- [Narrator] Exclusive corporate funding for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] The best way to fully understand this nation's history is through the eyes of those who experienced it.

Liberty Mutual, proud sponsor of American Experience.

- [Narrator] Major funding for American Experience is made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, to enhance public understanding of the role of technology.

The Foundation also seeks to portray the lives of men and women engaged in scientific and technological pursuit.

Funding for, We Shall Remain, provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Kalliopeia Foundation, and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and viewers like you, thank you.

- Long before pioneering settlements dotted this region, before anyone else would try to write their history, five principle nations of indigenous people called The Great Basin their homeland.

Theirs is the first story of the people in this place.

I'm Forrest Cuch.

Join me as we step into the extraordinary world of the Goshutes.

(tribal singing) - I'm proud to say that we survived the elements, we survived everything that was thrown at us, and we learned how to adapt to it.

From that experience, we've grown stronger as a tribe.

- The words alone, we shall remain.

I mean, that is really something to the Skull Valley Goshutes, being such a small band, just that alone is what we're trying to do.

We're trying to remain here.

We're trying to prosper here.

We're trying to show the world we're not gone, we're still here, we've survived.

Even at our lowest point of only 13 people, we made it.

- [Announcer] We Shall Remain: A Native History of Utah, is made possible by the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, William M. and Kerry Armstrong, WGBH, the R. Harold Burton Foundation, the Lawrence T. Dee, Janet T. Dee Foundation, and the contributing members of KUED.

Thank you.

(tribal singing) (tribal singing) - Our historic home, the heart of The Great Basin, is defined by extremes.

This is the land of our ancestry.

Beauty lies in expanse.

Life changes drastically from desert floor to mountain peaks that reach 12,000 feet.

The seasons trade intense cold for searing heat.

Storms of wind and sand can be seen approaching for miles.

Woods and streams line south and sagebrush.

But even in high peaks, the air is arid.

Pristine streams flow out of the mountains.

They will never see the ocean.

Water that does not evaporate sinks into the ground.

Natural springs, precious and few, fed from deep underground aquifers, provide passage through the land.

All life finds refuge in the pools.

This territory, what is now called Northwestern Utah and Northeastern Nevada remains one of the most sparsely populated regions of the United States.

(speaking foreign language) The word Goshute does not exist in our language.

Its origins and variations have many explanations.

- There's different interpretations, and I don't know if we'll ever really find the true meaning of where the word came.

- What binds us has a deeper meaning, the land from which we came.

- Because it does have a meaning of my tribe.

(speaking foreign language) That means the ashes from a dried pool of water, that we raise from the ashes.

In that respect, I have a, a strong relationship to that word.

- [Forrest] This land is our mother, (speaking in foreign language) water is our grandmother, (speaking in foreign language).

Fire is our grandfather, (speaking in foreign language).

The son, our father, (speaking in foreign language).

- The Goshutes, they were desert people.

They were very knowledgeable of what the land provided for them.

- They're hunter gatherers, but more gatherers than hunters.

And they gathered a lot of plant materials.

Their medicinal uses from plant materials were just really astronomical.

- [Speaker 1] Where the water's located, that's where the game come.

Certain watering places throughout the desert were known by the early, early Goshutes, and they knew where, where to go.

- And rabbit was a big staple.

I mean, they made their clothes out of rabbit fur, they made bags out of rabbit.

They'd dry the rabbit for the season.

They'd have big hunts even with other band member tribes, and they'd actually drive rabbits into kind of a apex with shrubs around them.

- When you're out in the desert, the only thing that's available is a sagebrush.

So they built shelter with the sagebrush and it'd protect them from the elements.

And there were times when things were hard, and so when things were hard, what was made available to them was the insects.

So they even had insects drives.

- And they'd actually roast them on hot rocks.

They'd heat the rocks up, put them in a pit and put the crickets in there.

And they said they taste like shrimp.

