*Due to her age and recent introduction into the anglophone world, much of Mrs. Fuentes’ dialogue may be difficult to understand due to grammatical differences between Spanish and Miwok when translated into English, a process which at the time of the recording, a rather elderly woman would have to go through this process of translation.  Also, notice mistypings due to cassette quality and troubled annunciation conducted by the speaker.

?:  [?]... To talk to and to show you a few things about the life of a Miwok Indian.  Mrs. Fuentes, this is the fourth grade and would you like to say something to them?

Fuentes:  Well, I don’t quite know what to say.

?:  They do have a few questions they would like to ask you.

Fuentes:  They can ask them, then.

?:  Alright.  If you want to sit down now, I’ll have them come up a few at a time and I’ll have you tell them what you brought here.  Nancy, would you be first, please?  They probably won’t be in order.

Nancy:  Did you consider life hard as an Indian?

Fuentes:  Yes, yeah.

?:  Did anything you have to do hard?  Did you have to make anything…?

Fuentes:  Making baskets.

?:  Making baskets was hard work.  How about your cooking - was it hard too?

Fuentes:  Yeah.  It took all day and when my grandma used to cook acorn, it would take a whole day’s work too.

?:  You’ll tell us about that later.  Now, [Mac?], come up here please.  There are so many things that these people would like to know.

Mac:  Were you ever bitten by a snake?

Fuentes:  No.

?:  You were never bitten by a snake?  You can be thankful for that, can’t you.  Do you remember seeing many snakes?

Fuentes:  Oh yes.  I see rattlesnakes [up the hill from here?].

?:  And we have some things we would like to know, and maybe some of them are about life that [you don’t?].  (Life) that was before you, I mean - the Indian life before you were born.

(Other Child, maybe Mac):  How did you cook your food?

Fuentes:  With rock.  [In Pre Columbian days?], we’d use a grinding rock, you know?

?:  Yeah?  We have a basket here I think.  The girls are going to bring a basket and two sticks over for you to see and maybe you can tell them something about them.  These sticks, I was able to buy them over at Bridgeport, over across the mountains.  And they haven’t been used but are made like the Indians made them, maybe you could see through them and--?

Fuentes:  --[?].  When I cook the acorn, I cook the hot rock and [I use a stick] like that to take rock out and with that I take the rock and throw it away.  That’s all.

?:  That’s all.  You said they took the rock out of the fire?

Fuentes:  You have an acorn basket here, do you?

?:  Yes, but--

Fuentes:  [They would yell andalé andalé] and have us stay clear to get the hot rock out, you know?  [They could pinch me] with the hot rock and we could have to throw it into the water for so long so we could use the acorn to use that to keep stirring.

?:  Did they use two sticks like this?

Fuentes:  No.  One.

?:  I mean, I know they didn’t use them for stirring, but could they use the two like this to pick-up the rocks?

Fuentes:  No...Oh, to pick-up the rock!  Yes.  It has this sharp end, you know, and it is sharp in that way to grab the rock and put it in clear water to put it with the acorn.

?:  So this type was more used for stirring?

Fuentes:  For getting the rock out of acorn.

?:  Oh, for moving the rocks out of the mush itself.  That’s interesting.  Did you want to ask about that now, Billy?

Fuentes:  They carry the acorns in baskets.  You see, they make the acorn with a lot of water in there then they take a hot rock and put it in there and they stirr to make a stew… a mush.  [That is how we] cook then we take the rock out and throw it back in the fire to get it hot again.  Then the acorn’s all done.

?:  (whispering what to say to the student)

(Child):  What material is this made out of?

Fuentes:  I don’t know who made this, but I do make a basket like this around here.  We make this from [hewing?].

?:  If you get the one from the coatroom that was made by Miwok Indians maybe she can tell us more about that one.  I was able to get several of these baskets and all of them [are not even?].  Maybe this one you know is.  Would that be a cooking basket?

