WINNEMUCCA - Born to Eveylen and Irvin Crutcher on Dec. 1, 1940, on the Ft. McDermitt Indian Reservation, Eleanor Crutcher was brought into the world by a midwife who signed her birth certificate with a thumbprint.
During her preschool years she lived with her grandmother Maggie Crutcher and her younger sister Elvarine Crutcher (Senry) of Winnemucca. A younger brother died when she was a child.
As there was no running water at the house, they had to walk to a stream with tiny buckets because that was about all they could carry then. She remembers it as a difficult time what with no running water or electricity, and no vehicle meant if they wanted to go into McDermitt they had to catch a ride in a horse-drawn buggy.
"Most of the time we stayed home, though," Crutcher, 73, said.
Around the age of six she was sent to the Stewart Indian School outside Carson City where she would spend the next eight years.
"I went there when I couldn't speak English. I didn't understand English. All I spoke was Paiute," Crutcher said. "I was always scared to speak English thinkin' I'm gonna be sayin' the wrong thing, but I finally got the hang of it." Caught speaking anything other than English at the school required that students stand with their head against a wall.
Crutcher was a little on the shy side. "I did what I was told and did my lessons," she said.
Once she got the hang of what was happening at the school and began picking up a little English, she began to enjoy her time at Stewart. She particularly enjoyed the sewing and cooking classes, but times do change. "I don't like to cook now," she said.
She also enjoyed roller skating on the sidewalks in skates strapped on to her shoes. In later years she was able to work in the dining room serving food and cleaning up. "I enjoyed it," she said.
During her last couple of years at Stewart she was able to get summer jobs in Lake Tahoe and Reno and occasionally she would run into prejudice, but a call to school would have her back on campus in no time.
Crutcher remembers that once when she was too young to understand a friend suggested they run away, whatever that was, but by the time they got to town there was an officer waiting who hauled them back to school. They put her to work sweeping and scrubbing when she got back and she never did it again. She wasn't much into sports but did play a little volleyball and basketball. She lived in a large dormitory style area.
Once McDermitt Combined School was built, Crutcher and the rest of the students of the McDermitt reservation were required to attend and had to leave Stewart. By then her grandmother had died, so she and her sister went to live with her father and stepmother, Marjorie Crutcher.
She was one of the first students to attend the new McDermitt school as a freshman where she played a little basketball. She enjoyed walking over to her aunt Josie Cracker's house where she would spend the day, "probably because of her nice cooking," Crutcher said. "She was always making yeast buns."
In 1960 she started a family, eventually giving birth to three boys and one girl. Her number one son, Whitney Smart, lives in McDermitt and has a boy, Cisco Smart, who helps take care of Crutcher's home. Daughter Yolanda Garcia lives in Winnemucca and her daughter, Leandra Garcia lives in Las Vegas. Sons Donnie Smart and Leander Smart are deceased. Donnie had two children, Courtney Smart and Tildon Smart, who was recently elected tribal chairman. Those two have given her seven great grandchildren.
Crutcher has worked at a number of jobs over the years, including working at the Hawthorne Navel Ammunition Depot. After she left high school in her junior year she went into a work training program on the reservation looking for thunder eggs and learning knitting and beading. "I like the outdoors," she said.
She was a nutritionist aide for the tribe's senior citizens. What she learned and taught during that time has stuck with her and she continues to watch her diet to make sure she is eating healthy. Then she got involved with the Johnson-O'Malley committee, an education-focused committee, at McDermitt Combined School and was also involved in the Save the Children Program for eight years providing shoes and clothing to Indian children and offering encouragement.
In the early 2000s she went to work for Dr. Rodney Burrows at the Indian Health Clinic as a custodian and sometimes helped make appointments and answer phones. Later, she became the diabetic coordinator on the reservation helping those with diabetes regulate their diets and encouraging them to exercise. She remains concerned for their health.
"Being a diabetic can lead to heart disease and loss of eyesight and kidney disease, high blood pressure," Crutcher said. "If they don't take care of themselves, you know, they'll probably end up with an amputation."
Currently she is taking care of an elderly person helping her get around to the store, post office, clinic, etc. "I have to do something," she said. She is also doing willow weaving nowadays, which takes a lot of work requiring her to collect willows, scrape them and weave them together.
"I never was patient before, you know. Once I did something wrong I wanted to destroy it, but lately, if I have to take something apart five times I will do it. Then I'll start over," she said. She also likes to pick berries and make berry pudding.
"The people around me like it, but it's hard work," she said.
As she enjoys exercising and keeping healthy she encourages young people to do the same whether outside or in the gym or involved in sports, "because we have a lot of obese younger generation," Crutcher said.
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