. They have game warden out there, he says,
“You got rabbits hunting license?” We used to hunt rabbits for, you know, our purpose.
Blanket, meat. Supply our winter food. Nowadays, there big signs all over, “No Hunting
Rabbit!” Hard to defend our rabbit country! White man took it over! They’re hunting
rabbits too, I guess. It’s something like that. Hear a while back, white man’s hunting
rabbits. Well, things like that is happening. So I could never stand, really, about things
like that, one game. And then, I thought about it myself, what that old man taught me,
teaching me. I’m going to try on his power, what he left in my body, but I’m supposed to
die from another Indian doctor who tell me to die. But this guy Wovoka, he come by, and
he saved my life. But he put lot of that medicine, his medicine, in my system. And I took
that thing, when I went into service, I took that medicine with me. I did get shot at, but I
didn’t die. Almost died, but I went through some tough battles in the Marine Corps. So
anyway, I’m still here, and I believe in his power, what he told me, what he give me in
my body. I tried to go to white man church, and they told me—the people that know that,
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some of those Indians know that power was in me—they told me, says, “Why don’t you
get rid of that Indian medicine out of you, out of your body, during our Christian
church?” I says, “I can’t.” I says, “That medicine stays with me.” But the medicine been
here way before white man come. That’s our religion, it’s our church. That’s why we
pray for grandfathers. Lot of grandfathers we have out there. They help us along as we go
ahead day to day. The eagles, the birds, buffalos, rabbits. All of those are our
grandfathers. We look toward them for us, for survival. That’s why we call them
“grandfathers.” We didn’t have no taibo Jesus; white man brought that from overseas.
But we go to their church nowadays, and we pray with them guys, too. We mix our
religion up. That’s why a lot of our religion’s going haywire. The people over there in
Iraq and Gaza Strip, they’re killing each other. Because they want to be power over each
other’s religion. Yeah, they doing that. They been there doing that for years and years,
since Jesus died. They hung him on the cross. Ever since then, they’ve been fighting over
who’s going to be the big boss of each other’s lives. That’s what they doing now, you
can’t stop them. So our religion, we just better stay with our religion, what we got. But
we can go to white man church, too, if you want. But, all it is is believing in the one God.
One guy up there. That’s who we’re going to go see one day. He’s our creator—we call
him “Creator.” He’s the big boss. We’re here today and gone tomorrow. You hear lot of
people say that. See that, they died young. “Well, it was his time to go.” That person died
young! See, that guy live long time, when he going to die? All things like that, they say.
Make fun of each other’s life. Just leave it alone. Like that old man told us when we was
kids, “These people, they ain’t going to bother you for what he looks like, how fat he is,
or how skinny—leave him alone! He’s a human being! He breathe the same air we got.
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He got red blood in his body. Leave him alone! Just go on your own business. Don’t
bother nobody. Don’t say anything about them.” That’s the word he spoke to us, when we
was kids. Lot of them—only two of us left here, now. Leah McCloud over here in RenoFallon, and she remembers a lot of his words. Because I grew up next to her, too. Been
long time—I’m 82 years old now, and that’s quite a long time! And she’s little older than
I am. But she talks good Paiute language. She seen him do a lot of his ceremonies. And I
did, too. I used to help him sing. I know lot of his songs. But I don’t reveal them, because
it’s a sacred thing between him, and me, and my religion. I can’t go over there and tell
him how to run his life. He’s telling me how to run my life. He’s up there someplace,
walking around. Watching over me. All of them guys that went before us, they all watch
over us. And it’s religion things that—like, for example, never bury an eagle feather or
any kind of Indian artifacts with a dead body in a coffin. Put them under the ground. You
buried somebody that takes care of you. That body, it’ll go to the Hunting Ground, or it’ll
go to the place where it’s supposed to go. If he stay just right in the area, can’t go
nowhere, just holler and scream, he’d be there for eternity. Never bury anything like that
with a body. That was another teaching I can’t tell you. Eagle feather especially. Because
an eagle feather’s supposed to be a sacred bird. That feather’s sacred. Never bury the
eagle feather on the body when you bury somebody. It’s another thing, you make—
homemade one, maybe it can burn with them, but never put any artifacts in there with
them. Arrows, or feathers, or anything like that that we use here, our Native ways. That’s
a teaching. Lot of people never know that. Of course, I heard about that. I know about it.
