Russell and Bobette Haskett are both members of Shoshone-Bannock tribes from the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, located in southeast Idaho. Bobette is a second-year graduate student in the anthropology department at Idaho State University, in Pocatello, Idaho. She has a passion for weaving baskets, is skilled in beadwork, hide tanning and making buckskin clothing. Russell is a skilled hunter, fisherman and trapper. Both Russell and Bobette have strong beliefs in practicing, preserving, and sharing their traditional ways of their Native American heritages.

Event Description: Russ will share his knowledge of the Bodo’ (a digging stick in the Shoshone language), and the many uses of digging sticks. He will provide a display of the different kinds of digging sticks, both traditional and contemporary styles, and discuss the many types of plants, bulbs and roots the digging stick was used for.

Bobette’s research of natural plant-based materials has led her on a journey to learn, practice, and teach the traditional building of tools and clothing, a necessary practice by her Indigenous ancestors long ago. Her presentation will focus on those practices of traditional clothing worn by the Shoshone and Bannock people, both traditionally and contemporary. Bobette will display many animal fur pelts and buckskin, along with a variety of dried plant materials she uses in making clothing, shoes, and basketry.

Attendees are encouraged to ask questions throughout their demonstrations and presentations, and will be invited to touch and feel the materials. Russell and Bobette hope to leave the audience with an understanding of why the Shoshone and Bannock people hold the Ketchum area dear to them, it is part of their original territories.

The workshop is part of the Shoshone-Bannock Education Series supported by the Idaho Humanities Council Gem State Grant.