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Here are excerpts from email letters, showing my excitement over a research trip to Nevada and Idaho.
From an Aug 1 letter to my step-daughter in Meridian, Idaho:
“Am safely back home (and beat) as of 3pm yesterday (Saturday, Aug 1, 2009), after 4 night-time stays at various motels and five full drive days through Northern CA, NV, and ID. It was fun to see all you again. …
“I took 240 pictures on the trip …
“I told you, I talked to the Tribal Chairman (chief), Dale Barr, of the Paiute-Shoshoni Tribe at Fort McDermitt Reservation, northern NV just off Highway 95. He said, water shortage on some of the lower ranches makes for drought conditions every year. The rancher-Indians suffer from a policy termed "best use" of resources, a bill passed by the Nevada legislature in the 1960s called the McCarron amendment passed. I still need to verify the precise import of this fact through googling. It’s purely a coincidence that the main issue in my novel has my protagonist fighting to keep water on the fictitious reservation near some mountains in Nevada. I got a big kick from our meeting, as I had just dropped in. He had a few minutes to very graciously shoe-horn me into his busy morning.
“Then, after I saw you [my Idaho step-daughter], I visited other Shoshoni Indians, they are in-laws on my ex-wife's side on the South Fork Reservation 26 miles south of Elko, Nevada–I dropped in out of nowhere–I’d misplaced their phone numbers. We had a jolly time talking about Western-Shoshoni (the Nevada version of four or five disparate Shoshoni cultures). We talked about their traditions, myths, religions, and some Numi (Shoshoni) language words I’d forgotten. It was a morning in their grand country. I consider the setting a major "character" in my novel. A photo or two are attached. I hope to post more into a Facebook album….”
And here's this from an Aug 2 email to my niece near Elko, Nevada:
“Hi Dallas [my niece, Shoshoni Indian from her mother’s side, Eutopean from her father's side.] I’m writing my book, Sagebrush at Stony Creek (editing, actually) and found this word. This is my recall for a bush or shrub somebody would stoop behind to go to the bathroom outside in a hurry: gwida-gwahnah …
“How I recall it, `pine-nut pudding' is dib-bah-gweenee. Please let me know if that’s right ….
(This is my own attempt at spelling how it sounds to a speaker of American-English.)
“Also, if younger brother is dahmee (or dahmeechee), Dallas, what is older brother? Thanks. (For the curious student of the Numi language, Te-Mook dialect, spoken south of Elko, NV, my niece's answer was bah-bee means older brother.)
“The grapes and cherries came in handy for my drive home through the long NV desert. Thanks. Had good time out there. I took some great photos of the ruggedly beautiful Ruby Mountains, too,
From an Aug 1 letter to my step-daughter in Meridian, Idaho:
“Am safely back home (and beat) as of 3pm yesterday (Saturday, Aug 1, 2009), after 4 night-time stays at various motels and five full drive days through Northern CA, NV, and ID. It was fun to see all you again. …
“I took 240 pictures on the trip …
“I told you, I talked to the Tribal Chairman (chief), Dale Barr, of the Paiute-Shoshoni Tribe at Fort McDermitt Reservation, northern NV just off Highway 95. He said, water shortage on some of the lower ranches makes for drought conditions every year. The rancher-Indians suffer from a policy termed "best use" of resources, a bill passed by the Nevada legislature in the 1960s called the McCarron amendment passed. I still need to verify the precise import of this fact through googling. It’s purely a coincidence that the main issue in my novel has my protagonist fighting to keep water on the fictitious reservation near some mountains in Nevada. I got a big kick from our meeting, as I had just dropped in. He had a few minutes to very graciously shoe-horn me into his busy morning.
“Then, after I saw you [my Idaho step-daughter], I visited other Shoshoni Indians, they are in-laws on my ex-wife's side on the South Fork Reservation 26 miles south of Elko, Nevada–I dropped in out of nowhere–I’d misplaced their phone numbers. We had a jolly time talking about Western-Shoshoni (the Nevada version of four or five disparate Shoshoni cultures). We talked about their traditions, myths, religions, and some Numi (Shoshoni) language words I’d forgotten. It was a morning in their grand country. I consider the setting a major "character" in my novel. A photo or two are attached. I hope to post more into a Facebook album….”
And here's this from an Aug 2 email to my niece near Elko, Nevada:
“Hi Dallas [my niece, Shoshoni Indian from her mother’s side, Eutopean from her father's side.] I’m writing my book, Sagebrush at Stony Creek (editing, actually) and found this word. This is my recall for a bush or shrub somebody would stoop behind to go to the bathroom outside in a hurry: gwida-gwahnah …
“How I recall it, `pine-nut pudding' is dib-bah-gweenee. Please let me know if that’s right ….
(This is my own attempt at spelling how it sounds to a speaker of American-English.)
“Also, if younger brother is dahmee (or dahmeechee), Dallas, what is older brother? Thanks. (For the curious student of the Numi language, Te-Mook dialect, spoken south of Elko, NV, my niece's answer was bah-bee means older brother.)
“The grapes and cherries came in handy for my drive home through the long NV desert. Thanks. Had good time out there. I took some great photos of the ruggedly beautiful Ruby Mountains, too,
as well as some of the creeks that run through South Fork Reservation (Shoshoni—Te Mook Band). I’ve seen that spelled Te-Moak Band on maps, seems to change every few years. There’s another reservation of that band that I've never visited near Battle Mountain, NV.
“Uncle Richard”
“Uncle Richard”