I see it. I know some old people just bawl people out. We’ll go to ceremonies, they use
eagle feathers, and buried with it. That’s no-no. You see them do that, you take the eagle
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feather, and give it to the youngest person in that family. A baby or somebody. He’ll
grow up, and they’ll tell him what it’s for. That’s our religion, move it along. Not the
teaching. But now, as we go on, we speak English. We’re getting away from our Native
Indian ways. Everything, we’re losing! We’re losing everything. Because we not going
by the rules and regulation of our tradition. We losing—we losing our language.
Everything, we losing. We marry some other tribes, we can’t speak these tribes’
language. They move here and marry into our tribe, we can’t speak their tribe, they can’t
speak our language. And through that conditions he’s talked about it. Little
[__inaudible at 37:44__] go to the ceremony to do what they supposed to be doing. We
losing it. Everything, we losing it. Ton of things that we do. We can’t help it. This one
lady used to say, a woman that has moon every month, not supposed to use drum. When
that woman use drum, she splashing poison all over, killing trees, pinenuts, grass out
there. Seeds that we eat. We live by it. Animals are dying from disease. That woman
doing that, doing ceremony with that drum. She’s supposed to stand behind a man and
sing, not use a drum and sing. She’s contaminating everything, killing everything. That’s
our religion, that’s what they talk about, the old people. Nobody tell you that. You got to
learn that. That’s why lot of our Indian food, everything is going down the drain. We
fight amongst each other, and killing each other! Don’t do that. That’s what that old man
Wovoka said. Incidentally, that Wovoka, he was called upon lot of—lot of people would
ask for him, because he had lot of power for that kind of reasons. He went all over, all
over the West coast, went from reservation to state to state, and different places to talk,
without people getting killed. He spoke about things like that. He talk about it. That’s
what he said in the Paiute language when he came home. He talked about lot of people, it
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was terrible, the way he expressed himself. Yeah, he teaches lots, that old guy. Nobody
tell you guys that right out in front of you like this, like I’m telling you. I know that. I
know that for true fact! Because I know everything about what he said. I remember, even
though I was little goofy little guy, but I remember. I stuck that in my skull, way back in
Tepetat [39:26]. Yeah. Lot of things they teach you. Even them old ladies, his wives. He
had two wives. They’d tell the grandkids that. Don’t know how to cook, you got to learn
how to cook, take care of your husband when you get big and old. You can have children,
too. You watch out for them, tell them the facts of life, what the—what kind of food you
going to eat, and how you going to prepare it. Like, lot of kids nowadays, they take the
knife, stir the food. We don’t take knife and stir the food! You take the fork, or some
other kind of flat object to stir the food when you cook it. You don’t take knife and stir it.
You take knife and stir it, you killing the spirits that’s taking care of your food. You’re
killing them, you’re stabbing them in the back. That’s why our food’s going away.
Everything’s running out. Things like that. I see it now—I believe it, what them old
people talk about. Never use knife to cook with. You can cut with it, on the table, but
don’t stir your food with it in the frying pan. Or your boiling meat, or whatever you
boiling. That’s a no-no. Against our religion. Increase. I hear that in Montana. Or some
place where I played handgame, they talking about the Coyote. The Coyote got stories all
over. All different reservations, there’s stories about that Coyote. How he originated
handgame. Different kind of stories they tell. Powerful stories. He tells lots. How woman
became a woman, and when she had lot of teeth down there. Of what he did to it. All of
them things. Yeah. They tell you lot of crazy things. You laugh about it, but I tell you,
it’s true fact! A man’s supposed to have sex with a woman only just one time, like a
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black widow. The black widow kill its mate and eat it. That’s how man’s life used to be.
