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By Frances Hooper as featured in Volume 12 of
In Focus
My name is Florence Frances Pacheco Hooper. I am a Paiute and a member
of the Fallon Pai-Sho Tribe. I was born in Tonopah, Nevada, January 2,
1934, to Rosaris and Iowa "Iwy" Allen Pacheco, the fourth of
five children. My father was a silver miner and following his death, my
mother, a traditional Paiute, moved us back to our homeland on the
Stillwater Indian Reservation where my grandparents, Topsy Steve Allen and
Charley Allen, had also lived.
Before I was five years old, my mother determined that she was unable
to take care of us children, so we were separated and placed in foster
homes. My younger brother, Thomas Pacheco and I were placed in the home of
Mary and Ida Dalton of Stillwater.
I attended 1st through 3rd grades at the Cottage Schools on East
Stillwater Avenue in Fallon and the 4th through 12th grades at Stewart
Indian School outside of Carson City, Nevada.
My husband, Ernest Hooper, is a Shoshone Indian and a member of the
Yomba Shoshone Tribe. The Yomba Shoshone Reservation is located 40 miles
south of Austin, Nevada. Yomba means wild carrots which were only one of
the many kinds of roots that were eaten by the Shoshone people, who
historically lived in mountain areas.
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Ernest, who is now 69 years of age, also
attended Stewart Indian School. Later he attended Churchill County
High School for the 9th and 10th grades and returned to Stewart Indian
School where he graduated with the class of 1949. We met again in 1955
and in 1956 he asked me to marry him.
In 1960 Ernest decided he wanted to become a minister in order to
help American Indians. We moved to Hot Springs, South Dakota, for five
years and from there we traveled throughout thirty two states with our
four children, Kenneth, David, Rebecca and Bryan.
In 1965 we moved back to Churchill County to the now Pai-Shoshone
Indian Reservation, and we have made our home here ever since. Ernie
practices his ministry and is employed as a heavy equipment operator.
I am a housewife and help Ernie wherever I can, by playing hymns on
the piano for church services and traveling with him to different
towns where we are needed.
I have acquired hobbies, knitting, crocheting and doing Indian bead
work, which I love best. I also started collecting Indian artifacts for
myself.
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Ernie Hooper holds the microphone
for
Frances as she explains the old ways
of the Paiute people to a group
of Elderhostel
participants from the museum in 1997.
(Churchill
County Museum and
Archives Photograph Collection) |
One day Vivian Hicks, who is a member of the library staff at West End
Elementary School, asked me if I would speak of our Toi-Ticutta people [In
the Paiute language the "T" is pronounced like a "D"]
before one of the classes there. My granddaughter Jaimee was in this
class.
I consented and enjoyed talking about our Paiute ancestors. For the
past eight years I have also visited Northside School, Churchill County
High School and some other schools. For the past three years we have
participated in the Native American Day at the Laura Mills Park and have
been invited to speak before Museum sponsored Elderhostel guests. Next
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