Duane Masters
Class of 1995
Ross Edgar Hardin was born in 1901 and his wife Christine (Crutcher) Hardin in 1913. They spent their entire lives at the Fort McDermitt Piute/Shoshone Indian Reservation. Ross taught school on the Reservation and drove the school bus.
He was very involved in the Tribe and with Washington. At one time he was the Tribal Chairman and sat on the Council for years; he held positions as the secretary, treasurer; and was on the housing board. Christine helped set up and run a Tribal Trading Post in the late 60's and was the Head Start Cook for many years. It was there that they also raised their family, Marlene (Coffee); Delores (Bradley) Phyllis (Able); Kenneth Hardin; Cordell Hardin; Caroline (Raburn); Joyce Jewel (Franklin) (Masters) (MHS 1961); and Glenn Edger Hardin (MHS 1964)-all of whom are deceased-and Loretta (Mills) (Wright) (MHS 1965) of Pendleton, Ore.; Alida (Nacho) (Thomas) (MHS 1969) of Mesa, Ariz.; and Leora (Wilson) (Greenwood) (MHS 1970) of McDermitt, Nev.
Joyce Jewel began her family when she married Paul Franklin, from Arizona, and they began a family tradition of Jewel for a middle name when their first daughter, Paula Jewel (Chee) (MHS 1981) of Rigby, Idaho was born. Paula was followed by Pamela (Tom) of McDermitt; Jacqueline Franklin of Des Moines, Iowa; James Franklin (MHS 1984) of McDermitt; and Janet Franklin (MHS 1987) of Iowa. They also had a son Jonathan, and a daughter Judy, who are deceased.
Robert Masters (of English/Irish decent) and his wife, Alpine Ivy Masters (who was a member of the Karuk Tribe of northern California), made their home in Grants Pass, Ore., and were the paternal grandparents of McDermitt Combined School Alumni, Duane Masters SR. Robert and Alpine's son Duane Clyde Masters married Joyce after Paul Franklin was killed in car wreck at the Carlin Tunnels. Joyce's youngest son was born in Winnemucca in 1976-Duane is five years younger than the youngest of his half siblings.
Duane started his education at the Head Start Program on the Reservation with his Uncle Glenn's wife, Sherri Hardin, for a teacher. His mom had also taught the Head Start program for several years before switching to the staff at the McDermitt School. Like many children from McDermitt Duane went to kindergarten under the competent and professional eye of teacher Delores Armknecht. He remembers playing flag football in the second grade for Coaches Bob Pace and Bruce Easterday, and he completed the eighth grade in McDermitt.
By his freshman year his mom was having serious health issues and the two of them went to Murray, Utah to stay with his sister, Paula, so she could help care of their mom. His sophomore year was back in McDermitt and he played football and basketball for coach Elmer Porter. His favorite teacher was Barb Ferguson. With his mom's declining health they were back with Paula his junior year-this time in Salt Lake City where Duane attended East High School.
Duane lost his mother that year and spent the summer living with his Aunt Leora in Reno working on construction. He returned to McDermitt where he lived by himself, taking responsibility for getting himself to school, to complete his entry level education. During the football season in a game against Smith Valley, he was hurt at the beginning of the third quarter. When checked out in Winnemucca the following Monday, they could find no problem so sent him home. He made one block in the next game before having to be sidelined and when X-rays in Reno came back they showed that there was a break in his neck, ending his career as an athlete for the McDermitt Bulldogs.
Focusing more on schoolwork he graduated in 1995 with a class of 19 students. He went to northern California to work for the forest service in Quincy through the Intertribal Council of Nevada program. He was moved into the barracks in Greenville, Calif., and spent the summer as a trailblazer, clearing trails for recreational use. He earned his certification as a fire fighter before moving on to Reese River, located south of Austin, Nev., on the Yomba Shoshone Indian Reservation.
For the first couple of years he was in maintenance-carpentry, electrical, and plumbing-as the director of maintenance for the housing program. He learned to use heavy equipment and was the Tribe's heavy equipment operator and mechanic, taking care of the community water supply. In the aftermath of a huge fire he helped establish a volunteer fire department through Nye County to work in conjunction with the EMS that was already there. They had about 10 volunteers and were able to get a truck donated-Duane was elected to serve as the fire chief and ambulance coordinator.
In 2000 he worked at the Reno Sparks Indian Colony as the emergency coordinator. During this time he lived in Hungry Valley and was a member of the Hungry Valley Volunteer Fire Department. Moving to Yerington, Nev., he served as the environmental director for the Yerington Paiute Tribe. He helped with the Tribe's litigation along with the community of Yerington against Arco BP Copper Mine when the Tribe's drinking water became so contaminated that they could drink only bottled water. The following litigation received global attention and resulted in the company making a settlement with Yerington and the Indian Reservation. He relocated to Schurz where he was a captain with the Walker River Volunteer Fire Department while still working for the Yerington Tribe.
In the late 90's Duane had married Rose Johnson of Reno and their son, Duane Masters Jr. was born in 1999, followed a year later by a daughter. They chose to carry on the family tradition of Jewel for a middle name and what could go better with Jewel than a first name of Precious. Duane Jr. is now in the eighth grade at McDermitt Combined School and Precious Jewel is a seventh grader. Sadly their mother, Rose, was diagnosed with cancer and lost her battle to the disease in 2008. At that time Duane took a job at the Fort McDermitt Reservation as environmental director managing the environmental department, focusing on a broad range of environmental issues, including hazardous and solid waste management, (such as the mine waste clean up in McDermitt and at the reservation), range and natural resource management, domestic water, and emergency preparedness planning.
Duane also worked with the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada to establish an Inter-Tribal Emergency Response Commission and was elected to serve as sergeant of arms of the commission. Currently he is working with the commission to develop a National Tribal Emergency Management Team and serves as the public information officer for the Type 3 National Incident Management Team.
Duane has started a second family in Reno with Mandee Hooper and has two young sons-Leo Blake who is 16 months old and Remington who is two months. Duane has no immediate plans to move back to Reno as he believes he still has a lot of work to do in McDermitt. Also, Duane Jr. and Precious have been in school there for several years now and both are playing basketball, with Precious playing volleyball as well.
They both compete in competitive Pow-Wows and dance Northern Traditional style. The family travels to such places as Montana and as far away as the Gathering of the Nations in Albuquerque, N.M. Precious was recently a Princess in Susanville, Calif., and several years ago was Miss Tiny Tot Princess at the Pow-Wow in Oroville, Calif. Between the sports and the dancing they are busy traveling most weekends.
Through the years Duane has continued his education by taking numerous environmental courses both at the University of Arizona and at Washington State University. He has also taken various emergency response trainings. When Duane has any free time, he likes to craft and make traditional regalia, as well as hunt, fish and tinker with mechanics. He also loves to go to car shows and rockabilly events!
Duane says he would tell the students at McDermitt today, including his own children, "life is all about choices-it is up to you to make the right ones!"
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