The Coyote come along and save the man’s life. Yeah, that’s a true fact. I hear that. You
see it. That’s how we call the Coyote our uncle. Our aatsi [41:44], we call him. You see
him cross the highway in front of you, or way off in the brushes someplace, doing
something, you pray to him. “Uncle, get away from here. You get killed! Some white
man come along kill you, take fur!” Talk like that to him. Pray for him. And he’ll look
back at you and hop along, going backwards. Pray for that guy. He’s your uncle. That’s
what we call him. Your bears—you don’t fool with those bears! You can use his fur and
cook his meat, but you’ve got to survive by what he furnished you to make your blood
run pure and strong in your body. It’s medicine that you pray when you eating. You don’t
go out there, say, “Watch! Yeah, I killed this, the meanest bear you got over here! I made
a big trophy out of him!” You don’t say that! You save your life with that animal,
whatever you eat and kill. You got to eat certain part of his body raw, to offer to the
spirits. Pray when you eat it. When you cook something. That’s my religion. That’s what
I was growed up, with them old people. They talk and talk, nighttime they tell about stars,
what’s going on up there in the sky. I used to know a lot of stars’ names in Paiute. I
outgrew it now, I forgot. But I used to lay in bed and look at them in the sky. Our fathers
and mothers up there, doing something. We see that star up there. Like Raymond said, we
see all kinds of things up there. That’s the spirits’ way. Yeah. And instead of that name,
Wovoka—I heard one guy say that “’Wovoka’ means that he cut wood.” That’s not the
word! He was tied up with rope and chains and everything. All the way around his body,
was all handcuffed. Next morning, just piles of rope laying around, all broken up in little
pieces. That’s what it meant. Wovokkatte [43:32]. Wovoka was gone. He laid in bed,
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bust it all to pieces. He walked away and he went fishing. People tied him up so he won’t
do nothing. But next morning, when they got up, people look over there, and where he
was laying tied up, just little pieces of chains and rope laying around where he broke up
everything. That’s the name he got by that, “Wovoka.” It’s not chopping wood. I heard
some guy say that. That’s not true.
[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
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
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Great Basin Indian Archive
Contributor
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2006-2015
misc
Duration
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00:44:15
Event Type
Cultural Workshop
Participants
Names of individuals or groups participating in the event
Great Basin Indigenous people
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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"History of Ghost Dance" by Harold Miller & Raymond Hofer (11/12/2007)
Subject
The topic of the resource
ITCN (Inter-tribal Council of Nevada) Cultural Workshop with Harold Miller a Walker River Paiute from Reno, and Raymond Hofer a Walker River Paiute from Yerington on 11/12/2007
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Harold Miller from Yerington, NV and Raymond Hofer from Walker Paiute Tribe speak about the history of the Ghost Dance as it had been taught by Wovoka (main character within this narrative) a Paiute medicine man. They explain the creation, outlawing, and revitalization of the Ghost Dance and how it moved from outside Paiute country and was assimilated into other tribes. Moreover, they explain how those other tribes helped to bring it back to where the Ghost Dance originated from. Harold also speaks about certain customs and traditions which have not been practiced as diligently by recent generations, and warns the audience about the consequences of not doing so.</p>
Video pending <br /> <a title="Harold Miller and Raymond Hofer Oral History Transcript" href="/omeka/files/original/4bb63b8ea5ad4210396dfa3e8af39435.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read Harold Miller and Raymond Hofer 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 012
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
11/12/2007 [12 November 2007]; 2007 November 12
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer/recorder]; 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
Community
Crossroads
customs
GBIA
Ghost Dance
Inter-tribal Council of Nevada
ITCN
religion
Reno-Sparks Indian Colony
Shoshone
Story
traditions
Walker River reservation
Wovoka