Southern Paiute: A Portrait

Eldene Snow Cervantes, Shivwits Band

97 Eldene’s father, Stewart Snow, was a preeminent Salt Song singer who later gave the songs to Willis Mayo. It’s said that he received the songs from an unknown man who brought them from the south. Eldene’s first husband, Harmon Domingo, was the son of Johnny Domingo, an important singer for the Las Vegas and Moapa tribes and perhaps the last Southern Paiute who earned his songs by standing firm for several nights in the sacred cave. At first, Eldene couldn’t remember the name of the old white woman who told her the Mountain Meadow Massacre story. She knew it had something to do with water. It was Juanita Brooks, author of the seminal book The Mountain Meadows Massacre. My dad, Stewart Snow, married my mother Mary when she was fourteen. They never told me how they met. I had fifteen brothers and sisters, but eight died at birth. There’s only four left now; I’m the oldest. I went to school in St. George. I didn’t like it. The white kids were prejudiced. We never even got along in the school bus. We’d fight with those kids from Gunlock. It was hard. The only thing I liked about school was lunch. My aunt DeWalla, Will Rogers’s wife, sometimes took care of me when I was young. I’d miss my school bus because she’d be French braiding my hair and I’d be late. Grandpa Seth Bushhead, he had an old truck, sold firewood around Gunlock. He would take me down, but he drove so slow that by the time we got there school was over. We’d get some ice cream and come back. I liked Will a lot; he’d tell me things, bless me. I think he passed that to his older son. He’s the one my daughters call on, like when I was real sick with diabetes and started seeing spirits. They looked like people, Indians, except you know they’re gone. I saw them in my bedroom, beckoning me to go with them. Bad feeling, but in a way a good feeling; I wished I could go. My children didn’t want me to go. When he was blessing, I didn’t see him, I was paying attention to them spirits, but when he was done they left. Then my folks sent me to Stewart Indian School. I liked that better. The kids were nice; made a lot of friends with other tribes: Utes, Shoshones, Hopis. Except for Navajos; they kept to themselves. I didn’t do placement but my brothers and sisters did. I put my three Eldene Snow Cervantes shivwits band, born 1942 98 oldest children in placement. They went up north. I thought the way we were, we didn’t have much chance. I figured somewhere else had to be better. They didn’t like it. They said they just did chores. They made it through the year and said they didn’t want to do it anymore . Three of them made it through college, though. I finished Stewart when I was thirteen, went out on my own. I didn’t want to put my mom and dad out; they didn’t have the funds. I went to work in Vegas, housekeeper for a Mormon family. They took good care of me, were really nice. I learned how to do stuff like wash and iron and cook. I took care of a newborn baby. Hard work but I liked it. We went to church on Sundays. I was raised in that a little bit, but I lost interest, didn’t believe it anymore. My parents got married in the [LDS] temple, got all the children blessed with them except me. I was in Vegas. They used to always go to church. One of my sisters still does. Seemed odd to me that my parents believe in something that come here when we were already here. Mormons, you know, put that all on us, their religion things. Our older Indians listened, went with it all, and gave away a lot. I wonder why they weren’t stronger. We don’t have to believe their way. Better to do your way, believe in God. Don’t have to go to church. That’s what I tell my children too. None of them are LDS. I stayed around Vegas until seventeen, then I come back here, hooked up with Harmon , Johnny Domingo’s son...