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Elizabeth
Brady
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
013
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
November
29,
2006
Elko,
NV
Great
Basin
College
•
Great
Basin
Indian
Archives
1500
College
Parkway
Elko,
Nevada
89801
hCp://www.gbcnv.edu/gbia/
775.738.8493
Produced
in
partnership
with
Barrick
Gold
of
North
America
�GBIA 013
Interviewee: Elizabeth Brady
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: November 29, 2006
C:
Hello? Today we’re going to be doing an oral history interview with one of the elders
from the Elko Colony. Her name is Elizabeth Brady, and this is part of the Great Basin
Indian Archives program, which is sponsored by the Great Basin College here in Elko,
Nevada. And my name is Norm Cavanaugh. I’m the director of the Great Basin Indian
Archives program. So, welcome to the first series of the oral histories that will be
conducted as this program continues for this year. Thank you.
[Some brief interchange about setting up the recording]
C:
Okay, we’ll go ahead and start this.
EB:
All right.
C:
Okay. Welcome to the Great Basin Indian Archives oral history recordings, the first
series of oral histories that we’re going to be beginning here for the college. Our guest
here today is Elizabeth Brady, and her daughter, Leah. And Liz will be sharing with us
what her recollections are of growing up as a child, and how things used to be, and of
what her grandmothers and elders shared with her, and told her about how things used to
be in this area before the changes have come about that are in existence today. So, she
will share with us what tribe she’s from, and what band she’s from, and a little bit about
her family to begin with. And then, from there, she’ll tell us what she recalls as she grew
up as a child, and her memory recollections. Okay, Liz. Go ahead.
LB:
You can start now.
EB:
Is he running it? My name is Elizabeth Brady, and I’m a Western Shoshone from Elk
Mountain. The Tekatekka [3:17] clan. And my parents are from Austin; my dad is from
Austin. My grandparents on my dad’s side’s from Austin. And my mother is from
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Beowawe. And she belonged to the Tosawihi band. It’s where my mother was raised.
And as we were small, we moved up in Antelope Valley. And I remember, I was around
four or five years old, when I was still standing in a cradle, and my tsoo, my greatgrandmother, she was babysitting me. We lived there. I don’t think we had a house. I
think it was like a shed that we lived in. But Grandma would take care of me there, while
dad and them would run mustangs. My mother rode horses. My Aunt Ida and Uncle
Harlan, and a couple of my uncles, Walter Jackson, their names, they were from Austin
area. They run horses—mustangs there. And we had lot of horses. That was in the
evening, when the corral was full of horses, when they’d bring them in. One day, a man
came over there, a white man came over there, and we—you know, Gram and I—we
didn’t know what he was talking about. My grandmother was mad. And she was bawling
him out, in her language. I guess he was telling us that we didn’t belong there, that we
would have to move. We were on his land. That’s why Grandmother’s mad. That’s when
we found out that that place where we stayed wasn’t ours. And so we moved to town,
which is Battle Mountain. None of us know how to talk English. There was a family
name, Jim Horton, that had a store there. And they took my grandmother away from
me—my great-grandmother away from us. And she went to work for them. She never
had a name. So they gave her name, Evelyn. Years, she worked there for them. And I
remember my parents going from one ranch to another. Then my grandfather, they asked
him what his name was, and he said, “My name is Something-Something.” And the guy
said that, “You can’t have two names. We’re going to give you a name.” So they gave my
grandfather a name. Something Jackson. Then I remember we went from place to place.
We didn’t know. We thought maybe we were just helping the people, but I guess that’s
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what they were doing was helping the ranchers. So, my dad joined—well, as we were
growing up, he joined the CC. And that’s why we were going to school here and there,
we never stayed in one place. But we had hardship, too, we had to go through.
NC:
Can you remember what CC stood for?
LB:
Conservation Corps.
EB:
And that’s all I can remember about my dad. We started go through Utah—later on, I
found out we were in Utah and Idaho. I know that when we got to Idaho, that they put us
in a boarding school. But we didn’t stay at the boarding school too long. Because my
brother told my folks that we were hungry, and they got us out of there. And then, my
dad went wherever they were sent. And so, I don’t know how, whether we came back to
Battle Mountain, but, I went to live in Beowawe with my grandparents. And Grandpa
died in 1931. He died. I never knew what death was. I was younger, and my grandma was
crying. She tried to explain to me what death was. I didn’t know. But then, after that, my
parents took me and we went to Owyhee. That’s where we lived, in Owyhee, until I went
to Stewart. Went to Grandma and them, they told us that they weren’t hungry, there was
always plenty out there for them to eat. Good food. I guess it’s by seasons that they
would be in there, getting food. And I think mainly, pinenuts was their main food. But we
ate. But I could remember that, it was [skip in recording] Grandma told me. When the
first white men first came, she said how scared they were. They didn’t know where they
were. And her father went down to the river—that’s the Humboldt River—and told his
family, “If I don’t come back, you know they killed me.” So they seen their father
running off at moonlight, until they couldn’t see him anymore. And all night, they waited
and waited. It was a clear moon that night, and they heard footsteps, and it was their
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father. He said, after he got them out of the cave, he told them, “They were friendly. I
don’t think they going to hurt us. But they look like us, only they”—he picked up a white
rock, and he said, “That’s the color of their skin. That’s how their duku look,” he said,
“like that rock, white rock.” And he was telling the family what he had seen. “The men
had funny—they had hair on their face!” [Laughter] The Indians never seen the hair. And
they didn’t know what cooking pots were, and they interpreted it as something black
hanging out above their fire. Then the wagon, they went on I guess. He said that the
black snake started in a straight line. He explained to them, that was the only way he
could explain to them that it was a wagon. And, “They had a foot just like us, with a hole
at the back.” That was their wooden heel. And he said that they were making “funny
noises.” That they were pounding on something—I guess that’s their music instrument.