I've never tried it, but I would like to.

- They were grateful and very thankful for what the creator had offered them.

I don't think they knew that they, they were according to some of the people, they were destitute people because they didn't have, you know, what the Europeans had as far as their living, but they adapted to their surroundings.

And so the land itself is very significant to them.

And so they still hold onto the land and it makes the people who they are.

- [Speaker 1] Women wove many types of baskets from willows.

Perhaps most symbolic of the great basin way of life is the water jug.

- This water jug is old, old.

So this is my treasure.

And this is made out of willows.

It's all willows.

And the handle is made out of cedar bark.

You get pitch from the pine trees and you boil it.

It's like making a candy.

You have to keep testing it.

And when it gets to a certain texture, you pour it in here with rocks, and then you coat the inside, it pushes them through the holes and seals the holes.

It's a good water jug.

- [Speaker 1] We traveled in small family groups to far expanses in order to hunt for large game and trade with other tribes.

Stories of creation were told in the winter.

- And a lot of times those stories were pretty scary or they were pretty funny, or they were stories that told you about life.

- Like cartoon characters.

You know, they'd dress them up and they'd talk for them.

They'd sing for them.

The kids would sit and and listen, make them pay attention.

That was part of their learning.

If someone would ask, so what happened?

You know, they'd tell, tell the kids.

The rats tale is cut.

Yeah, and that would end the story.

And then they wouldn't go on anymore and everybody have to go to bed for interrupting.

Yes.

- [Speaker 1] We would gather for spring and fall celebrations.

We would sing and dance, play hand game.

(tribal singing) (tribal singing) We would end the gatherings with the ceremonial dance, the Nataya, this dance was danced for the wellbeing of the people, for abundance of vegetation to feed the people and animals.

(tribal singing) The experience of the Great Basin gave us many gifts.

Its isolation protected us.

Our elders told us stories of the first European people they met.

- Pomodoro lived to be a very old, old man.

He remembered when the Spaniards roamed this area, the Longhorn cattle.

And he would say that the, when the wind would blow, the high green grass would just wave.

- [Speaker 1] The Spaniards brought horses.

Other tribes were able to use the horse as an advantage.

The horse had no such benefit for us.

Water was scarce.

A grazing animal would quickly destroy the renewable seeds and plants essential to our way of life.

Though we had use for the horse in certain areas, we remained traditional in our hunting and gathering ways.

When slave traders began to prey on our people, we retreated deeper into our homelands for protection.

Generations would pass before we saw new white faces in this land.

European explorers began searching for routes across our treacherous desert.

Those seeking passage to a new life, such as the immigrant Donner party, struggled across the difficult terrain.

The Mormon people established a city along the Rocky Mountains in 1847.

They sent their pioneers West along the pools and mudflats of the great Salt Lake into the fertile valleys where we traditionally wintered.

Civil war was brewing, rich mine discoveries were made in California, Nevada, and Oregon and overland mail route and stage coach stations were built under urgent pressures to connect the East and West, create a nation, and preserve the union.

Mail and stage stations were built across our desert homeland.

They followed precious springs.

(speaker two speaking in foreign language) (speaker two speaking in foreign language) The road brought thousands of travelers.

The outposts also brought livestock and soldiers.

Game was driven away.

Plant life decimated.

Springs were fenced and close to us.

Our people found themselves displaced.

Destitute.

Soldiers and settlers became their enemies.

- That was a terrorism.

The old people used to say they wanted to, they wanted us gone.

We were in their way of getting what they wanted.

- My father's older sister, she had a red dress on and they, when they said that there were soldiers were coming, she'd climb up a bare dead tree without no foliage and sitting up there with a red dress on.

Just a good target for the soldiers to shoot at, which they did and killed her.

- Well, they, those days they were killing the people.

Wherever they find them, at their camps, they'll just kill them for no reason.

- But you don't hear that anywhere.

