Mae Timbimboo was just eight years old when she entered a US federal boarding school designed to “kill the Indian to save the child.” The government hoped Native children like Mae would “assimilate” into Euro-American culture, but that certainly didn’t work on Mae. Instead, she harnessed her education to give voice to her people’s history. She told the world that they had the 1863 “Battle of Bear River” all wrong: it was a massacre. Our guest Darren Parry, Chairman of the Northwest Shoshone Nation, explores the power of storytelling in the life of his ancestor.

Mae Timbimboo Parry’s oral history is here and her obituary can be read here. Better Days 2020 has created a wonderful profile of Mae Timbimboo Parry here. Learn more about the Bear River Massacre here.

Guest Darren Parry is the grandson of Mae Timbimboo Parry, and serves as the Councilman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, on the Board of Directors for the American West Heritage Center, The Utah State Museum Board, and the American Indian Services Board. He is the author of The Bear River Massacre; A Shoshone History and teaches Native American History at Utah State University. He is currently running for Congress in Utah.

Music featured in this episode included works by Doug Maxwell, Kevin Macleod, Roljui, The Great North Sound Society, and audio from the 2013 Nevada Shoshone-Paiute Powwow, the 2013 Fort Wakashie Eastern Shoshone Powwow, and the 2019 Shoshone Bannock Powwow, used by kind permission.

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