He said, “They won’t hurt us.” We had—Grandma had never seen them. When she said
that, she was already a young woman, that’s when the Mormons were trapping along the
Humboldt, I guess. I don’t know what year that is. But seems like they were out there,
she said, “We had plenty to eat, we didn’t know what sickness was. If we slipped on
something, we would put pitch on it so to heal it up.” She said, “We lived a wonderful
life. Soon as the white man comes,” she says, “they change our way of living.” That’s
only one that Grandma that ever told me about. About living up in the caves. I said,
“Grandma, how do you keep warm?” “Well, during the day, my dad would build fire, and
heat up the rocks. And then at night, he’d put it in like a trench, like they’d fix for them to
lay in, and he’d put branches on it. We never had no blankets. Lucky if we had a skin to
cover our bodies.” So you see, it’s, that’s—I don’t know what year that’d be. I don’t
know the year. But she said, “If we had a deer skin, we had something. But we used
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rabbit skins, mostly, to cover ourself up with.” She had rabbit blankets made of rabbit
skin. I don’t know whatever happened to them.
LB:
Did she show you how to make them?
EB:
Yeah. I remember Uncle Herman trapping the coyotes, selling them for dollar a hide.
You imagine how much money they made with that. At that time, it was a lot of money!
But we lived there. We call them tsewakkate [13:05], that’s the name of the place where
we lived. We had artesian well there. Well, it was just real nice. That’s where we lived,
until that white man told us to move off of his land.
LB:
Was that wagon Beowawe?
EB:
No, no.
LB:
Where at?
EB:
Antelope Valley.
LB:
Oh, in Antelope.
EB:
In Antelope Valley there. That’s where Grandma—on my dad’s side, that’s where they
lived.
LB:
Mary Horton. She was like 120 when she died?
EB:
Hundred and fifteen. We figured a hundred and fifteen. Battle Mountain. Figured from
the time that the Hortons picked her up, and went to work for them.
C:
And were the Hortons—
EB:
Even your granddad, your grandfathers was there, too. They lived in Battle Mountain. I
remember them. Grandfathers were really a good group. Then we went to Juniper
Basin and my grandfather was still strong. He’d get up two o’clock in the morning, have
his coffee. He would be having his coffee at two in the morning. And my dad said, “Does
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he ever sleep?” But he’d go to bed early, when he’d get through. I never knew him. I
mean, I never did know the color of people, either. We were all just kids. Because we
were raised in Battle Mountain. We played with everybody. We didn’t say, “You’re
Indian!” “You’re Mexican!” We didn’t use those words. No. There were things Grandma
told us about. She said, “The Paiute—“ My huttsi tell me that the Paiute people were the
meanest. They tortured some of our people. But I don’t want to go into that, I think it’s
just too sad. That they couldn’t get along.
C:
How big were the bands? The group of people together?
EB:
That’s all I know, is that our family was—well, we were quite large. But, there were
others, I guess. Later on, the people started coming to Battle Mountain. That’s when—
when I noticed there’s people there. But we went up in that mountains, and I don’t think
there was anybody out there but us. Probably in Austin and that area. But none in
Antelope Valley. There was just us. And it was so pretty looking over the valley. When
you get up in the morning, and you look over the valley. And here we thought it was our
land! [Laughter] And it was a white man’s land, and he told us to move off of there. My
God, Harlan was so mad, he said, “I’m going to fill up that well with rocks!” I don’t
know if he ever did or not. It was a wanakanu [16:15], just dug out like that. Like an
artesian well. It was an artesian well. But, natural. That’s what I remember. I was about
four or five years old when we moved away from there. And then we come to town. But
we weren’t treated very good, either. Our people went to work for the white man. They
feed you like dogs, outside. That’s all I could remember about it. Out there, sitting. And
we were scared. We didn’t run out and talk to a white man if they came to our house. We
went and hid. But nowadays, the kids will be the first one at the door.
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C:
When you say you moved to town, was town right here where the colony is today, or
where was it?
EB:
No colony. We just lived at the edge of town. Grandpa build a home. Like a longhouses.
Two or three families living in it. And then other people start to come. I think Willie
Joaquin and Johnny Lawson, they build their home. They had nice surrounding. Rest
of them, they build, you know, little rooms. And Jim Crum had, he had a house, and he
had a barn, and horses. That’s when we we were going to learn to fly. We got on top of
that, his barn. Because Grandma told us, “Soon, they’re going to be flying.” So Clara and
I, and a bunch of us, we said, “Let’s get on top of Jim Crum’s barn and fly.” We put our
arms out like this, and we were going to fly. And we got whipping for that, because we
didn’t mind.