Fuentes:  Yeah.  A bit small, we use big one.  We put the acorn here, you know, and keep it.  And any time they want to eat and it’s too thick, we put water on it to make it lighter like milk - you know?  It would leak and solve like that and the acorn would not taste good.  Now I use salt, but they put salt in their meat and they drink their acorn like slush to make acorn bread and eat it that way.  They can eat and cook [?], you know?

?:  That’s something interesting we’d like to know about.  [I’ll take this down] and show you this one basket here - the big, round basket.  The one in the center [angle?].  Would this be a cooking basket or would this be one that was used for something else?

Fuentes:  They used this for anything.  [?], or they would make biscuits with the bread, you know?  They would make a -- I don’t know how you’d call it.  Just a [?] when you take a little wheat - you know?  The...after they’ve browned it, they grind it with the, you know, the rock and they would use this to shake it all fine until it sticks to the basket - all coarse, milled down.  And they’d eat that too, you know, like flour.  I don’t know that white people call it--like corn meal--but they would put it on their fingers to make it so fine.

?:  That is acorn meal, but I think you’re talking about corn meal.

Fuentes:  Acorn or corn, they would put it here in the basket - you know.

?:  They keep it in the basket, then to keep it.  So it would be a storage basket.  Would you, [Carlos?], would you take the basket up and show it to Missus Fuentes, please?  Antonio, would you hold a part of it and he hold a part of it because it’s rather heavy.

Fuentes:  We would also use the rock to pound menudo.  Something like dry meat, you know?  We would get the rock like this and if the meat was hard, then they would know it’s no good.  They put in deer meat and they would could it over the charcoal and it it was still too hot, they would pound it [into menudo], you see.  But the rock, the natural rock, we would hold onto it and use that for acorn.

?:  Well, this is interesting to note.  I didn;t know that this was the meat rock and the other one was for the acorns - the one they would dry out in the fields.  And these were for the dry meat.  All of these in our classroom.  Every day we learn something new, don’t we?

?:  [Julian], would you bring your question up here now, please?

(Julian):  Is anyone in your family a chief?

?:  (repeating to Missus Fuentes) was anyone in your family a chief?

Fuentes:  Oh, no.  No.

?:  And [Andrew?], will you come next, please?

(Andrew):  Did you ever live in the mission?

Fuentes:  No, I never did.

?:  See, they have been studying about the Indians at the mission and they were wondering if you ever lived in one of the missions.

Fuentes:  My grandfather went through all of the missions: Monterrey, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara.  When he was young he went through the missions, he went with his brothers but I do not know which ones.

?:  When you were small, did you have--

Fuentes:  --When I was small, we went to the chicken ranch big time at Blanket Creek.

?:  What would the occasion be?  Would it be a month in the year that you had a party or?

Fuentes:  Any time we would make a big time.  We used to go to Indian Rock and they used to go most of the year.  And they used to cook a lot of acorn.  They would eat American food (too), of course.  They would dance - the summer dance, you know.  Ladies would dance in costume and men too.  All day they danced and all night.  They used to play football - Indian football.  They (would) run around, ladies and men [?].

?:  What did they use at the rock?

Fuentes:  Oh, they kicked a [?] ball and men, they used to just kick it and ladies would go and take it away from them.  Sometimes, when they used to win, they would have goal sticks over here for the men and goal sticks for the women.  [?], they used to win it but they would scramble, all of them just running around, you know.  It was good, I think it was good for them.

?:  That was how everyone got together?

Fuentes:  Yes!

?:  Did they have a regular football or did they have one that they made?

Fuentes:  They used to make it themselves.  A big ball, like this.

?:  Made of skin?

Fuentes:  No, [?], nothing skin-like.

(Child):  Did you have any brothers or sisters?

Fuentes:  I had one sister.  That’s all.

?:  And she’s not living now…  So many of the things that you’re showing us today are things that she had.

(Child):  Can you remember the names of the chief of your tribe?

Fuentes:  I remember some of them.  One of them used to live at chicken ranch and one used to live in Blanket Creek and one used to live in [Groveland? Big Rick].

?:  Do you remember any of--?

Fuentes:  --They all died.  Old Man, he was captain, chief - Big Rick.  They used to call him some names.  I don’t remember.  And at Blanket Creek, there was George Anderson.

