Joe was Western Shoshone from Duckwater, Nevada. He worked most recently
with a statewide environmental/social justice organization called
Citizen Alert, where he helped create and work with the Native program.
Before that, he worked with the Seventh Generation Fund. Joe was a
warrior for our times. He loved life, he loved the beautiful high desert
of his birth, he loved his people and culture, and was, in turn, much
loved by many of us, native and non-native, who had the fortune to
share this time with him. He was spiritually strong, and dedicated to
passing on the knowledge of the land and culture of his people. In his
quiet, strong and gently humorous way he helped so many. He was a wonderful
teacher.
Joe had been sick for two years with cancer. There does not seems to be
a history of cancer in his family, and his homeland was in the path of
the fallout from testing at the Nevada Test Site, itself land taken
illegally from Western Shoshone people. Joe also traveled on other Native
lands which had been poisoned by similiar toxins. So, it is hard to say
what may have caused his illness. He was a young man, and leaves behind a
four year old son, his wife Lee and a wonderful family and many friends who
will carry on his work and hold him in our hearts forever.