Southern Paiute: A Portrait

Irene Benn

126 Irene’s great-grandkids, tumbling around her home, gave her no end of joy during this interview. She was very judicious with her stories, and chose not to discuss a number of topics. When I read her this narrative for her approval, at the Hiland Manor Nursing Home in Mesquite, she said it was just “okay.” She didn’t want to change anything and couldn’t put her finger on what didn’t exactly work. The tribe has honored her by naming the clinic at Moapa the Irene Benn Medical Center. Iwas born here in Moapa. My parents weren’t from here. Mary Lampson, my mom, was a half-breed, half white. She was from Pahranagat Valley. My dad, Fred Benn, was from Indian Springs. He roamed all over the [Nevada] Test Site. But now I always hear that Shoshones claim it. That isn’t so. They used to go hunting out there and all that. My grandfather was almost killed there by a Ute. Can you imagine they stuck out all the way down here? That Ute was going to throw a knife of him, go like this at him. Somehow he got the best of him, turned around and killed him. His name was Whispering Benn. My father used to roam around Indian Springs, Pahranagat Valley, come clear around to Las Vegas, he’d do that before he settle down, all around like that. He went round and round and round. That’s when the whites took this and that. Put them all together on the rez. Can’t help it, that’s the way it happened. Why think about it when you can’t do anything about it? The Indians didn’t want to stay. They scattered all over. The whites were living here too. The government gave us some cattle on the reservation. The whites took over the cattle too. The Indians, they kept roaming around, all clear around somewhere. I couldn’t say where they really belonged. They came to Mesquite to that place full of lake water now, St. Thomas. My grandfather was a scout for the army. They called him Tule Benn. They gave him that [Las Vegas] Indian colony for the people to live on. But I always hear that Stewart lady sold it. But the way I heard it was that’s where the Indians used to live. They run us out, but then when Tule Benn came back from scouting, they gave him that place to live, him and the rest of the Indians, and that was the Indian colony. I heard he had papers to it, the deed to it in his scout uniform, but his relatives just burned them when he passed away. Later on I heard that Helen Stewart lady sold it, but I heard it was given to them from the beginning by Helen’s folks. Irene Benn moapa band, born June 27, 1923 128 Father had a piece of land here in Moapa. He had wheat and hay growing. They used to ship out some hay every year from here. They would help each other bale their hay; they had an old time bailer, horse was pulling it. They used to help each other doing that. That’s how they got their little money: they sold hay and wheat. Some went down to the valley to work, too. Jobs were plentiful down in the valley, in Overton. My father went down there when he wasn’t doing anything. But most of the time he did his own little farm. They’d ship out cantaloupes and radishes, asparagus too. Picking pine nuts was good. Somebody would go up into the mountains to find where the nuts were. They’d talk about it, and all decide to go. When the nuts were just right, they didn’t fall yet, still in the cones. They had a hook; they’d knock the cones down, then at night they’d roast them. They’d make a big hole, make a big fire like that. When it had nice coals, they’d dump all the pine cones and cover them up. They’d roast overnight. The cones would burn down, but the nuts still didn’t come out. They’re better than the ones that fall to the ground. For some reason it tastes different, when you roast them inside the cones. I remember a bunch of them would camp nearby. They’d gather around and play cards, Can...