Our Story

Credit - Nancy Smith Ottogary (NSO),
Tape A-4 (103 years old), Interviewer: Mecreline Boyer (MB), October 31, 1975

(MB) Go ahead and tell us about the white (divos) that settled here. About what you have seen.

(NSO) "They camped across the water from us...Some of those whites were friends of ours. Thos white people measuring the right around where we were living. They put stonemarkers up at the end, the corner."

"...I was seven years old. We said to each other, "Let's take those stone markers down. These whites were up to no good. These whites are taking advantage of us." My father was a farmer. My father worked with the U.S. Soldiers. He worked with and for the whites."

"...We left our land along with our personal belonging to live in Washakie [Fort Washakie, Wyoming]. All this was sold. Our home, farm, farm equipment and everything we had owned while we lived here. Up to this day I don't know who sold them ore why the land and our belongings had been sold. I cant understand why. This is where we lost ALL our land."

"...And today the people that live here say that we are from Washakie and they say that we are not part of them. I'm from here but I live near McCammon [Idaho]. We were all born here and we did at one time own land here. We know that our relatives are living here. These are our people."

"...I always say that [this] is where we come from...People say that we had the water."

Interpreter unknown? mentions: Nancy Smith Ottagary "was about 12 years old when she left from Lava."

(NSO) "Maybe those people that lived across the water from us has a daughter that is still alive today. Some of the kids we used to play with. I think their names was Munroe."