LB:
That’s your cousin, Clara Woodson.
EB:
Mmhm. Clara just told me last week—last week? Couple weeks ago. She said, “Do you
remember that?” [Laughter] I said no. She said, “Do you remember that lady that flew in
here, and landed there, and we wouldn’t go to her?” I barely remembered it. But I do
remember her offering us candy. It was that Amelia Earhart? She was flying, and she
stopped in Battle Mountain. [Laughter] And she went and give us candy. After she read
about it in the book, and we were the little Indian kids that were watching her. But when
she showed us the candy, we ran to her. And Clara said, “Do you remember that?” I said,
“I barely remember it.”
LB:
Where were you born?
EB:
Here in Elko. Right where the old Senior’s Center was, the taibo center up here? Right
across from our smoke shop. That used to be an Indian colony there. First it started on
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Steniger Hill. Then they keep moving them back, moving them back. Until they got on
Walnut Street, where you live now. And then, through there. But that’s where the old
Indian camp was, up on that hill. But I don’t know—I know that Louie Tom and there
that, I remember them. I don’t know who all was up there, but we’d go and visit, and play
on that hill. There was also, back in there there was some Chinamens, too, lived there, my
dad said. Because at that time, the Chinamens did the work around here, in the mines.
C:
What kind of mines did they have back then?
EB:
Silver.
C:
Silver.
EB:
Yeah. Quicksilver, my dad used to—quicksilver in the one in Tuscarora. The other was
Midas. Midas, I think is the other one. Tuscarora and Midas. Of course, they were little
mines. Not like the big mines now. I know Dad worked in one. I guess my dad worked in
almost everything.
C:
So was there any businesses in this area at that time?
EB:
Yeah. Well, we don’t know because we’re small. But I do remember Reinhart. Reinhart
was the oldest store here. And Mayer. Mayer Hotel.
C:
And what did Reinhart’s sell?
EB:
Clothing.
C:
Clothing store?
EB:
Yeah. Yeah, Reinhart sold clothing. And who else? There was Stevens. There was
another store called Stevens. And then the Kenosha Hotel wasn’t there. Just the Mayer. I
remember the Mayer Hotel, which is now Stockman. That’s all I remember, that one big
hotel. And there was small ones, like the Overland. Overland was right across by the
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Kenosha. Right behind Henderson Bank. That used to be a hotel there. I think Henderson
Bank is the one where they always used to… But there was hardly any. Pioneer.
Pioneer’s were there a long time. I had a pictures where Pioneer has got trees all around
it.
C:
So was Pioneer always a bar, or was it a café, or a restaurant?
EB:
It was a—well, it was a café. And then later on, they put a bar to it. But it was run by a
Chinaman. Old Tom. His name was Tom, the cook. They start making it bigger and
bigger. Then Capriola’s. He’s been there a long time, too. And there was Hessen.
Hessen’s store. And it was right across from, let’s see… it’s on the same street as
Capriola’s. That next street there, at the theater. Yeah, that Hessen, it was called Hessen’s
store.
LB:
It was a hardware store.
EB:
Hardware store. Used to be a hardware store. That was all there, that I remember. And we
had old laundry, which was run by a Mexican couple. I forget the name of that. It was
right by, right alongside of Puccinelli’s, at their store here. And then the laundry was in
the back. That was there a long time, too. Puccinellis had their store a long time. But rest
of them—maybe Sam. Sam had a hotel. That was later on, though. Sam Heron. He had
that. He’s a tuutaibo guy that had a restaurant. Taxi driver. And he had that.
C:
Did the railroad run through here then?
EB:
Uh-huh. Used to run right through there.
LB:
You ride on the railroad?
EB:
[Laughter] Oh, when we’d ride in the railroad, can’t even sit in the coach side. We ride
free on the railroad. I remember from Battle Mountain to Beowawe, I go home with
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Grandma, and the conductor say, “Come on, Annie, here’s your seat!” I remember he was
calling her Annie. That’s when I found out my grandma’s name was Annie! [Laughter]
But we couldn’t sit in the coach. We had to sit with them off of the, train, what do you
call it, the…
LB:
Locomotive?
C:
The engine?
EB:
No. It’s before that, my dad said. The Indians used to sit out on the back, on the flat bed
of the train. They’d just load up on there. They didn’t have to pay anything, they just get
on and go. But Grandma rode kind of classy, like when they had trains with cabs on it.
But we’d get off, and she didn’t have to pay anything. But she always had that seat. Says,
“Annie, here’s your seat.”
C:
How old was your grandma then?
EB:
Oh, she must be in her—Grandma died when she was 88. Mom was 81. And her sister
was 11 years older.
LB:
How old were you when she died?
EB:
Who, Grandma?
LB:
No, how old were you?
EB:
Grandma died 50 years ago, when you was born. Grandma Annie.
LB:
Oh, same time as Mary? Her and Mary died the same year?
