George Dushane

FROM THIS CORNER
By
Glenna J. Wallace

GEORGE DUSHANE

GEORGE ANDREW DUNSHANE

“You’ll never live to be 30. You don’t like to talk but you sure love to drink and then you fight. Just look at your hands. They’re all busted up from fighting. You gotta quit this drinkin’, even if it means you gotta change friends cause it’s just their nature, their culture to drink. Ya gotta quit it or I’m a tellin’ you, you ain’t gonna live to be 30.”
Those words of advice were given to George Dushane more than 60 years ago and he’s still going strong. Yes, he has given up the drinking, has given up the fighting, but he still doesn’t like to talk. “He’s quite a character,” laughs his nephew, Cliff Carpenter, “always has been, always will be. You’re lucky that he will talk to you, as he doesn’t talk to too many people.” “I can’t talk to many”, George says in an immediate come back, “because they’re all dead.”

Front row (left to right) Colleen Carpenter, George Dushane, Lola Perkins. Second row: Sherry Barrett, Nancy Spencer, Robin Dushane, Larry Dushane, Martha Dushane. Third row: Jack Dushane, unidentified, David Carpenter, Angela Carpenter. Dushane family members on Ohio trip.

Now 90 years of age, George lives in Joplin, Missouri, where he has lived since the age of 4 and the last 40 years he has lived in the same house. George was born August 1, 1928 in Ottawa County, state of Oklahoma. His father was Clifford Oliver Dushane whom George described as a horseman. Lillian May Choteau, his mother, was Seneca Cayuga. Actually, George indicated he is 11/16 Indian with blood lines in five tribes—Eastern Shawnee, Seneca Cayuga, Cherokee, Wyandotte and Loyal Shawnee. His parents affiliated primarily with two tribes, Eastern Shawnee and Seneca Cayuga. George said they went to more Seneca Cayuga gatherings, especially Green Corn, than they went to Eastern Shawnee events because the Eastern Shawnee didn’t have any. The family included three siblings: two brothers, Franklin Delano, who died at 14 months of age, and Gale Harlan, a Korean veteran, who walked on about 2007. Then there was his favorite sibling, his sister, Colleen Joyce Carpenter, Cliff’s mother, who passed away last year, 2018. George’s grandfather was Andrew Dushane, a former Chief of the Eastern Shawnee.

Education for George included his going to several schools, most of them in Joplin. Even though he was 11/16 Native American, George said his parents never sent him to the Indian School at Wyandotte. George completed the eighth grade and then quit school. He related that when he went to school in Joplin the schools were segregated, with blacks going to a separate school and he went to what he described as a “white school.” Because he was dark complexioned and darker than all the other students in the “white school,” he said kids often made comments about him. “Caused a lot of fights” was theway George described it. “I always took up for myself. I was always known for being self-sufficient. Even today at the age of 90 I would describe myself as a self-sufficient man.”

“That doesn’t mean that I just care about myself. I always took care of my mother. When I grew up I lived here in Joplin, she lived down in Oklahoma. I would go down, pick her up, take her where she wanted to go, did odd jobs for her. Helped her however I could, whatever she wanted, whatever she needed. I even built a lean-to for her. I just didn’t want to stay down there. Didn’t care about being down there. And my sister Colleen was always special to me. She and I were close, even when we were young. We both liked art. Colleen was a good artist. For me it began in the third grade. I had a teacher who liked a drawing I made of some flowers. I think they were iris or what we called flags then. She took that drawing around to the entire school and showed it off. She was proud of that piece, proud of me. That made me feel good.”

“I still like art today. I’ve kept a few pictures of mine for myself. Had them a long time.” He then looked at his nephew, Cliff Carpenter, who had driven him down to my office from Joplin and said, “Cliff will get them when I’m gone.” Cliff, a professional artist himself, smiled and commented, “He’s too modest. He’s an excellent artist. He paints, draws, did a black and white portrait of Quapaw’s last hereditary Chief, Victor Griffin. He also does scratch board type art. I remember seeing a painting he had done of Indians in a field on horses. The painting was hanging on George’s wall. It inspired me to be an artist, so George is responsible for that. He once had a certain letter from a fairly famous artist telling him how good George’s art work was. You might have heard of him—Charles Banks Wilson”, he said with a smile. “George threw the letter away, said it got old and at his age it was time to start throwing things away.” With a smirk crossing his face, George nodded, said “Just a couple of weeks ago I threw away a letter from my brother when he was in Korea. Had it for 60 years, about time to throw it away.”

Married twice, first to Donna Sue Duncan and second to Delores Cassarina, George has two children, daughter Georgia Sue and son Rick. He used to tinker with cars, especially Volkswagen beetles, or slug bugs as they were frequently referenced. It was not uncommon for him and his nephew David to take off on one day trips to Eureka Springs for car shows. George made his living as an electrician. It was a life long career as he worked for Eagle-Picher 32 years and 7 months, retiring in 1994 at the age of 65.

Today George lives alone, practicing that self-sufficiency of years past. He is thankful for a good neighbor who looks in on him, takes him places, and for Cliff. He used to go out to eat frequently, but now says because of his shaky hands he stays home, does his own cooking. He listens to a lot of TV. Note the word listen. He says he turns it on for the noise, does watch the news but isn’t interested in sports or soap operas.

George says he has no desire to be active in the tribe but is appreciative of the benefits he receives. Those benefits include utilities, insurance on house and car, even though he has almost quit driving. He was most appreciative that when he had to have his eyes operated upon the tribe paid that bill. He repeated that he was most thankful. George summed his life up saying, “I stay busy. My neighbor mows my grass, but other than that Thomas, my cat, and I pretty much stay in the house, spend most of my time alone because I have outlived everyone else. I passed that thirty year mark long ago. Occasionally I shop for groceries at Walmart which is close to where I live and I do my own cooking. At this stage of life, lot of things you do because you have to, not for fun. I’m not complaining. As I said, I’ve always been pretty self-sufficient.”