?:  George Anderson?

Fuentes:  At Chicken Ranch we knew what to call him, but I do not know his last name.  I don’t know what we would call him…

?:  The captain?

Fuentes:  Yeah.

[cut]

? (as background noise):  They would go home.  These otter hunters--

[cuts again.  Maybe a cassette tape overlay from a previous recording?]

(Child):  Did you fish with spears?

Fuentes:  No.  We used fishhooks and bow.

(Child):  How did you dry acorns?

? (correcting the child):  How did you grind acorns?

Fuentes:  Oh, with a meat grinder.

?:  In the olden days, you did it with a--  With rocks, yes.

(Child):  Did you go to school?

Fuentes:  No, I never went to school.

?:  But you learned a great many things outside of school, haven’t you?

Fuentes:  Oh yes, just picking up.

(Marvin):  How are your houses made?

? (Repeating for clarity):  How are your houses made?

Fuentes:  Shingle and lumber.

?:  Do you live in a teepee?

Fuentes:  Oh, no.

?:  But do you remember seeing any?

Fuentes:  I remember seeing several that Big Rick and the old people used to live in.  Those made of ceder bark.

?:  Something else, Marvin?

(Marvin):  Uh, what are these?

Fuentes:  Wheels.

?:  Those are pinwheels, but you still have to clean it before you use it.  Next one please, dear.

(Michael?):  Did you have any sheep?

Fuentes:  No, we didn’t have it.

?:  But what kind of animals did you raise?

Fuentes:  Chicken and pigeon.

(Child, rather loud):  What tribe do you belong?

Fuentes:  Miwok (*pronounced as /miwøk/)

?:  ‘Miwok’.  Can you say anything in Miwok for them?

Fuentes:  No, not much.  I don’t know nothing about it, you know.  We were just raised off it [in San José?].  When I see my mother we didn’t know nothing - we didn’t know which school we went.  My grandfather and grandmother raised us and that’s all we know.

(Child):  What do these look like when they’re all green?

Fuentes:  The weeds - they grow in the damp place, you know, - the swamp.

?:  I think you told me (that) you thought those came from over where--?

Fuentes:  --Camino.

?:  From Camino Meadow?  You think those came from Camino?

Fuentes:  Yeah, I got some leather and I sold it to [the bailie?].

?:  Oh, I thought those grow around here, then.

Fuentes:  I don’t see them around here, no.

?:  I was thinking that these came from the duck pond so he wanted to see if they were over there.  That’s why he’s asking you.

Fuentes:  No, they don’t.

(Child):  How old were you when you married?

? (repeating for clarity):  How old were you when you married.  We were reading about Indian girls marrying--

Fuentes:  --I was sixteen when I married with my husband.

(Child):  Do you know what are these  green stems?

Fuentes:  I don’t know who made them.  I don’t use those to make a basket.

?:  She never used those in her baskets.  I think these are from the Coast Indians.  They have different material than our…

(Child):  How old were you when you made your first basket?

? (repeating):  How old were you when--

Fuentes:  --Oh, we were young when we made our first.  See, my grandma make it and we used to make it.  Not very good, but we practice.

?:  You were proud of your first basket, [?]?

?:  We don’t have your first basket, but we have your last one.

(Child):  Did you ever see this basket before?

[audio is muffled; children make noise and the microphone is moved]

?:  ….Like a sewing basket.

(Child):  Do you recall eating grasshoppers?

Fuentes:  No, I ate no grasshoppers.  They can be eaten, but I now I eat.  I don’t like them.

?:  Ask her about caterpillars now.

Fuentes:  There are some big ones--caterpillars--over here in [?].  We pick them [chaperone?] them, you know, take them home, put them in hot water, then eat it that way.

(Child):  Can you tell us what kind of wood this is?

Fuentes:  Maple, I think.  Maple, you know, they take the skin on and when they clean it, they have to suck it in the water.  Maybe then the skin comes off.

(Child):  Could you tell us how they pick the bark off?