But we hear stories about those, well we call them massacres.

It's what they were.

- On October 12th, 1863 at Tooele Valley, the designated chiefs of the Shoshone Goshute Tribe, Tabi, Ottosam, Tinsifiyone, Harinap, signed a treaty of peace and friendship.

This treaty required that we give up our wandering and live on a reservation that the government would compensate us for the destruction of game.

- A lot of the Indians back then didn't read and they didn't understand English.

And so you imagine, they wonder, what are we going into?

What is this law?

What is it going to do to us?

What do we have to do?

And those kinds of things.

These lands were lands that none of the white settlers wanted.

And this is why we got them.

I wonder how these people were alike.

What they were alike.

When I see their names and now I have four grandchildren, I think this is something with them to look back on, to see and think, wow, you know, these people must have been strong people, strong-willed people to, to live through all this.

- [speaking Goshute] - I'm 85 years old and I can take great pleasure in telling about my life as it has been.

Well, all I can say is that the, the Goshutes have come a long way from the time that they were actually interned on that reservation.

Like there were some kind of prisoners.

The way my elders told me, the reason why we were there on the reservation was that the white men put us there within that barbed wire fence.

And if we ever found out that we were outside that line, that we'd get taken off to jail.

We came to fear the white people for that reason.

Because I'd say every time we see a white person, we think that they're coming, come to take us off the reservation to put us somewhere else or make us a slave of some sort.

I was 16 years old.

I realized that I needed to learn this new language.

We were told at school not to speak our language.

And if we did, we get extra duties.

We have to clean the toilet bowls and wash basins and then mop floors and scrub floors and this and that.

So, so that's how our life has been.

And it, it hasn't been easy.

People should understand that we came up the hard way.

I never did notice it.

That's a sign right there.

For my grandson I think life is much better.

And Richard, (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) I said Richard, don't forget what I said here today.

What you hear me say?

He said, this is our language.

This is what I'm saying to you.

(speaker two speaking in foreign language) - Well, my name's Richard Williams and I am the grounds manager here at Shriners Hospital.

I got a scholarship through the Goshute tribe itself.

And then I followed up on my education in horticulture and that was one of the most rewarding things I've done in my life.

It's really tied into my belief system as a member of the Goshute tribe.

You know, I'm very proud that I come from that background of people so close to the land.

What I would like my sons to take away from being members of the Goshute tribe is not take it for granted.

They need to give back.

You got it.

You protect it.

You don't, you're gonna lose it forever.

And that's what, that's what I'd pass on to them.

And, and hopefully the spirituality part of it, the Earth teaches them that because I could tell them about it, but if they never see it, they're never gonna experience it.

- As we enter the 21st century, we faced difficult choices about our tribe's future.

- There's some economics, but not enough for everybody.

And there isn't, there isn't enough economics to hold some of the members on the land.

- We are just the starters for, for the younger ones, the older there.

As a council, we give them tools and education, the value of land to generate them to so where, to where they can go on with their life in the generations that's coming.

- The Confederated tribes of the Goshute Indian Reservation have been in a partnership to save the Ainkai Painkwi from Extinction.

We are looking at renewable energy as a possible commodity.

We also face a looming threat.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has begun the process of tapping into the network of ancient aquifers under our feet.

They want to use the water to feed the growing populations in the Las Vegas desert.

Even the drop of a few feet in the water table may prove disastrous to all life here.

We find strength to face these challenges from our rich history.

We give these gifts to our children.

We also have a reason to celebrate.

For the first time an accredited Goshute language program has been established for our youth.

- Nairubi Rides at the door, (speaking in foreign language).

I am teaching Goshute language here at Ibapah School To be able to speak your language is very, very important in your life.

You know, there's a lot of history here and most of the kids that are in here at the school are from here.

They've grown up here like the teacher.

She's been, she grew up here and this is where she teaches.

(speaking in foreign language) (teacher speaking in foreign language) Good, okay, another new word.

