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STEWART INDIAN SCHOOL ORAL HISTORY PROJECT HAPPY STUDENT, FREE-SPIRITED WOMAN: AN INTERVIEW WITH EVELYN COOK Interviewed by Terri McBride Transcribed by Barbara L. Zeigler Funded by: Nevada Indian Commission © Funded by: Copyright 2017 Nevada Indian Commission 5366 Snyder Avenue Carson City, Nevada 89701 Happy Student, Free-Spirited Woman: An Interview with Evelyn Cook Evelyn (Sharp) Cook is a Northern Paiute woman who attended Stewart Indian School 1943-1947. She enjoyed her classes, teachers and friends at the school. After graduating, she moved to southern California with a sister and friends to work, using her vocational training in domestic skills in jobs there. She eventually moved back to Nevada, beginning a career in nursing at the Walker River hospital in Schurz. She retired after 23 years at the hospital, and still resides in Schurz. Evelyn is the great-great granddaughter of Jack “Wovoka” Wilson, renowned religious leader of the Ghost Dance. My name is Terri McBride. It is Monday, April When you were growing up in your house, in 17, 2017. We are at the Technology Center at your home with your family, did your family the Walker River Paiute Tribe’s Center in celebrate American Indian traditional Schurz. The interview is with Evelyn Cook, a ceremonies or did you do traditional activities former student at Stewart Indian School. We together, like dancing or pine-nutting, or you will be discussing her experiences as a student. know? This interview is being conducted for the I don’t remember, ‘cuz, uh, after we started Stewart Indian School Oral History Project for school, it seemed like we got away from it all; the Nevada Indian Commission and will be and usually, we’d just join the community in archived in the Stewart Indian School Cultural whatever goes on, you know. And . . . Center, the Nevada State Library and Archives, and the Special Collections Library at the So, community events. Go ahead! University of Nevada, Reno. And . . . and my dad, he worked, he worked on Okay, Evelyn, where were you born and when the ranch on weekends and then during the were you born? weekdays, he worked for the State of Nevada for the Highway Department. I was born in Yerington, Nevada, on August 3, 1928. Oh, okay! And how many people were in your family? And my mother, she always stayed . . . she was a housewife so she never went and got a job after Uh, there was—I had two sisters and mother and she got married, after she got with my dad, but dad, and that was it. before that, she worked in San Francisco, you And what language was spoken at home? know, after school, ‘cuz she went to Stewart too! Paiute language and English. Okay! I was gonna ask, did any of your other family members go to Stewart? Okay. Were there communication problems between, you know, the older relatives and the Yeah, both of my sisters went to Stewart. kids? So, you mother, and what about your father? No, because that’s all we, I mean, that’s all they No, my dad didn’t go to school. I think he had a spoke and then, and then, of course, after third-grade education. school—after starting school—we had to talk English. So, it wasn’t a problem. Stewart Indian School Oral History Project: Evelyn Cook And so, your mom moved out to San Francisco Okay. So, how did you get there the first time, for a job? the first time you went off to school? How did you get over there? Yeah, she—after she left school, well, she went and got—she went to San Leandro, I think it I think—I can’t remember, but I think we went was, where she got a job and she worked there I on a bus. I mean, you know, they loaded up the don’t know how long, but anyway . . . children here and took them all. What did she do? Uh-huh. In the fall? To go off to school? Domestic work, as far as I know. Uh-huh, in the fall. And how old were you when you first went away And had you visited Stewart before you went? to Stewart? Did you know where you were going, really? I was thirteen, I guess, fourteen. Well, yeah, because my sisters were up there and then my mom and dad, we’d go and visit. Thirteen or fourteen, and how many years were you there? Okay. So, what was your first impression when you got there as a student? When you got off Four. Just my high school years. that bus, what’d you think? Four, okay. Umm, I don’t know. . . . It didn’t really make I probably would have gone, stayed home and any difference to me because I had been away gone to Fallon or Yerington, you know, but from home before that and you know, I wasn’t at because my sisters had gone to Stewart, well, I home all the time and, in fact, I was in a wanted to be there too, being the youngest. sanitorium when—before I went into high school. Oh, okay! Was that for TB? (Laughs) You know how they always wanted to follow along with their older sisters and Yeah, they said I had TB but afterwards, um, brothers. they didn’t think I had TB. It was, I don’t know, but anyway. That’s right. So, that’s why you went to Stewart is ‘cuz you wanted to go to school with your Yeah. So, you weren’t scared. sisters? And what did your mom . . . ? Huh-uh. I wasn’t afraid. I mean, because I had You know, I didn’t get to go to school with them been away from my family, you know, I was ‘cuz they got out. They were out by the time I away from them for about two and a half years, got into Stewart. or going on three years; so, I wasn’t really afraid. Oh! They were done. Did you enjoy being a student at Stewart? Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. I did. I wasn’t—I didn’t have Okay. So, but you still wanted to go? You asked anything against it, you know. I mean, I’ve to go? heard some stories where . . . well, some people thought that they were in prison or, you know, Yeah, I wanted to go. things like that, but I never thought that. I just And your mom was okay with that? went to school and I was happy. Mm-hmm. 2 Stewart Indian School Oral History Project: Evelyn Cook So, when you went there, what kinds of things Were you in the little girls’ dorm at first or you did you take with you from home? You took were always in the big girls’? your clothes . . . I was always in the, yeah, in the large girls’. Oh, I just took my clothes. Okay. You guys had to do chores, though, Just clothes, huh? right? Uh-huh. Just my personal things, you know. Yeah, we had on weekends we had to clean our My clothes and that’s about it. rooms and clean the . . . we all had details to do in the building, you know, and so we all did our And what was the most difficult thing to leave weekend duties or even every day, you know, behind at home—or people? somethin’ that has to be done every day; we had I don’t know because, you know, like I say, I to do that if we were assigned to it. was in a sanitorium and I didn’t have anything Okay, and eating in the dining hall, what was there and then when I got home, well, I still the food like? didn’t have anything so I really didn’t, didn’t think of anything that I had at home. What? That you were missing. What was the food like? Yeah. Just maybe my mother and dad! (laughs) To me, I never did—I was never too finicky But, that’s natural! about food so it was all right with me. (laughs) I mean the food was all right, because we got Sure, sure. Well, how did they feel about you our bread, butter, and cereals in the morning, going away? So, you were the youngest, right? and our meat and vegetables during lunch, and How did they feel about you going away? our dinner we got, you know, the same. So, it Well, I guess they didn’t . . . didn’t really miss wasn’t too bad; for me it wasn’t, anyway. me, really, because I had been in the sanitorium And was that a social time, like, eating together just before that, before I went to Stewart. with your friends? So, they were used to you being gone! Uh-huh. So, I don’t know, they never seemed to . . . they Were there, was there a group of girls that you probably missed me but I never . . . they never always sat with? Well, let me ask: first of all, showed it or, you know. did the boys and the girls have to sit separate in And as far as campus life goes, what was living the dining hall? in the dorms like? Yeah. I don’t know; it was all right. For me, anyway, Okay, and so, you just always had a group of it was. I had my roommates. friends that you liked to eat with? Uh-huh, how many? Uh-huh. I had three roommates. So were you going [to Stewart] when they Okay, so you shared with three girls. marched everybody in, and everybody had to go in single file? . . . ‘Cuz there was four girls to a room. Yeah . . . 3 Stewart Indian School Oral History Project: Evelyn Cook Evelyn Cook, Schurz Nevada, April 17, 2017. And so, did the girls go first, or did the boys go remember. My mom, she used to, used to send first? Do you remember? me five dollars a month and so I’d have to make that last and then, if I didn’t get a job—I mean a I don’t know, they seemed to have the boys on paying job—because they had, up at the main one side and the girls on the other side. office, well, they used to have . . . a position up Oh, okay, they came in different doors. there where, uh . . . I had anyway, once, and I got a little, a little paycheck for, you know. Yeah, uh-huh. So, you worked in the office or . . . ? Okay, good. Yeah, in the main office! And then, after that, Yeah, they all came in . . . and then, we had you know, our other details, too, so . . . but I used to get a little check, and I . . . and sat in their separate . . . liked it. And then I . . . Uh- huh. Did they set up a bank account for you? Did And did they have a little student store there? they have a bank, like a savings account for Did you ever buy things there? you? Mm-hmm. Huh-uh. They didn’t because, I don’t know, I just didn’t even think about puttin’ anything in What kinds of things? the bank. They used to have—oh you know, soft drinks Okay, so, you just worked for a little spending and candy, and that’s about all. I don’t money. remember, I never did! (laughs) I don’t 4 Stewart Indian School Oral History Project: Evelyn Cook Yeah! Sure, just like all over America. And did you have a favorite class, Evelyn? Yeah! A what? So, did the girls take care of the chickens, too, or . . . ? A favorite class? Uh-huh; they