Fuentes:  Put it in the water, blow on its sides, then next thing it’s off.

(Child):  I mean, get the bark off the tree.

?:  They would cut the branch and then--

Fuentes:  --Oh!  Just cut it and get a little sap from the tree, you know.  Sometimes somebody cut a hole and then none come out, you know, like they take it all, them.

?:  They peel all the little trees?

Fuentes:  *agrees*

(Robert):  What is the name of the basket that Miss Rozier bought from you?

Fuentes:  The basket she bought from me?  Just a little acorn cup, I guess.

?:  What was the name for it?  You told me the name.  Was it ‘túma?’

Fuentes:  Oh!  I remember now!  Yeah, túma.

?:  I didn’t have it right.  Now we’ll have it down so we can remember.

(Child):  What was your chief food?

? (‘’):  What was your chief food when you were a girl?  What was the food you ate?

Fuentes:  Oh, ‘chief food.’  Oh, we ate [?].  My grandma used to cook squirrel and quayle and we used to pick meat and acorn and peas and bread.  Anything like that.  They were busy.

(Child):  What did you do when the chief died?

? (“):  What did you do when the chief died?

Fuentes:  Oh, the people cried for him, but I was young back then.  We used to watch people powwow, you know.  We’d watch them with beads, corn, and everything they would bury with him.

?:  There would always be work.

Fuentes:  Yeah.

?:  Did they bury him with baskets too?

Fuentes.  (With) Wooden baskets.  They used to cut them in half and set them on the fire.

?:  That’s interesting.  I didn’t hear about them cutting those in half before.

Fuentes:  Oh, yeah, they were big baskets like when they used to make them.  Not enough [interest] these days.

?:  And they destroyed them in the fire?

Fuentes:  Yes.

?:  How did they?  Did they have presents or things for the new chief?

Fuentes:  Oh yes, they do.  They used to make chief, you know.  They used to put wool blankets on the floor and let him sit down then.  Then they used to set beans, corn, seeds, down - everything they make fancy, they give it to the chief if no chief.

(Child):  How is the new chief elected?

? (“):  How do they elect a new chief when the old one dies?

Fuentes:  Well, I just now said it.  They elected it, you know--

?:  --But how --which one was going to be the new chief?

Fuentes:  They pick the one they want.

?:  They just pick the one they want?  That is what they wanted to know.

(Child):  And, uh, I wanted to know if this was bark.

[silence as Missus Fuentes examines the bark]

Fuentes:  It’s maple that you cleaned and all.  The only thing that you got to clean more is anybody wants to make a basket in this graving and make it even so it can come out even.

?:  These are probably just the little pieces that are safe to use in a small box.

Fuentes:  [And what about this thing here]?  No, not this one, that’s mine.  This one here has all the new.  You see all of these braided in this.

?:  And the small piece would be made in that, wouldn’t it?

Fuentes:  Uh-huh.

(Child):  When and where were you born?

Fuentes:  I was born in [El Jardín].

?:  Would you like to tell us how old you are?

Fuentes:  I am eighty-two years last January.

?:  Eighty-two years last January!?

(Child):  How did you get beads for your bands when you were young?

Fuentes:  Old folks used to get it somewhere.  I don’t remember.  They used to buy them in Sonora.  I think they, in one store, used to sell all kinds of beads.  It was cheap too - big bunches, you know, for two bit, all soldered.

?:  And now they’re so hard to get.  Missus Fuentes has just finished this headband, a hatband [to say aloud].  She was working on it Tuesday when I was there and now it’s finished and she’s got it for you to see.  After a while we’ll take a better look at it and she’s having a great difficulty in getting beads now-a-days to make a headband like this.  It is especially to get white beads because it makes a better background for the hatband.

(Child):  How did you make acorn bread?

? (“):  How did you make your acorn bread?

Fuentes:  With a rock.  Early days, we used to cook it in the rock but now we use a pot, now.  For the early days, the old folks used to make big fire to heat the grinding rock, you know.  Then, when acorn--they didn’t have many acorn, you know--they let the water run on it for two hours to get it soft, you know.