EB:
Maybe. Yeah. Yeah, you were young the year that Grandma died. You were a newborn.
LB:
Must have been in 1955.
C:
What did she die from? Old age, or…?
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EB:
No, she had pneumonia. Pneumonia, and she was transferring from Owyhee to Schurz.
That’s where they were sending the people, to Schurz. And she died in Schurz.
C:
What type of diseases were affecting Indian people back then?
EB:
Well, most of the people say the TB. But none of our people had TB. No one in Battle
Mountain. I think the only one that I know of was Frank Piffero, Jr. they sent away to a
sanatorium. But, that’s all I know. When we went to school, that was first thing. We had
to get tested for TB, and drink cod liver oil. Give to all the kids. Take us from everybody.
C:
What was the cod liver oil, what was that for? What was it supposed to do?
EB:
Vitamins, I guess. I don’t know.We just did what the white man tell us to do! [Laughter]
But we did. We’d have to drink one tablespoon. We all lined up, they would give us
tablespoon. Some would throw up, but they’d make them drink some more.
LB:
Was there smallpox?
EB:
No, I don’t think so. That’s before my time.
C:
How about polio? Was pol—
EB:
No.
C:
Not polio?
EB:
There’s hardly anybody that I know of that from Battle Mountain had polio. I don’t think
so. Of course, maybe they had it, but I don’t know. But I don’t think so. I think mostly
that… Pneumonia, I think is—the TB and pneumonia.
C:
What type of wild animals were there? Was it plenty of wild animals out here then? Like,
deer, and rabbit, and—
EB:
Oh, we had deer, rabbit… Battle Mountain had wild pigs.
C:
Really?
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EB:
They were out on 25 Ranch, out in there. We only, once in a while you see them, but
there was lot of wild pigs there. Where they come from, I don’t know. But they had wild
pigs.
C:
Did the people eat the wild pigs, or…?
EB:
Well, I think it’s a pigs that turn wild. I don’t think it’s a pigs, you know, like, way back.
But 25 Ranch had lot of wild pigs. Either they were left out there and just, got more and
more… I never seen no deer. Just rabbits. Squirrels. Well, not the kind of squirrel we
have in Owyhee. It’s called ku’umpe. I don’t know what they’d call it. What they call
that? It’s not squirrels that you see in Owyhee. They’re smaller. They’re more like a
rodent, I think.
LB:
Is it the chipmunk?
EB:
They look like chipmunk, but they’re not.
LB:
Did they have that stripe on them?
EB:
Gee, I don’t know.
LB:
They’ve got little short tail?
EB:
Yeah. Yeah, like around Battle Mountain, they’ve got a lot of those. That’s what people
catch.
LB:
That’s what Melissa says.
EB:
And they weren’t fat like the squirrels. But they were longer. But Battle Mountain had a
lot of pokottsi—you know what pokottsi is. Lizard. They had lot of lizard, Battle
Mountain. But I never did see no rattlesnakes or anything, just lizard.
LB:
What’d they eat then?
EB:
I don’t know. Mice, I guess.
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LB:
Did they really live there in Battle Mountain, or is that just where they ended up at?
EB:
Who?
LB:
The people.
EB:
I think they came there.
LB:
Because of the town?
EB:
Yeah, they come to town. I think mostly, was in Austin, I believe the people that lived in
Austin when the mines closed up, I think they came to Battle Mountain. Because that’s—
I know all the old people that’s in Battle Mountain, there’s nothing but new people now.
LB:
And they all came from the Austin area.
EB:
Yeah, Austin area and Yomba.
LB:
And it’s like Beowawe.
EB:
To Beowawe. But I think most of them have just all died off. Did that for Lois and
Murphy. But Beowawe didn’t have as many people as Battle Mountain did. And then
later on, people start to move away from Battle Mountain. Guess the only ones that’s left
is Ida and them. And their kids is still there.
C:
What type of businesses was there in Battle Mountain at that time? Or—
EB:
Mining.
C:
Mining?
EB:
Mining. Yeah, the O’Neil was the biggest. And small mines. And of course there’s
ranchers. And then the mines. Mines close down. Now Battle Mountain’s gotten big. I
don’t know nobody there no more. The oldest one died here last year, that’s hundred.
Eleanor Lemaire. She was our schoolteacher. And she was hundred.
C:
She was a school teacher in Battle Mountain?
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EB:
Mmhm.
LB:
Where’d you go to school in Battle Mountain?
EB:
Next door to the white ones. We had a school of our own. We couldn’t mix up with the
white kids. We had boundary line, like this. Like this. ‘Round this side, and all our kids
on that side.
LB:
So you had Indian school?
EB:
No. They had a public school, it was a public school, but that’s how they had restricting.
We couldn’t go to school with the other kids.
C:
Were you in the same classroom, or different buildings?
EB:
Just one big whole classroom. [Laughter] Then I remember, I was eating the rice and
milk. Every day, we eat that. Nothing else but rice and milk for lunch.
C:
What did the teachers teach?
EB:
Arithmetic it was, mostly. But we couldn’t talk Indian, when the teachers talk English.