You got it.

That means sit still.

She can use a word, sit down, gadit.

That means sit down or umgada is sit still.

She can use that in school.

And that's what I had in mind was, you know, teaching those words so she can use them also and the kids will understand what she's saying.

(kid speaking in foreign language) Good, I think they are doing wonderful.

They're learning fast.

So I hope one of these days we'll be all be talking Indian here.

(class laughing) (speaking in foreign language) You're welcome.

- The Skull Valley Band of Goshute face unique and deadly Challenges.

The Skull Valley Reservation has become surrounded by hazardous military installations and civil industries.

These include chemical and biological warfare testing, storage and destruction, and an Air Force bombing range.

(bomb blasting) We have had to abandon agriculture as a viable economy.

While we have other economic projects, the most successful have been the storage of various types of hazardous waste.

We were approached by companies with the proposal of storing nuclear waste on the reservation.

The controversy of whether this rich financial opportunity would save or destroy the tribe caused great distress among us.

The powerful political forces were awakened.

The deal never happened.

To this day, most of the tribe cannot afford to live on the reservation, and yet the Skull Valley Band of Goshute remains.

- Growing up in Skull Valley really has been a joy.

I feel my life is truly blessed.

I would never say that I've had a bad life.

I'm very happy.

As a teenager in Native America I suppose the biggest struggle is just that constant decision.

Do I modernize or do I stay?

Well, the real question is, do we go forward or back?

That thinking that we have to fit the stereotype, we really don't.

I think that as far as Goshutes go, Skull valley band of Goshutes, for us, the biggest thing is to survive.

Tradition, of course, you know, even if we didn't practice it in government or in economy, we would still practice it at home.

That's our way of preserving it, keeping it close to the family.

If our ancestors, our grandparents could get through all the tragedies that have befallen our people, then why shouldn't we?

You know, life is easy these days, it truly is.

And it's really sad when I see people who think, you know, their lives are despaired.

And in my mind though, I think there's tomorrow.

You know, there's another day coming.

And my grandfather used to always tell me that.

(dramatic music) - [Forrest] Past, present, and future intertwine.

Our stories pass on these teachings, respect and balance of life.

We honor our elders for giving these gifts to us.

We remember them in modern ways so that our children and the future generations will not forget.

Our efforts to preserve the grave sites of those who have gone before speak to those powerful forces of our lives.

Under the guidance of our revered elder, Florence Steele, daughter, Imogene Steele, and extended family are honoring their ancestors by preserving their names for generations to come.

- If you have survivor qualities and characteristics, you can survive in any environment.

And to me, that's what makes the Goshutes who they are.

They can survive.

- I think the essence of the Goshutes is a very simple and humbling people, very practical and very close knit, very proud, innovative too, when the time comes.

So with all those qualities, I mean, there's no limitations for the Goshute people.

- Hell yes, we're gonna remain.

I mean, you know, we've been here for centuries and we're continue to stay here.

It was Chief Joseph said that as long as the grass grows, the water runs and the sun shines, that we will remain.

- The land connects us to our ancestors.

We honor their lives, their strength.

We carry them with us into the future.

- [Narrator] We shall remain, a native History of Utah is made possible by the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, William M. and Carrie Armstrong, WGBH, the R. Harold Burton Foundation, the Lawrence T. Dee, Janet T. Dee Foundation, and the contributing members of KUED.

Thank you.

(tribal music) (tribal music) - That means that rat's tail is broke.

- [Narrator] Exclusive corporate funding for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] The best way to fully understand this nation's history is through the eyes of those who experienced it.

Liberty Mutual, proud sponsor of American Experience.

- [Narrator] Major funding for American Experience is made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, to enhance public understanding of the role of technology.

The foundation also seeks to portray the lives of men and women engaged in scientific and technological pursuit.

Funding for We Shall Remain provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Kalliopeia Foundation, and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.