[bell goes off in the background]

? (to recorder):  Stop a minute.

[cut]

Fuentes:  They don’t taste good bitter, you know, when they stop cooking.  They put water on it then they put hot water on the land and let it boil for a little while.  Then they take rock out and the acorn’s done.

?:  I heard you say around that time it’s sort of a mix, sort of milky.  The bread, did it get real thick?

Fuentes:  Oh yeah, they make, our bread, thick, you see.

?:  And then do they make little --put little pieces and put it on the rocks to bake?

Fuentes:  No, they don’t.  They already cook, you know, with hot rock, and they have little basket because we use [?] in our little basket, and we get the acorn and put it in the water, you know.  They make so many you want, then they keep it cool in the...that’s all.

?:  Well, we’ll stop this in a minute, now, Missus Fuentes.

[cut]

(Child):  What kind of a chair is this made?  What’s this?

Fuentes:  I can’t tell you what kind - I don’t know myself but they grow in the creek, you know.  Sometimes.  They (are) long, black and sometimes people go over and they grate them so they’re hidden, you know, hide them - put it away for basket.

?:  Is it that you found it here in LaGrange?

Fuentes:  Oh, no.  People on this side (of) Chinese Camp Creek, you know--

?:  (The creek) by Chinese Camp?

Fuentes:  Yeah.  And I remember my grandma used to go down there [to weave].  They had [wood] long across, all sizes, you know.  They used to pick out smallish ones, you know, to make basket.  I don’t know what their name.

?:  Well, that’s interesting.  Now, would you--you may take a seat now, Douglas--take someone else coming up?

(Child):  Do you remember any Indian wars?

? (“):  Remember any Indian wars?  Any fighting among the tribes?

Fuentes:  I mean, oh no.  I have never seen it, but I heard of it, but I have never seen it.

(Child):  Did you ever see Indians wearing these kind of hats?

Fuentes:  No, I’ve never seen them around here.  Some other place, I guess.

?:  Lorraine, please.

(Lorraine):  Who was the first white man you remember?

? (“):  Who was the first white man you remember seeing?

Fuentes:  Oh, I don’t know.  There was this old man, I remember seeing him when I was little, I don’t know who it was.

?:  John Rocker, maybe?

Fuentes:  John Rocker, maybe, we know him.  An old family.  Old [Haycolt], old Emerson, they used to live around there.  And Joaquin, an old man we used to know him well, you know.

?:  [next is Algerine], thank you.

Algerine:  How and when did you get beads to decorate your clothing?

Fuentes:  What did she say?

?:  How and when did you get your beads to decorate your clothing?  When you were little, did you have a maker or custom band that was decorated with beads?

Fuentes:  No, not me, but I have seen a lot of costumes with beads on it, you know.  Even baskets, they put beads on the baskets.

?:  Do you know where they got the beads in those days?

Fuentes:  No, I don’t know anything.

[cut]

(Child):  Did you ever see an Indian with this kind of hat?

Fuentes:  No, [I did not see anyone with that hat].  I don’t see that way of hat.

?:  You see, that’s a different kind.  It’s sort of painted on.  It doesn’t have a woven design but I know of some Indians in the north(ern) country that worn them.  Sharen, come quickly please.

Sharen:  What name is this?

Fuentes:  That is willow.

?:  Another type of willow.

(Child):  Where do you get material for baskets?

Fuentes:  We get it anywhere; on the hill, down the creek, anywhere they find.

(Child):  Do you know what this is made out of?

Fuentes:  [Sharp rell].  Made out of sharp rell sap.

?:  Is there a bit of lead in there too?

Fuentes:  Yeah.

?:  Has it been cleaned?

Fuentes:  No, they never clean those.

(Child):  Do you know what this basket is made of?

Fuentes:  The basket is made of willow; made out of willow.

?:  Could you tell them what you used it for?

Fuentes:  They use it for anything they want.Maybe they put acorn bread in here, or roast meat or something else around, you know, and anything.  In the early days they never had dishes so anything they used, dishes or anything.

(Child):  Do you know what this is?