And that Marianne Glaser, Marianne Wells, she used to deliver milk from Lincoln Ranch
every morning. She’d come on horseback with a little jug hanging. Brought some milk
for our rice. She remembers that!
C:
How many students was in the classroom?
EB:
Oh, there was lot of kids. There was, oh, Bessie and Charlie Hall’s kids, and the Woods
family, and the Williams, and the Holleys. It was a big family. I don’t know when they
start going to school with the white kids. I guess after we left. But yeah, we had a
boundary line that we couldn’t step outside. If they catch us on this side, we’d be
punished.
C:
What kind of punishment did you receive?
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EB:
Stand in the corner. [Laughter] That’s the punishment. Stand in the corner with our back
towards—facing the wall, stand there. We couldn’t sit down.
C:
How long was the class day? Or, how long was each day to go to school?
EB:
Well, we just like—we go in the morning, and play in afternoon, and go back to class,
and then come home. And later on, I remember we used to run clear down to the Indian
camp, which is a mile, to go to eat lunch. That’s when it was getting better. But before
that, that’s what they used to eat: rice and milk. With little cinnamon on it. That was the
biggest meal.
C:
When you ran to the Indian camp, what did you guys go eat?
EB:
Whatever our parents got us, we would just go eat. Bread. Just, whatever’s left over. And
we didn’t say, “We don’t want to eat it.” “I don’t like this,” we didn’t say. But we were
lucky, because my dad worked at the ranch, and he always brought home some meat for
us.
LB:
What ranch did he work at?
EB:
25. 25 Ranch, it belongs to that E. R. Marvel. And my whole family worked for them,
until my Uncle Harlan retired from sheepherding.
C:
So what kind of transportation was used back then? Was it wagons? Horses? Was there
any cars?
EB:
You know, that I can’t say, because my dad had little Model T, and Uncle Harlan had one
too. I don’t remember us riding on wagons and stuff. I don’t remember that far—but I do
remember, when we got to Owyhee, we were riding a wagon. But my dad had a car, and
Guy Manning had a car. Was the only car in Owyhee, in the old quadrant. Uncle
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Ralph’s uncle, what they call him—Tuuttsupainte [37:26]. Yeah. He had a car. My
Uncle Tracy did nothing there but go and ride it.
C:
So was there gas stations for these cars, or where did they get gas? What did they use to
run on?
EB:
Gee, I think maybe Sherman Store, they owned a store that’s there yet, still sitting
there—she might’ve had some gas. I don’t remember. But I know my dad had this Model
T, or Model A, whatever it is. But Uncle Harlan had a little better one. I think he had a
kind of closed-in one.
C:
So did you guys travel from Battle Mountain to Owyhee on the car, on the Model T?
EB:
Uh-huh.
C:
How long did it take?
EB:
[Laughter] All day! My dad took all day. It takes all day from Owyhee to Elko. And
Mom used to say, “[Shoshone at 38:38]” I don’t know how you can seem this slow!
David used to run alongside of dad’s truck! But I… I lived in Owyhee until Owyhee
changed. Now, you don’t know no one.
C:
What was in Owyhee at that time? Did they have a store, or…?
EB:
You know, I remember, when we first got there, we lived up there by Jim Anay, you
know where Jim Anay used to live. Right across from that place there, on that hill.
C:
Roshtrand.
EB:
Jack Sims, and Charles lived there, Charlie McKinney. And then he even had a little
store there. The Rowan. Pete Rowan had a store there. But, I remember when we got
there, we went to a commissary, and they were giving out ration. That old commissary
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that used to sit there in Owyhee—I don’t think you remember it either. That was before
your time, I think. But they had a little commissary.
LB:
Where was it at?
EB:
You know, up here at the agency.
LB:
In that agency area?
EB:
Yeah, in that area, uh-huh. The people all gathered there to get their ration. Wasn’t much;
give you flour, sugar. That’s what they were getting. I never knew what death was, either.
When our people pass away there. I got scared, when I see them cooking groundhog, ate
it! [Laughter] I didn’t think it was that good!
C:
That commissary, was it run by the Indian agency?
EB:
Uh-huh. That’s to give them that ration. Yep.
C:
What type of food did they give out for ration?
EB:
Mostly flour, and beans. And nothing fancy. But to them, it was, you know, good. No
meat or anything, it was just—I remember Edith saying that “Have a little beans,” you
know, and like that. She’d get some beans. Nowadays, people don’t realize what the other
people have gone through to live.
C:
Do you remember from when the war started, when America went to war in World War
I?
EB:
No.
C:
Or, World War II?
EB:
Yeah, II. Yeah, II. Now, Dad went to World War I. But they just boarded the train when
the war ended. So he never got to fight. But he was drafted. Yeah, I remember World
War II. Because it was [19]62? [19]63, huh? [19]63? Yeah. I was pregnant with Maggie
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during World War II. I was in Battle Mountain, I was that sly kind of girl, I used to have
a taipo girlfriend. She always, “Come on Liz, we’ll just go to show.” I’m always getting
bigger and bigger, and she say, “Oh, I’ll help you if something happens to you!” And we
were sitting there, and she come running out of the house. “Elizabeth, we can’t go to
show! Pearl Harbor’s been attacked!” “Where’s Pearl Harbor?” I said. [Laughter] “Oh,
you dummy!” she said. And she told us then. She said, “My brothers are going to join.”
