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Johnny
Bobb
Great
Basin
Indian
Archive
GBIA
042
Oral
History
Interview
by
Norm
Cavanaugh
September
20,
2014
Yomba,
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 042
Interviewee: Johnny Bobb
Interviewer: Norm Cavanaugh
Date: September 20, 2014
B:
Hello. My name is Johnny Bobb, and I came from Yomba Indian reservation. I was born
and raised up the valley, south of Austin, Nevada. I was raised with my grandma,
grandpa. Everybody else out there worked hard for their living. Aishe wookkah po’i
[1:08]. From there, when I was growing up, I had a hard life. Because most of the time, I
didn’t have—parents didn’t have food. Because they couldn’t get to town sometimes, it
was hard to get to town. It was so isolated that town was too far for us to travel every
month. But we did it somehow. Because I don’t really remember, because I don’t really
travel with them to town because it was too far. So me and Grandma, and my sisters or
brothers, we stayed home, played, went up in the mountains. But I think the most
important thing was that we had to know the reason why we were brought up that way.
Because it was a hard life, and hard lecture from our parents, grandparents, to see—we
were to be safe. And get fed. That was the first thing that our parents always thought
about: us being fed, us being healthy, get the right kind of food in our system, so we
could grow up to be strong. My uncle—they came from different area. Most of the people
that came to Yomba, it wasn’t a reservation then. It was something where the BIA had us
put there to open up a reservation. Most of my people came from Smoky Valley, Monitor
Valley, Little Antelope Valley. And then, from there, you see Duckwater, and Ely, and
then wherever else. But for the wintertime, we always go down towards Yucca Mountain.
And that’s where, up in the mountains, they have caves. They have places for our people
to gather. They have places there for kids to run around, to be a man, and pick medicines
for the elders, and pick medicine to learn what it does when you use it in ceremonies. All
these thing about the medicine: we took care of it, with our prayers. We used the water;
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water was important. There was lots of water then. Now, there’s no water. Now, to come
to this place, people on the reservation—just drying up. Up in the mountains, mountains
are drying up. They’re not dying, they’re not dead. Because you don’t really use that dead
and dry it, dead this and dead that. We use it to, when we pass on or something. But you
know, when we look at the trees and everything else, we just dry up. But we use that for
good purposes: to make fire, chips, or use it for gardening. Or something like that. But in
our way, we have forgotten our languages, too. We’re not the ones that, out in Yomba,
know that things are going wrong for the people to know that everything is drying up. So
we keep trying to teach our kids, trying to let them know what’s happening. Nowadays,
more ceremonies we do, the more people we get, the more word we get out with our
prayers to look around and see what we’re talking about, for the kids to recognize
ourselves—themselves—to know what’s going on on this Mother Earth, and see things.
Right now, today, see clouds. It’s about wintertime. That winter is pretty—I think it’s
going to be long winter, but we’ll get that winter. Hopefully we’ll have good weather and
good rain. But this life goes on. You know, life goes on forever. Things that the Indians
used long time ago, we were studied by the white people. So, they learned from us. They
studied our medicine, they studied our ways, they studied our languages, they studied our
body, they studied our ways of standing on this Mother Earth. How we stand, how we use
our languages, what we use our languages for. How do we pray? They have that
knowledge now to go out and take a look at us in that way. The health clinic, you know?
They still experimenting on us. Nevada Test Site down there, and Mercury, down toward
that way. They’re still studying on us. We’re the pygmies of their country. We still stand
on our 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. When that Ruby Valley treaty was signed, it was for
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Peace and Friendship. And the white people came from California and back and forth to
Colorado, wherever they take that gold. They travel that route, northern route, over here
in Nevada. And what the Indian did was, they just took and slaughtered this wagon
train—for what? Not the gold. Maybe the scalp. They like scalp, they like wagon, they
like horses. Maybe that’s all they took. And left the gold somewhere. And then white
people come back and take the gold and carried on, with guns. But we never did care for
gold. It was part of our ceremonies, it was part of our ceremonies that we use with our
sick people and everything else that depend on us with our prayers.
[Break in recording at 8:16]
B:
So, to continuing on this film, telling people that, guess what? The Shoshone National
Council is still around. We want the council to continuing with our traditional people. But
the people have to be coming from different reservations, and different areas, tribes, and
different places like cities where Shoshones are at. Got to be Shoshone traditional person
to recognize our traditional ways through our own government, where we be of our own
government. We are all taking stand, and learn, and talk about our traditional ways, and
what’s happening on this Mother Earth, and what’s happening on our reservation and our
treaty land, and our Sokopia. [Shoshone at 9:16] to leave it alone [Shoshone at 9:50]
Geneva [Shoshone at 11:23] treaty [Shoshone at 11:27] do the studying. When they
studying, [Shoshone at 12:00] guinea pig [Shoshone at 12:34].