Fuentes:  Oh, what is that?  I’ve [never known of that].

?:  When I went to Yosemite to figure out what that was, they said it was what they put their oils and their needles into a kind of sewing…--a tool basket.

Fuentes:  Yeah?

?:  And they carried it, with the sap, on their arms.

Fuentes:  [?]

?:  I told them I thought I would catch grasshoppers in it.

(Child):  Did you live in the same tribe as Mister [Phillip]?

Fuentes:  No.

?:  No?  What type was he?

Fuentes:  I don’t know.  Some Indian Miwuk, but [Gin], some people used to call them Big Indian around here but Mister Fora, he changed it, calling it Miwuk, or [Salishan] language for ‘Indian.’  You know, the same way that you say ‘Indian’ or you say ‘Miwok.’

(Child, whispering to teacher):  I don’t know what to say.

(Child):  What is this basket made of?

Fuentes:  That is made of wood, some kind of wood.  I don’t know what it is; I couldn’t tell you.

?:  And did they use it for what?

Fuentes:  They used it for acorn.  When they crack acorn, they dry them in there.

?:  So there’s where they crack the acorns and peel them, then they dry them in here because there’s lots of air holes.

?:  Is there someone else who has a question now?  [Sharen], do you have another one?

Sharen:  Do you make moccasins?

Fuentes:  No.

?:  What did most people use for shoes.  Most Californian Indians went barefoot, didn’t they?

Fuentes:  They went barefooted and some of them had shoes and some of them went barefooted, especially old people who wear no shoes.

?:  Now, Missus Fuentes, this is the last basket you made.  Can you tell us the materials that were used in it?

Fuentes:  Yes, I used willow for [around half of it] then maple for [the rest of it].  Made (it) with the willow this way then maple going through like thread.  The red wood…--

?:  --Redbud.

Fuentes:  Redbud!  I never know what they mean.  They use it for making basket.

?:  They use it for design and you made a really nice designed basket there.  And now, Missus Fuentes, would you like to show us your little Indian doll that you have made?

Fuentes:  Yeah, and that is made out of willow too.  And this is maple, and this is willow.  One of them blue-leaves willow.

?:  Blue-leaves?  I was wondering how they got such tiny, such small, small, [membranes?] for it.

Fuentes:  Yeah, this doll is made for girls [?].  And boys hiki just like this.

?:  I should tell us that this is made for a girl doll.  We talked before that the diamond-shape is for the girl and the boys have this patterned line like we know.  Then, I think this is a...Fuentes, could you tell us what [you need]?

Fuentes:  Well, I have to have a little fine thread and just a bit of time, you know.  I just work up and down to pin the other thread, you see.  I have this thread against a wall and on my stomach I have another thing to hold it, you see.  Then I keep a design for a book and I make mistakes in places because I can’t see good now.

?:  You had designs for a book?  You don’t make up your own designs?

Fuentes:  Yes, I copy designs from old, torn-up books.

?:  From old, torn-up books that you have?  Well, it’s very pretty and I and the children are going to enjoy looking at it and I’m sure that they’d have a hard time finding an error in it.  Now, when you stand up, would you like to show them the...shell that you have here?

Fuentes:  This shell, I get them in Mont Rey--

?:  --From Monterey Bay--

Fuentes:  --My sister, she had it and I had it after she died.  I took it and now I powwow with it.  Still, not long ago, I better make something out of it.  It’s hard work, you see; I have to make little, two drives through, you know.  I did all of that little hole--

?:  --There, on the shell?

Fuentes:  Yeah.

?:  That is a hard shell!

Fuentes:  That is a hard job to fit through.  You have to have some guy stick a string through it.  And they used to say they stand in it for a long time they used to go this way.  They would keep them in the good times with song, to sing songs, you know.  And then they wear it this way and when they want, they can put it on and wear it just like that.  They have another kind of a big shell here, the Abalone shell here.  For medicine, they put some green and like a rainbow and they work it with beads all over it and pull them together.  When their dance partner makes noise, they [just fix the time].

?:  These children are acquainted with Abalone shells and the beautiful rainbow colors in them.