And that’s when they start shooting on that little tsappanni, Tom Tomocho.
LB:
Oh, that lived in Battle Mountain?
EB:
Yeah. Uh-huh. They were shooting up his laundry.
LB:
He was a Japanese man.
EB:
Jackie Woods’s father.
LB:
She knows a lot of the really bad stories. [Laughter]
EB:
But that was his father. Tom Tomocho, his name. His name supposed to be Jackie
Tomocho. But anyway, they shot up his place, and poor thing, his boys went to service.
And they took him to a concentration camp someplace. And he moved, I think. That’s the
last I seen of old Tom. He was a nice old man. All the Indian ladies worked for him, in
his laundry. And he’d go, “You want to eat some lice?” [Laughter] I would see him in
Battle Mountain, and come up, and I’d see him, but a lot of the people that was there is
gone. I hope to see a little longer. Try to hit 85. But I have seen lot.
C:
How old are you now, Liz?
EB:
82.
C:
82. When is your birthday?
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EB:
October 3rd. 1923, I was born. There was twelve of us in the family, six boys and six
girls. My oldest brother was killed in a snowslide in J.P. Jones. That’s when I found out
what death was. Out of the twelve, there’s only five of us left.
C:
How old are the ones that are left? Are they older than you, or younger than you?
EB:
Younger. Alfred is same age as Maggie, 63. And how old is Geraldine?
LB:
She’s younger, isn’t she? Two years? So she’s got to be 61?
EB:
And Dolores.
LB:
I think Dolores is 61.
EB:
Leonard. I don’t know.
LB:
Leonard’s the same age as Jackie [__inaudible at 45:25__].
EB:
All of us, we’re almost the same age as Charlie Hall’s kids. My brother Leo is same age
as me. And—no. No, Ivy. And then me and Martha are day apart. I was on the 3rd, and
then she was on the 4th. I don’t know how many of them are left now. I don’t know,
maybe two girls? There were three, with Lawrence. Lawrence still alive, huh? There’s
Lawrence, and Angie, and Marjorie, and Eva Neal. I think there, yeah, there three of
them left. That was a big family.
LB:
Mom’s brothers and sisters are all two years apart. Starting from 1921, so [__inaudible at
46:31__].
C:
So, how did you learn to speak English? Or how, do you remember—
EB:
[Laughter] I went to Stewart! I went to Stewart. That matron had a stick. If she hear us
talking, wham on my head! Only thing we know how to say was “Yes,” “No,” “Yes,”
“No.”
LB:
How old were you?
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EB:
I don’t know, thirteen? Twelve, thirteen.
C:
Did you know the students that went to Stewart, or was there many—many of the
students you knew, were they Shoshone, or were they from other tribes?
EB:
There were just only two tribes—three. Washoes, Paiute, and Shoshone. Then later on, I
guess, different tribe came in. But we didn’t get along with the Paiutes. And we fought
with the Washoes.
LB:
[Laughter] You didn’t get along with anybody, it sounds like!
EB:
You see? Nowadays, nobody gets along! That’s right. And I first got with Webb. She
says, “Is this your boyfriend? Do you know this fellow?” I went to school with kids in
Stewart. That’s how I know them all. I know everybody in Nixon. I said, they were my
classmate, and we used to teach each other about Stubb Frank, who is from Schurz.
Stanton Frank was his name, but somebody called him Stubb Frank. They had all crazy
names! [Laughter]
LB:
Everybody had nicknames.
EB:
Yeah.
C:
Did they have sports back then in Stewart? Did they play football? What type of sports
did they have?
EB:
They had football. And all the Jackson boys and Murphy boys were top stars over there.
Stewart was at one time hard to beat. I remember growing up, being there, going to
University of Nevada. And you could hear plenty about what those boys were playing.
And Frank Murphy was drinking when he was playing ball. He couldn’t play unless he
drank—that’s what he says. But anyway, they were tied, they went overtime. And few
seconds left, and Frank Murphy was on one end of the—the floor? Made a basket, and
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you should hear the people roar, when he made that basket! And it was ticking. That’s
Reno. Reno always wanted to beat Stewart, but it could never beat Stewart.
LB:
What did you play when you were a little girl?
EB:
Hockey and basketball. Grass hockey, we played.
LB:
What was that like?
EB:
Hurt if you get hit with it. You get hit on the leg. I got scarred up from hockey, when
those disk would hit you. You couldn’t go on ice! [Laughter] It was grass. Sherman
played the grass hockey.
C:
Was there any other games you played?
EB:
Yeah, basketball game. Baseball. Well, everything, I guess.
LB:
How about the Indian kids? Did they play different games?
EB:
No, they didn’t have no Indian games. It was already whiteman games that they know.
But back in Oklahoma, they still play Indian games, huh? We seen that when we went to
the reunion. So, they played.
LB:
You never played shinny?
EB:
Mm-mm.
LB:
You never saw them play shinny?