You know, where this water that comes from this cloud up here to water the plants and
the animals, and to drink—for the mountains to drink, and everything is good. But water
keep pumping up from the ground for the wells to benefit them there, their part. And their
mining. They using lot of water! This water is for the Mother Earth. It stays. [__inaudible
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at 13:29__]. Everything should be—shouldn’t be looking dry, like this tree right here.
Through winter, it should be protected from that water, should be to protect it from this
Mother Earth being damp. Everything. You know, back east, there’s lots of water over
there, so that’s why it still stays free. But they have lots of water. And the flood is going
on? That’s good. But there was a reason for that. People better look at Mother Earth and
how it rotates, how it moves, how the water works. Water’s the very important life of the
Mother Earth. Take that time to think, you Indians! Take that time to think about our
language, how it is spoke. Not how it is pronounced. Because sometimes, we send our
kids to school, they come back not knowing our grammar. Not knowing our way, how we
speak. It’s their way, of how white people want to interpret our language, how they want
to use our language, how they want to use and understand our ways. Because that’s how
we went to school, learning the ABC and the vowels and all that. So, something’s got to
be done. Something’s got to be standing with us kids. This life is short. This life don’t
continue. [Shoshone at 15:13] Everything’s a story. The music’s a story. Everything is
prayer. Everything is taking care of this, our Mother. Everything is taking care of her
ways, because Appe, everything is taking care of our grandma. Everything is taking care
of our elders. So, that’s all I have to say right now. There’s lot more to say, but to
understand our way, you know, keep on praying. Keep on using our language, knowing
our ways. But there’s lot of people that—kids—that forgotten our ways, that’s already
grown up. To take care of all that, we got to stick together and do more ceremonies, and
get together, know one another. And Grandma always say, “We’re all related one way or
another.” So take care of yourself, and be happy, and know what’s out there. Because we,
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the Newe people, we should know each other. We shouldn’t be far apart. Take care of
yourself. Ho’. Aishen kwai tsaa. Suntahaiken.
[End of recording]
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Western Shoshone Oral Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral histories of Western Shoshone elders collected by the Great Basin Indian Archive.
Description
An account of the resource
Oral histories compiled
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Basin Indian Archive, in partnership with Barrick Gold of North America
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
GBIA Oral History Collections
Publisher
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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
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James Hedrick
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Johnny Bobb
Location
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Yomba, NV [Yomba reservation]
Transcription
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http://humanities.gbcnv.edu/omeka/admin/files/show/503
Original Format
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DVD, MP4, and AVI Format
Duration
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00:17:34
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
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Johnny Bobb - Oral history (09/20/2014)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral History Interview with Johnny Bobb, Western Shoshone from Yomba, NV, on 09/20/2014
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Johnny Bobb is a Western Shoshone from the Yomba reservation. He was born near Austin, Nevada and was raised by his grandma and grandpa. Johnny tells us of his up-bringing and how his grandparents were concerned with traditional practices being passed on. He explains how most of his relatives came from Smoky Valley, Monitor Valley, and Little Antelope Valley. Johnny describes how he learned to pick medicines for ceremonies and how they work together with prayer. He goes on to speak about Indian Health Services, the 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty, and the Nevada (Nuclear) Test Site down in Yucca, NV. Johnny also tells us about the pioneers coming through the Shoshone’s ancestral territories and how contact occurred. He goes on to speak about the importance of tradition, the water, the Shoshone language, and ceremonies and how they need to be carried on by younger generations.<br /> <br />Interviewed by Norm Cavanaugh</p>
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Creator
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Source
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Great Basin Indian Archives - GBIA 042
Publisher
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Great Basin Indian Archives
Date
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09/20/2017 [ 20 September 2014]; 2014 September 20
Contributor
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James Hedrick [interviewer]; Andrew Moore [GBIA]; Scott A. Gavorsky [VHC]; James Hedrick {GBIA/VHC]; University of Utah SYLAP [streaming video]; Great Basin College; BARRICK Gold of North America
Rights
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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/files/show/487
Format
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mp4
Language
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English; Shoshone
1863 Ruby Valley Treaty
BIA
Community
Crossroads
GBIA
mining
Nevada Test Site
Shoshone
Shoshone Nation
Story
traditional medicines
traditions
water
Yomba