Fuentes:  They are all beautiful.  When they have to work it, you know, in the grindstone to clean it, I think they’re beautiful.

?:  Now, would you sit down and remember last year or two years ago you came and sang just a song that you did when you worked?  Could you sing that for us?

Fuentes:  I sing it, but I can’t sing those old Indian songs.  We used to sing in the early days.  Now I find some music and when it sings to me, it doesn’t mean nothing so I find it out what they mean.  But they might mean something because we didn’t know - we never learned.
            Yahai, yaha ochau lei,
            Yahai, yahai ochauchau nei,
            Yahai, yahai, yahai ochauchau nei
            Yaho nahyo, hai nohyo weihei
            Nohai wenom wa nahaiyo
            Yahai, yahai
That’s all I have.

?:  Well, you have a lot and your singing was good.

(Dwayne):  Is there anybody who can translate that into English?

?:  She just told us that she didn’t know what the words meant.  But, uh, Dwayne, do you have another question you would like to ask?

(Dwayne):  Do you remember making any canoes?

? (“):  Do you remember using any canoes to go on the water?

Fuentes:  Oh, no.

?:  That was before your time, wasn’t it?  How did you travel about?

Fuentes:  We walk.

?:  Did your grandpa have a horse?

Fuentes:  We had horse.  And we walk.  We used to like to walk.

?:  Everybody used to walk more than they do now.  [Rodney], do you have something more?

(Child):  Were these beads home-made or did you buy them?

Fuentes:  Somebody bought them but my sister had it so she died and I got those and I kept them.

?:  You have a question, Donna?  Antonio, would you like to ask something else?  I’m sure that we’ve kept Missus Fuentes for a long time this afternoon.  I’m sure she’s been here almost three hours--

Donna:  --How did you make the boats?

Fuentes:  I don’t know.  We never had no boats.

?:  They didn’t have any boats.  This boy just asked about canoes and she said ‘no, we didn’t have any canoes.’  They travel either by walking or with their horse.

Fuentes:  [?]  There is no ocean or no river or nothing.

?:  They lived down there, Algerine, and Algerine is down there, Jamestown.  And there’s no big river or no ocean for them to use a boat or a canoe on.

(Child):  Was she born in a house?

?(“):  She was wondering whether you were born in a house or a hospital.

Fuentes:  Oh.  In a house.

?:  She was born in a house.  There was a hospital in Sonora at that time, but most people were born at home, weren’t they?

Fuentes:  A lot of them in the early days.

?:  [Helen], do you have a question?

Helen:  In the olden days, did they have Sundays and Saturdays like the days we do now?

?(“):  Did you have a vacation on Sundays and Saturdays like we do now?

Fuentes:  Yeah, yeah.

?:  There wasn’t any school, Algerine, you were--

Fuentes:  --There was school there far away from our place and we went on Cook Street.  Cook Street and Solomon Street.  At the time, we couldn’t go if there was no preacher.

?:  That is interesting.  Some of know the grade school kids we meet on Solomon in Sonora.  But down there, we lived between the two of them and sometimes the creeks were very high in the winter time and we couldn’t get across.  Missus Fuentes, I would like to ask you about one more basket.  Robert, you bring it up, the one down there.  I think that’s the one I got from you two years ago.  That...Do you know where it was made?  That is the one I bought when you lived next door to me.

Fuentes:  Oh, yes.  I don’t know who made that either.  I think uh…  Oh, I don’t know.  And my sister, she had it over there.

?:  But it is one that has been used, I hope--has been used very well.  Gary, would you like to come up here for just a minute?  We can’t keep Missus Fuentes up here for too much longer.

Gary:  When you were small, did your mother carry you in one of those--?

?:  --Baskets?

Fuentes:  Yes, my grandmother did.  My mom, she died when I (was) born.

?:  It’s a sad part, isn’t it?  But there’s nice to have a grandmother look after you when something like that happens.  Douglas?

Douglas:  What was the first animal you remember seeing?

?:  He wonders what the first animal-- You mean the first big animal?

Douglas:  Yes.