EB:
Mm-mm.
LB:
How about the men? Did they play any games?
EB:
I don’t know.
LB:
You don’t recall seeing any of them?
EB:
Mm-mm.
LB:
When the people got together, what did they do? Because you guys lived by yourselves.
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EB:
We never went anywhere. Our parents went, and we stayed home.
LB:
Oh. Where did they go?
EB:
To a Fandango.
LB:
Where?
EB:
Around different places in Nevada.
LB:
Was it always the same places?
EB:
Mm-mm.
LB:
Different places?
EB:
They’d have one at Ruby Valley… In fact, my dad used to say that they would ride miles
to go to Fandango, on horseback. But we never got to see that.
C:
What was the Fandango about? What did they do at the Fandangos?
EB:
They eat and dance. I don’t know why—why is it called “Fandango?”
LB:
Why is it called Fandango? It was a nayada.
EB:
They did their handgame, at night they dance.
LB:
What was the nayada?
C:
Nayaha? Nayahuu?
EB:
Naaiyawi?
C:
Naaiyawi is hand games.
EB:
Naaiyawi is hand game.
LB:
No, it’s not hand game—
EB:
Nataya’a.
LB:
Nataya’a.
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EB:
Oh, the nataya’a dances. We did that a lot, where somebody would start that—if they
want to start a dance, they would get up and start the dance. Nataya’a, they’d call it,
when everybody gets into a circle. And dances nataya’a.
LB:
And why did they do that?
EB:
Just to start dancing.
LB:
Just to start dancing? That’s why they have the dances?
EB:
Mm-hm. But just anyone could go, and—I seen them doing the Bear Dance. And… that’s
about all I guess I’ve seen, is the Bear Dance. But we never got to go to big doings.
That’s all I could remember.
C:
Okay, Liz. We have about four or five minutes left. If you were to tell your
grandchildren—your grandchildren that maybe are here, or still to come—what would
you say to them about yourself? What would you want them to remember about you?
EB:
I have tapes. [Laughter] I have tapes that my grandchildren have. Got stories. And we
sing a lot, too. We sing.
C:
What kind of songs do you sing?
EB:
Round dance songs. And night songs, and nursery rhymes.
LB:
How did you learn to sing?
C:
I hear it from my dad, and my grandfather. I could hear somebody singing, and I could
pick up that song—as long as you know what they’re singing about, you could pick it up.
But if you don’t know, like, the language—if you don’t know what they’re saying,
because they hi-yi-yi-ya. [Laughter] But Shoshones, they’ve got words. So you know. I
used to even sing in Paiute when I was going to school down in Stewart. I learned that
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Paiute songs. We used to challenge the Paiute kids to sing. We’d out-sing them, Theresa
and I.
LB:
Theresa who?
EB:
Theresa Jackson. Theresa Thomas.
LB:
Theresa Thomas?
EB:
That’s part of his foot clan. That was your mother’s sister’s daughter, huh?
C:
Yeah, Theresa.
EB:
Patsy and their mother.
LB:
I just wanted you to tell the tape that.
EB:
Oh, yeah. Her and I were the best friends. We would be in trouble in school together.
We’d run away together. That part, I don’t want to tell! [Laughter] Just, get our matrons
mad. We’d leave the building, stand around the corner, and peek at her. See which
direction she’s going to look for us. [Laughter] Harriet Packer was our matron. Yeah.
C:
Was this in Stewart?
EB:
Yeah.
C:
How did you guys get to Stewart? Did you ride on the train, or what was…?
EB:
No, big bus came and pick us up. And I forged my dad’s name on my application, and I
went. [Laughter] My dad didn’t want me to go to Stewart, because he said, “That’s no
place to go at.” He had gone there, and he ran away from there. And Theresa and I went
to Stewart. Yeah, wasn’t bad, I guess, after you get to thinking about it, like. We just, just
like daredevils, we always would cause something.
C:
Was Reno close by to Stewart then?
EB:
Huh?
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C:
How big was Reno at that time?
EB:
Oh, the university was open already. University of Nevada. Because that’s where we used
to go and play. But they used to, all different schools used to come to Stewart and play.
The boys would go out and play schools. But I didn’t go there when Earl Dunn and them
were going to school there. That’s when your dad was there. He was a top player.
C:
Okay, we got about a minute left. If there’s anything that, Leah, you would like to add to
the interview for today…
LB:
I don’t know. [Laughter] I was just going to say that, she sings a lot of songs. And she
learned because her dad would have them sing every night. And they all had to sing a
song before they could leave the table.
EB:
Oh, yeah. If we’re good, Dad would give us candy. And we’d do the dishes early, and
then we’d all get to bed while he sing. Half of us would be asleep, and my dad would still
be singing. And I’m listening, so I want to learn his songs. And I got to learn his songs.
The boys didn’t care to learn the songs.
LB:
But we’ve been recording a lot of what she’s been doing, I guess. She’s been spending
time with me, and my job, which is a lot of traveling. So she goes with me, and stays with
me on the road. And so as we’re going along, I’m having her taped, and singing. I’ve
learned that she has so many songs that I haven’t even heard them all. She’d come up
with a new one that I have no clue. And I just learned it from her. I’m a visual person,
I’ve got to see it or write it before I can learn it. Whereas, she can hear something. And
she can pick it up real easy. And she does that with other people’s songs.
