Duckwater: Digging a Sewer Leach Line

In doing social work, sometimes you do what is needed.  While I worked for the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe, a tribal member's house burned, and a family was homeless.  I was on the phone to arrange with B.I.A. housing for a double wide trailer to be provided.  The tribe provided a property for the same, and would get water and electricity to the site. The septic tank would also be provided by the B.I.A.  However they would not provide the labor for placing the septic tank nor the leach line. That is one of those extra duties as assigned.  Someone from the B.I.A. directed the project, and I and tribal employees provided the labor.   We spent a day putting this in.  Of course a back hoe did most of the heavy work, but there was shoveling to get the right slant, and then shoveling in gravel.  I don't know much about such things, and just did what I was shown.  However it felt good to provide a real contribution, and for the family with there young ones to move back in.  I was able to visit them a couple months later delivering Christmas gifts provided by Save The Children.  It takes a community sometimes.

Duckwater Community Projects August 1983-June 1985: Volleyball League

I organized and ran a volleyball league both years we lived in Duckwater.  We had five or six teams each year.  Most of the teams came from the Native American, but we also had one community ranch team which is the team Sheri and I would participate with.  We would have regular play, and then a tournament at the end of the year.  Willie Blackeye was usually the star.  His team won the championship both years.  Other teams included the Duckwater Shoshone School team which had many teachers and spouses.  There was also a team of tribal employees, and another community team with many from the George family.
I would arrange for the purchasing of trophies for the first place team.  I also got more than my share of officiating volleyball.  It seems I was in charge of the net about every game, but I could get someone to watch the lines for me.  JerDean Moyle, a senior in high school, would also help with the officiating.  The league was co-ed and the rule required three women participate at all times on the court.

Duckwater Community Projects August 1983-June 1985: Spring Festival

As part of my work in Duckwater I helped organize a Spring festival, and was part of putting together the first festival, which is still held today, although no longer in the early Spring.
As part of my work I put together a pow-wow type of festival each May.  It included a youth hand game tournament, community dances (Native American and country western) a community barbecue (the tribe would provide the beef which the barbecued in a pit in the ground) a chuck wagon breakfast, booths, games, including hand game and card playing areas.  It was really a fun time.  I especially enjoyed doing some round dance and listening to the drum.
The booths were nice.  One year we bought a couple small doll Shoshone cradle boards at a booth.  Also a beaded small hat.  Sheri purchased beaded moccasins which she wore for many years.
One of the problems of the festival was getting the booths set up, and getting electricity to them.  They were pole framed, with green branches placed over the top to provide shade.  The frames didn't come down, so they were available for the next year.  The electricity was provided by a long extension cord run from a nearby building.  The cord had to by run through a culvert.
 The second year it fell upon me to make a horse shoe throwing pit for a tournament.  Wayne Dick and I drove an old pickup to a place on the reservation where there was sand.  We got a pretty good load and filled in a couple areas to provide a good landing for the horseshoes.  I had to measure things four or five times to get the pits and stakes to where I thought it would work best.
We also had a pool tournament at the recreation center for the younger crowd
Many people helped.  Virginia Sanchez worked at the school, and she was instrumental with putting together the youth hand game tournament.  She and I co lead the organization.  Mary Lou Gomes and Kathy Millet also helped greatly.  These were my coworkers.  Jerry Millett was the tribal chairman.  Irwin Watson who worked for the tribe provided tremendous support with the barbecue pit and other tasks.  They had to watch the meat most of the night.  Mitchell Maes, Wayne Dick and Howard Thompson helped with setting up the shelters.  Of course others in the community helped as well.  The entire community helped with a pot luck and little tasks as needed.  The entire year I would sell candy and pop  from the office to make money for the event.

Duckwater Community Projects August 1983-June 1985: Community Projects: Pottery

The Duckwater Tribe owned a pottery wheel, however it was not used as it should have been.  I was able to set it up in a building behind the school.  In the end it made a nice pottery barn.  We also found money to purchase a kiln.  The building where we put the kiln did not have an adequate electricity supply as it needed to have 220, the same as for a stove.  This left the task of running a line underground to the out building.  I was able to get the wire through a pipe, but did not have the electrical know how to complete this project.  I was able to recruit Irwin Watson and staff from the garage and maintenance department of the tribe to complete this and make sure the kiln was well wired.  This project was done to support the school and the art program at the school.

Duckwater Community Projects August 1983-June 1985: Weight Lifting Set

I discovered that the tribe owned a universal weight lifting set.  This was stored in someone's garage.  In order to make it more accessible I had it moved to the community gym (which was used as the community center and the school.)  I also was able to purchase some new pins for the set as they old ones had been misplaced.  It almost fit in a corner of the gym, but was a safety hazard for those playing basketball if the were to dive over the side line in that direction.

Duckwater Community Projects: August 1983 - June 1985: Community Center

I was in Duckwater Nevada almost a couple years.  I worked for the Duckwater Shoshone Indian Tribe.  This was a small community of about 200 at the time.  Working in Duckwater was a little different than clinical social work.  because o the low number of residents I became involved in a number of community projects.  To keep busy I became involved in many community projects.

One of those was the establishment of a community center.

We arranged for the tribe to donate one of their old buildings for this.  There was an old building which had been used for head start most recently.  I wrote a grant with Kathy Graham, who was the alcohol and drug worker at the time.  The money for the community center would come from a grant from her program.  With the money we bought needed equipment.  This included a T.V., V.C.R. stereo, ping pong table and some board games.  With the Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School we bought a satellite dish.  The tribe had an old pool table which had been in storage in the garage.  We brought it over and got it through the door after taking the legs off.  

As part of the community center we would try to have activity nights two or three times a week.  Sometimes we would rant a movie.  We would make popcorn and sell it.  We would also buy pop on sale in Ely and then resale it at a profit.  We would also get candy at a distributor in Ely and resale it.  I would also sale pop and candy at work to make money for the rec. center.  

Sometimes I would do an educational group geared to young people at the center.  But usually we stuck to just trying to create a good time without alcohol being involved.  We had a rule against alcohol in the recreation center.   However that didn't keep kids from drinking before they arrived or after they left.