did everything down there, I A favorite class? Uh . . . (pauses) I don’t know. guess—but I never did—and they had rabbits Dancing class, I guess! (laughs) and pigs, and . . . but that was before I went Dancing! there so I didn’t, I didn’t have to work at the farm. We used to have—they used to have different clubs, you know, like, I guess it was called a So, you went there . . . club, and they had a square dance club and, you In ’40; let’s see, I graduated in ’47. know, and other . . . and they had all, other classes, too, but, I don’t know, I used to like, I So, from ’43 to ’47. used to like that dancing. It was about ’44, ’43 or ’44. Uh-huh; well, you said that you had a small job So, you got there right at the end of the war. right there at Stewart in an office, but did you also do other—the vocational training? Uh-huh. Mm-hmm! Yeah! Okay, and so, you graduated from Stewart? Okay, so what kinds of things did you learn how Mm-hmm. to do there? Okay, class of ’47? We learned how to cook and we learned how to Forty-seven. And then there was another job I keep our house, and, you know, domestic stuff. liked over there, too. We’d work at the Uh-huh, okay, and what about the teachers? Employees’ Club and that paid us. Did you have a favorite teacher? Oh! Uh-huh, okay! So, it was kind of like the I, I really didn’t have any favorites ‘cuz they employees’ lounge? were all pretty good to me. Yeah. So, since you were a girl, you weren’t involved So, that’s where they ate and what else did the in the school agriculture, then. employees do over there? Did they have Huh-uh. meetings? What did they do there? That was just for the boys to do? Meetings? Well, you know, during the war, too, the girls—I At the Employees’ Club. What did they do over remember my sister, one of my sisters, she used there? to work in the dairy, or down on the farm and Oh! The employees—that’s where they ate, and she said she used to milk cows and feed the the cook, she was really neat. Her name was cows and stuff like that, but that was during the Tropha. war. After the boys all, they all decided to go in the service, you know, or they were drafted and Tropha? so, the girls had to go and take care of the farm. 5 Stewart Indian School Oral History Project: Evelyn Cook Uh-huh, and she was from, I think she said she Track, I think they did, but I don’t know if the was from Arkansas or someplace she came girls wer—any participated in that. from, and she was a real good cook too, and she Okay, so basketball for sure. used to tease us, you know, different things like one day she said, “Okay, you two get over there Yeah. And probably baseball. at the end of the counter,” she says, “and we’re Oh, baseball, okay. Did they have cheerleaders gonna make a cake.” And so, she was doing back then? something over here but she was telling us what to do (laughs) and we made our cake! But she Uh-huh. real, real good, you know. I really liked her because she was—she was interesting, you So the girls also were cheerleaders. What kinds know, to work with. That’s where I learned to, of things did you do in the auditorium? You to wait on tables and then after I got out of know, the building with the stage and all the school, I did some of that, you know. I worked seats? in Yerington at the Eagle Club before it closed. Mmm . . . I worked with a Chinese man and I really enjoyed that and so that was one of the jobs that What kinds of things did the students do in I picked up at Stewart! (laughs) there? Right! And the sports: How important was the They had their movies there all the time, you sports there, on campus while you were there? know, and . . . They had, you know, the regular sports. They Did they have any kind of performances like had basketball, baseball, and, uh, I don’t know music, the band or anything or . . . ? what else, but . . . Well, I think so, um, mostly the band, you know, Did they have wrestling—or did they have the high school, the school band. They had a boxing when you were there? real good school band and then their . . . Oh, yeah, the boxing. Okay, so the school band. So, they’d have their rehearsals in there or . . . Did you go watch? And the teacher was Mr. Laird and he was a Uh-huh. good teacher. He was there for years and years. Yeah? What was that like? Was that fun? I mean, all the years that I was there and after. Yeah, yeah, I . . . I didn’t, I wasn’t too interested Mr. Laird, yeah. in sports because, because of my health, you And I think they—they put on some acts, you know. I was not used to running and jumping know, uh, the school, maybe certain classes or and all that because of my health, but I liked to something, would put on somethin’. watch it, you know, and I’d try it once in a while but it just, I don’t know, it was too much for me Okay, and did the boys and girls have to sit on or something. different sides when you were there? Do you remember? So, some girls played sports? What kinds of sports were the girls playing then? I don’t think so. I think they sat wherever they wanted to in the auditorium. Yeah! They played basketball. You said earlier you were in a dance club. Okay, so girls’ basketball. Did they have softball or anything like that, or track? 