Handed Down - Nevada Arts Council

1988–1989
Paiute Language and Stories:
Thomas Williams and Joni Johnson
Thomas Williams, born in 1917, was raised in
Stillwater and has lived in Schurz since the 1930s.
He worked as a buckaroo on many of central Nevada’s
“mountain ranches” in the 30s, was awarded three
purple hearts and the bronze star during World War II,
and bought his place in Schurz after the war.
“Just the old people, you know. They mostly use it.
And a lot of them, they don’t want to talk it, some of
them. And in them earlier days, they don’t want the
Indians to talk it when they went to school. At Stewart
[Indian School] they didn’t want them to talk Paiute
among themselves. Kind of punish them for it. They
were army teachers they told me, what they were. And
they were pretty mean to the kids. The older guys told
me about it back then. Kind of rough, they said, them
days.”
Joni Johnson was born in Schurz, Nevada on
the Walker River Paiute Reservation in 1964. She
graduated from the College of Idaho and currently
works in California. Joni has a long interest in learning
her family’s particular dialect and has studied with
her grandfather Thomas Williams and other family
members and friends.
“I want to learn the language of my grandfather so it
doesn’t become extinct. There’s more people interested
in it now, so I don’t think it will die out. My grandfather
is a good teacher because Paiute was his first language
and he still…I think he’s still young enough to teach
it; to understand what I’m asking. Ultimately I want to
learn so I can teach someone else. And also, right now,
to be able to talk with the old people before they die.
They speak it better than English.”
Thomas Williams takes a break from morning chores at his ranch in Schurz.
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