Fuentes:  I see cows, horses, and hawks and sheeps and goats.

?:  Were there any nursery rhymes you sang to your children?  Do you remember any little songs that you sang to the children?

Fuentes:  I sing it long years ago.  [I lose it all, what we used to sing].

?:  You remembered that one song and we’re really happy you sang that for us because now we have that on recording too.  Sometime would you like to come in and hear this all over again, will you?

Fuentes:  Maybe some day.  I don’t know.
            I was busy when I had my family, you know.  Life was hard.  I used to put out to washing washing three days washing three days washing.  I wash for people here in town and springtime I had big garden.  I make big orchard up there (at) Dead Horse Mine, you know, [?] and we had a lot of apple tree, peach tree, grape vine and rose bushes and I used to go out there every day.  So now I have time together with my children.  My oldest children, they go have babies because all time I used to stop when I nursed to wash and cook and I used to make my own yeast bread and cook beans and soup and everything, wash their clothes, and send them to school.  The only thing I do, now that I don’t have much sleep--

?:  --Would you like to tell us where your husband is from?

Fuentes:  He was born here in California but his father come from Chile in ‘49.

?:  From South America, he came from Chile in 1949, isn’t that interesting?  And your husband was born in California?

Fuentes:  Yeah.

?:  Now, Robert, you had one thing more?  Come up here.  And Joanne and Nat, just one thing more - we mustn’t keep Missus Fuentes here any longer.

Robert:  What is your maiden name?

?:  What was your maiden name?

Fuentes:  Louise-[Newcomb].

?:  ‘Newcomb,’ huh?

(Child):  Did you ever ride in a careta?

?:  Did you ever ride in a careta?  She wants to know about the big wooden carts, like the ones they had in the missions.

Fuentes:  No.

?:  I think it was before your time too.

(Child):  Did you ever wear clothes out of deer hide?

Fuentes:  No; I mean I used them.

(Joanne):  How many children did you have?

Fuentes:  Twelve.

?:  Twelve children.

(Joanne):  What were your childrens’ first names?

?:  Oh, she wants to know what your childrens’ first names are.  That’s a long go, isn’t it?

Fuentes:  The oldest one in Eleanor.  And the next one is...Her name is Rita, sure enough, but she put herself ‘Mixxy’ so she change her own name.  And next one is Marta and the boy is Dan and John-Baptist and Augustine and Malrina and Lira, I lost Lira, she died.  And Eugene and Isabel and Glen.

(Child):  How old were you when you were married?

Fuentes:  Sixteen.

(Child):  What was the first flower you ever saw?

Fuentes:  What?

?:  She wants to know about the wild flowers you saw when you were little.

Fuentes:  All kind of wildflower.  Every spring we used to go to picking jumbos and all of them, all kind of flower.  It used to bloom so big those days but now you don’t see no flowers.  Cows eat them all.

?:  We managed to get a few.  She’s bringing in all of our wildflowers.  She’s a lulu girl here and she gets all of our flowers.  That’s why she asked you that.  Missus Fuentes, we’re all very happy to have you here this afternoon and we don’t want to wear you out and keep you any longer but we do hope now that you’ll be able to get a basket started so we can get a picture of that.  And you can show us how it is after you get it started.  Is that okay.

Fuentes:  [Well, you and me, I need to get home now].

?:  I think it will be better if you started at home.  We can give you some of this material back, hm hm.  There’s just so much we’ve learned today and when we hear this being recording back again, we’ll remember you and all the things you’ve taught us this afternoon.  And is there anything we’d like to say to Missus Fuentes:

(Children ensemble):  Thank you Missus Fuentes!

Fuentes:  You welcome, children.

?:  We hope that we haven’t kept you too long and tired you too much.

Fuentes:  [?] [and it’s about time to go home anyway].

?:  Yes, it is.

Fuentes (inaudible)

?:  Yes, we’ll get your things for you.

END TAPE
Interviewer: Unknown Elementary School Teacher
Interviewee: Missus Fuentes
When: ?
Transcriber:  John P Hire
Transcribed: 14 May 2020