6 Stewart Indian School Oral History Project: Evelyn Cook Uh-huh. That what? Were there other clubs on campus that you were That happened at a particular building. Any part of? memories of specific buildings on campus for you? Mmm, no, I don’t think so. Uh-huh. No, I don’t remember any. Were you in the band? So, did you get sick while you were at Stewart? Huh-uh. Did you have to go to the infirmary while you Okay. were there? I never did take up music. I like to listen! Hmm-mm. (laughs) No? Uh-huh. Especially when they’re good! Uh-uh. I was pretty healthy. (laughs) Yeah! Okay! Yeah! Okay, so you were in the square- dancing I don’t think I, umm . . . club, or was it just all dancing in the club you were in? Did some of the girls work in that infirmary? It was, you know, they had square dancing, and . Uh-huh, yeah. There was always girls that were . . ballroom dancing. detailed there, and in the dental office also. I was detailed in the dental office there for six Right, okay. weeks, or nine weeks, or whatever they, And, of course, at the time, there was jitterbug! whatever the time was and I enjoyed it. And then I ended up going, after high school, well, I (Laughs) Nice! retired from the hospital and I never did work in the hospital. I mean, you know, I never did take But I used to have fun. I mean, I liked it, you any training at the school. know and the square dance was good, we used to have fun doing that. Right! But that’s where you ended up working most of your life? Right. Yeah! And by records, you know. Uh-huh! Which hospital? So, did you guys have sock hops? The Schurz, Schurz Indian Hospital, I guess, or A what? the Walker River Indian Hospital, I think it was Sock hop? You know what that is, a sock hop, called. where everyone kicks off their shoes and dances Right, okay! like the jitterbug or the swing kind of dancing? And then they closed it, you know, not too long No, I never did do that, but they probably did, ago. Not too long ago—about twenty years ago! you know, did if they wanted to. (laughs) And then regarding other buildings on campus, Right! is there any memory that sticks out in your mind that happened at a particular building? 7 Stewart Indian School Oral History Project: Evelyn Cook But, anyway, I ended up working there and I Yeah! So, on the weekends, did you leave retired from there. It’s really funny how, you campus? know, you do things, like I, I worked as a We used to go to town on weekends you know, waitress and a laundress, and this is all training if we had, if we had enough money to go to the from Stewart, and what else did I do? Yeah, movie and, you know. . . . So, we’d go waitress and laundry and . . . downtown and get our few little articles if we Did you ever work in a dentist office? needed, you know, and then go to the movie and go down to the Dutch Mill and have our Huh? hamburger and back to Stewart again! (laughs) Did you work in a dentist office? Did you say the Dutch Mill? Huh-uh. No, but then I kinda liked it when I Uh-huh. was taking it at Stewart and all the instruments, you know. I, that was what I had to do was Uh-huh, that’s what the place was called? clean the instruments and autoclave them and Yeah, the Dutch Mill and it’s still there in everything, you know, sterilize them, and so, it Carson and that was our weekends and that was was kinda fun to me. (laughs) my weekend, anyway. But we used to have a lot Yeah, sure! So, when you were at the Stewart of fun. I did, anyway. Indian School, did you go to church? [Recording machine battery needed replacing Uh-huh. here. Recording stopped and restarted] And, which one? This is the continuation of Evie Cook’s interview. Okay, so you used to walk to town? Well at the time the Baptist church was the only one that was there, and then they finally brought Yeah, we used to walk to time or somebody in the Catholic church and I guess there might might give us a ride, you know, but usually we have been other churches too, but I never did—I walked to town. It’s about three miles. just went to the church, the Baptist church ‘cuz Did you follow the railroad tracks? it was there! You know? Yeah, well, there’s a—from Stewart there’s a Okay, right. road that goes right through to Carson. And when I was at home, I went to the Right, okay, okay! Methodist church. That’s the one that’s down there [in Schurz] but at the time when I went to A dirt road, but now it’s all built in you know, it, well, it was a stucco building and then it with homes and stuff there right out of Stewart. burnt. And I don’t know how it happened, but So, did you work a job in the summers away anyway it burnt and then they built this one from home? that’s there now. Uh-huh. I worked as a domestic babysitter. Okay, okay. (laughs) First, my first job was . . . a domestic But I did—I went to church as often, I mean, for a doctor. you know, almost every Sunday over at the [recording paused] Baptist church. Let’s try this again, sorry. You were talking Right, the one that’s still there. about the jobs you did during the summer. Uh-huh. 8