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Trail of the Missing Basket [Washoe] (4 pages)
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Page: of 4
Sreater consideration than we, consequently are
more or less self-supporting. . . .
“Permit us to Say further that we are not allowed
to fish or hunt on our old hunting grounds without
first procuring fishing and hunting licenses, and
ing a poor people there are many of us who can. NOt pay these fees, and in consequence must often
suffer for want of fresh meat and fish. Can this law
not be amended, that we may have more freedom
in this regard, and be allowed to fish and hunt without purchasing licenses? . . .
“After many meetings and conferences with our
tribesmen from all over the State of Nevada, held
here in Carson this Past winter, and now coming
should take this method of making an offering to
your honorable body, and ask for better conditions
that our race might be perpetuated and our children
stOW up in a more civilized manner. At present we
are like animals, and to a large extent so treated, a
condition which we are sure your honorable body
will take steps to remedy when acquainted with the
This petition was signed by two men who considered themselves leaders of the Washoe Tribe at
that time. Captain Pete signed as “Chief, Washoe
Tribe,” and Captain Pete Mayo signed as “Assistant
Chief, Washoe Tribe.” The wives of each, who
claimed to be daughters of the old “Captain Jim” of
early local history, signed after the names of their
husbands—A gnes Jim Pete, as the wife of Captain
Pete, and Sarah Jim Mayo (the maker of the basket)
as the wife of Captain Pete Mayo. Twenty other
members of the tribe also signed the document, as
well as a witness (presumably the scribe and typist),
a George Kenney.
In 1955, when One of the present authors was
Studying Washoe history and culture in Carson Valley, Nevada, he was shown a copy of this petition
by the late Mr. Hank Pete of Dresslerville, son of
Captain Pete. A few years before, it had been
brought to the attention of the lawyer for the WaShoe Claims Case, and brief efforts were made to
trace the basket and the disposition of the original
Petition, to no avail. Few younger members of the
tribe had even heard of the incident, and many of
the older People expressed differences of opinion
about its significance, Some claimed that it was
Nerely a self-serving device on the part of certain
ndividuals to further their pretensions of inheritance
f leadership. The Washoe people had never acepted the notion, either traditionally or in modern
he Indian Historian, Summer, 1974
times, of chiefs Tepresenting the entire tribe, or even
any of its major segments, They had always exercised a high degree of local autonomy and were
made up of small units based mainly on family organization and traditional geographic location,
Much resentment and internal dissension was
attributed to the practice of local white residents
and officials who had conferred the title of “Captain” or “Chief,” along with attendant favors, on
certain individuals who came to serve as spokesmen
for the tribe. It was felt that the practice had encouraged opportunistic persons to seek the aid of
whites for their own advantage. Such persons were
often in competition with the elected Tribal Council,
which saw itself as more representative of the interests and traditional values of the people, But this
institution, which has come into existence under the
Indian Reorganization Act in 1936, was itself frequently under attack for partisanship, misconduct or
as constituting a mere instrument of white governmental policy.
There were other objections to the contents of
the early petition. The Washoe are a proud people
who feel that their survival is due to their ability to
cope with hardships without complaining, and to
their adaptiveness under stress, The drastic deprivation which the People had experienced for one hundred years of white domination in the region had
created a deep bitterness in many who recalled only
too well how their parents and grandparents had
existed in a state of near Starvation, and were forced
to beg, accept “handouts” and seek menial employment for token wages. For such persons it was a
Matter of personal integrity to avoid the posture of
beseeching authorities or local white citizens for aid,
unless it could be accepted as their right. They preferred to make do with what little they could earn,
or by exploiting what was left of the depleted natutal environment — an environment which also included what was discarded from the white settlements. Thus, for such persons, the petition and all
other petitionings of the so-called “Captains” and
“Chiefs” were an embarrassment, because they were
not submitted as a demand for restoration of rights,
but as humble imploring of the white aggressor for
mere crumbs,
Still another source of objection was the frequent reference, on the Part of self-appointed
spokesmen, to a legendary historical event, in which
the Washoe had supposedly given their arms to the
whites in order to aid them in the wars against surrounding tribes. The subsequent oppression of the
—Continued on Page 60
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