Handed Down - Nevada Arts Council

1997–1998
Paiute Songs:
Wesley Jim and Marlin Thompson
Wesley Jim was born at Pyramid Lake 76 years
ago, and as he walks the lake shore today he can
recall the fishing and bird hunting parties of his youth
when people would gather from miles around to share
the work of providing food for their families. With
cooperative labor they could accomplish more than any
family could alone, and in the evenings they could share
songs and stories around the campfires and return home
with news and tales for the nights ahead.
Wesley says he just had an ear for the songs he heard
from his grandfather, and they have remained with him
to this day. “One thing I’ve grown up with,” he says, “is
I noticed my grandfather, when he would go fishing,
before he’d ever push his boat in the water, he’d first
go to the edge of the water, then he’d kneel down, then
he’d pray. He’s thankful for the water that’s there, and
he’s saying, ‘I want to go fishing, so don’t be rough.
I’m just going out to get what I want.’ Then when he
comes back, after he gets whatever he’s going out after,
he brings it back and then he prays again, he thanks
the water and our super being for all that, what he got.
So that’s what I’ve some to know as I was growing up.”
Wesley has also picked up more songs over the years as
he moved from Pyramid Lake to Carson City to attend
the Stewart Indian School, and then to Schurz, where
he has lived since 1950.
Wesley’s apprentice is Marlin
Thompson, of Yerington, who has a
deep interest in learning and preserving
his Paiute heritage. He had another
apprenticeship a few years earlier with
Manuel McCloud, a singer from Schurz,
who Wesley acknowledges as a true master,
“our teacher.” Marlin did not grow
up learning the Paiute language, but
is making rapid gains now through the
songs and stories. He makes a point of
asking questions about everything, what
a song means and where it comes from,
so he can pass on the history as well as
the tale.
There are few places or occasions
anymore where the oral traditions of Nevada’s
Native people can be heard or learned. Marlin
and Wesley agree that the Pine Nut Festival in Schurz
in September is where you’re most likely to find the few
remaining singers. Wesley says the festival is reminiscent
of the fandangos that used to bring together people
from all over the state for days of celebration—the
Fourth of July and the time between Christmas and
New Year’s were the largest of these. People came to
Pyramid Lake from as far away as Duckwater and Mc-
Dermitt, so there was more interchange between tribes
even than today.
Most of the songs Wesley knows are about animals,
nature and early people, and even the smallest observation
can lead to a song. “Oh, maybe they see a pool of
water, a pond,” he reminisces, “and they see these bugs
crawling around on the surface, you know they make up
songs like that about those…whatever comes to them,
that’s how they make it up.” He then proceeds to sing
the song about the bugs on the water. Recently Wesley
has been working with a group of children to teach
them songs and stories, and to take them out into nature
where the songs originate. As Marlin says, “The young
kids, the ones they teach now, they can pick it up fast,
and they can sit there and sing it, and they carry it on
wherever they go. Even though they’re only eight, nine
years old, they can go somewhere and sing that song
and people hear it and say, ‘Wow! She learned that.’ So
that’s really good there, I think.”
Wesley Jim and Marlin Thompson
on the shore of Pyramid Lake.
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