EB:
I even know how explore [__inaudible at 59:00__]. I know those, but we can’t record
those.
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C:
Yeah.
LB:
So she knows a lot, and she can identify whose song something is. Just like when I keep
entering what I keep entering, when he’s singing, she knows—
EB:
You heard him singing?
C:
Uh-huh. Yeah.
EB:
I had to correct him. I have to correct him sometimes. And he’s pretty good. Sometimes,
he get on the phone. He’s singing over the phone. [Laughter]
LB:
But she’s got a lot of songs, and so I’ve been helping her record on tape. You know, at
home. I have a tape recorder. Just telling stories about things, because she’s told you very
little today. She’s got so much more to share. And so I told her if she gets it down on
tape, that we’ll always have that memory that’s she’s had. She’s got a lot of stories that
she tells. She looks at pictures, and she could tell you all about a person—who their
family is, where they came from, where they were living when she was younger. And
she’s got all that information just stored up there. So, my mother is here now. Because
sometimes when people—because she’s on enrollment, too. So she has to go through,
and, we can sit there with the Census, and she’ll look at the Census and I’ll tell her, I’ll
read it because now her eyesight’s getting worse. But she’ll be able to tell me all about
their family, who they are.
EB:
Well, I know their Indian names, too. Because a lot of them in Owyhee, they got Indian
names. I know it once I hear that name. But I couldn’t spell it out. [Laughter] I couldn’t
spell it out. But I know them.
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LB:
So that’s what we’ve been doing to help. And hopefully, we’ll keep track of all these
tapes that she’s got, because she has a bad habit of putting stuff in places we can’t find it,
so…
EB:
[Laughter] Yeah, we’re going to head for Phoenix tomorrow. So we’ll probably sing all
the way.
C:
Well, our tape’s out, so we’re out, so… Okay. Well, we probably wore you out.
LB:
Today’s her good day.
EB:
Huh?
LB:
Today’s our good day.
C:
Yeah, [Shoshone at 1:01:18]. Send one down here.
LB:
I wish we could have done the old people long time ago.
C:
Oh, I know! There was nobody doing it. We were all saying that we were going to do it.
When I was in high school, I wanted to do it, and I didn’t. And now, the old people are
gone.
LB:
I know, and that’s what’s real sad. Because we’ve lost so many, just in the last twenty
years. I just… there were people we’ve lost that had so much knowledge. And we’ve
been doing a lot of writing down, and documenting, and stuff. Trying to keep record of
everything.
C:
Yep. That’s what’s—
EB:
I never thought I’d live to see my great-great-grandmother, Meredith Adam, you know,
writing anything that she told us. But my tsoo’s mother, I seen her. She was in her second
childhood. Old Maggie used to put diapers on her. Little old lady. And when Tsoo got
sick, she told me, “[Shoshone at 1:02:35]”—
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[End of recording]
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
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
Elizabeth "Liz" Brady
Location
The location of the interview
Elko, NV (GBC - TV Station)
Original Format
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DVD and VOB format
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
01:02:40
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/536
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" Brady - Oral history (11/29/2006)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history interview with Elizabeth "Liz" Brady, Western Shoshone from Elko, NV on 11/29/2006
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Elizabeth “Liz” Brady was born in Elko, NV between the Elko Smoke Shop and I-80 where the old Elko Senior Citizens Center was located. Her father’s name was Sontag Jackson whose grandparents were from the Austin area and were part of the Dubba Diccada. Her mother was Mary Horton who belonged to the Dosa Wihi near Battle Mountain, NV. Liz talks about how she grew up around ranches while her father ran mustangs. She speaks about her experience going to Battle Mountain for grammar school, and her experience at Stewart Indian School where she was punished for speaking her language. She also speaks about how her grandfather partook in contact with the emigrants and their wagons. She also speaks about growing up in tzsogogotti (Antelope Valley) and how her family was ran out of the area. She also tells the audience about the history of Elko including the start-up of a lot of the old businesses including who ran them. She also speaks about living on the outskirts of Battle Mountain and the diseases impacting the Shoshone there.</p>
Video pending <br /> <a title="Elizabeth 'Liz' Brady Oral History Transcript" href="/omeka/files/original/90464b5a0a4119cfb22d242bdcdb1531.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read Elizabeth 'Liz' Brady Oral History Transcript [pdf file]</a>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Basin Indian Archives
Source
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 013
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
11/29/2006 [29 November 2006]; 2006 November 29
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Norm Cavanaugh [interviewer]; James Hedrick [GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
Rights
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Non-commercial scholarly and educational use only. Not to be reproduced or published without express permission. All rights reserved. Great Basin Indian Archives © 2017.
Consent form on file (administrator access only): http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/items/show/356
Language
A language of the resource
English
Battle Mountain
Community
Conservation Corps
contact
Crossroads
Elko
Fandango
GBIA
mining
Owyhee
ranching
Shoshone
Stewart Indian School
Story
traditions