Duckwater Personalities: Sophie Allison and Irene Mike

When I was in Duckwater, Sophie Allison and Irene Mike were already part of the Senior Center program.  However they were both still very active.  They were sisters.  They were some of the few who actually attended the Lund Ward on a regular basis.  And when we started a branch in Duckwater, they were very active.
One of the most impressive things about Sophie Allison was her weaving.  I feel, in her own right, she was keeping a vanishing tradition, with lots of history in Nevada, alive.  I visited her one afternoon while she was preparing willows for weaving.  She gathered the willows from along creeks.  The Currant Creek had a large patch of willows and this was a favorite spot for gathering.  She would keep the willows in water until she was ready for them.  She would take a willow form the water, and then hold it in her mouth.  With her fingers she would peel the bark away.  In this manner she prepared the willows for weaving.  Sophie was adept at making cradle boards.  They had a different design on the hood for boys and girls.

girl

boy

 She also made baskets.  Mostly she would make baskets to assist in the gathering of pine nuts.  I remember she would make cone shaped baskets for this.
This is a skill that was important to the original Shoshone.  I don't know who is carrying on this tradition now that Sophie is gone.

Sophie in the middle and Irene on the right

Many of the children from the reservation looked to these two women as Grandmother.

Duckwater Branch

When we moved to Duckwater, we discovered that Sunday Church meetings were 60 miles away.  We were willing to do this, and attended for a time, but the stake decided to make a branch in Duckwater.  A member of the high council, Stan Stucki, who was also from Lund, was called to be the branch president.  Stan worked for radar, and he had to travel to top of a mountain for his job, and they would track missle launches from Vanderbilt, in California.
We met at the tribal school, which previously had been a Mormon Church.  We had basically two priesthood, myself and the president.  However we plugged away.  He home taught the ranch members, and I the tribal members.  That gave use each about 10 families.  What is cool, is some months we saw them all.  There were two faithful sisters from the reservation, Irene Mike and Sophie Allison.  The had attended regularly in Lund.  There was a good group of children whose parents were inactive, that attended faithfully if Sheri and I would pick them up.  From time to time we had other members.  There was a family that came through for about a month, who knew my folks from the Othello days.  We had a principal at the school who was a Native American member.  He was a high priest, and became a counselor in the branch presidency.  However they moved after a month.
I served as the branch clerk, keeping the records. We initially used a tape for music, but president Stucki felt we needed live music.  We got one of the portable pianos, and I was called as the organist.  This was a bit above my ability.  If I had rehearsed a lot, I may have gotten by.  However I didn't, so we would sometimes sing slow, and sometimes I would play with one hand; well usually I would play with one hand.  Sheri taught primary (president), and Stan taught the adults.

Sometimes we would have a good group for church, and other times we were few.

Stan and Pat Stucki's son Alan