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TI: So I'm going to jump now a little bit.

RO: Okay.

TI: I going jump to 1999, that's about the time when you connected with the Colorado River Indian Tribe and so can you explain the circumstances and how this all happened?

RO: Well, I was down in Phoenix with my husband at the time and I wanted to go see Poston. I hadn't been back there at all so we hopped in a car, rented car, drove to Parker and had to go to Parker and ask for directions. Because I couldn't remember how the layout was until we got onto Mohave Road and then I remembered, 'cause I remembered the mountains. And I went back there mainly because I wanted to check out the mountains and take some photographs because I was working on this huge oil painting and I was doing it by memory and I just wanted to make sure that I had the shape of the mountains correct. So we went flying out there... went driving out there and took photographs. That was my first visit but that was before 1999. In 1999 I went back to visit with Amelia, who was the librarian at the time, and asked if I could do some research at the library and she said, "You know, I can't say yes, and of course you're welcome to, but you need to pass that through the tribal council and get their approval before I can show you the material." So I wrote a letter to the council, tribal council, gave them a background of why I was interested and looking at their archives.

And in 1999 I went to Japan and when I returned from Japan there was a letter from Amelia and the tribe saying that I could come. I was so excited. And I used my own money to go there but I decided... Amelia was the one who said, "Why don't you try to get grant or something to come back?" Because it was costly, I had to stay at a motel and I could only stay for a week at a time. So anyway, that was my first visit and while I was there doing the research, someone came to me and said, you know, you should... oh, it was the director of the Parker Historical Society, she said, "There's a African American or a black man, I think he might be actually from Africa, but he's been walking around asking questions and why don't you contact him? He might be an interesting person to connect with." It turned out that it was Raul, Dr. Raul Rocco, who was hired by the tribe to help, tribes, to help them do come cultivation of the reservation because his expertise was in agriculture. He was from Benin, Africa. And so I hunted him down and said, "Can I talk to you?" And we developed a wonderful relationship and friendship. And he actually came to Berkeley to help me and he spent a week, four days, four solid days. I would pick him up at the French Hotel there on Shattuck and we would come to... at that time I was in my warehouse studio and from eight o'clock in the morning until five with a break for lunch, I put huge, what do you call those? Flip chart like paper all across my wall and he and I discussed and we jotted everything down about how to approach this research. I couldn't have done my proposal or my research without Dr. Rocco. Unfortunately he died, I found out he died a year or so ago of a stroke and if I had known he was ill I would have flown down to Arizona. I am so indebted to him and cherish our friendship that we had created. He was a wonderful man. Anyway, we had fun spending that week together. I mean, for him to sacrifice his time like that and come to help me, I am so indebted to him.

TI: He really believed in your work though and what you were trying to do.

RO: Well, he was very interested in having the Poston story remembered and recorded. And he found out that nobody was doing it so he was doing what he could do to preserve and record. So when we were connected and... I mean he flew in to the Oakland airport, I'd pick him up, we'd go grab some light coffee or something and dash back to my studio and spend the rest of the day. I still have those papers, rolled up charts. He was wonderful. Well, that was the beginning, from then, after we charted out all the things that we needed to look at, I then applied for a grant and got the grant to do the Sharing a desert home. And Malcolm, the publisher, even took time when he was in Nevada, he hopped in his car and went down to Poston to check things, look at things and he has been incredible. His support, emotional, just everything and his encouragement, and he helped write a letter so that I, you know, for my grant and I owe him a lot, too. Dr. Rocco, Malcolm --

TI: And which publisher was Malcolm?

RO: Heyday Books. I am just indebted to both of those men.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.