One of the most recent additions to the Nevada Woman’s History Project Roll of Honor is Joanne Peden. She has
made a tremendous impact within our state in the research and documentation of Nevada Indian culture. She has
served in such capacities as videographer, editor, producer and director of numerous documentary films. Most notable
was producing, co-directing, and writing the award winning documentary, “That Was Happy Life: A Paiute Woman
Remembers”. This University of Nevada Oral History Program sponsored film featured 97 year old Pyramid Lake
Paiute Elder Katie Frazier who was born just three generations after Anglo-Americans began to enter her homeland of
northwestern Nevada.
Other films that JoAnne has done reflecting Nevada Indian life were “Tah Gum: the Washoe Pine-Nut Harvest”
which documented the tribe’s annual tradition of pine nut harvesting and a film made to accompany the Nevada State
Museum interactive exhibit, “Under One Sky”. Her most recent UNR Oral History sponsored project, “People of the
Marsh” documents the activities of the Northern Paiute “Cattail-Eaters” of the Carson Sink in Nevada. This award
winning video was shown at the 2006 Smithsonian Film Festival. It has been aired on public television stations and
continues to be viewed in classrooms, libraries and cultural gatherings.
JoAnne, a Spokane a Washington native, moved to Reno in 1973. In 1985 she began her participation in Nevada
Indian communities as a VISTA worker at the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony. “That experience is the source of my
delight in Nevada’s Indian people and the desire to understand their culture-historic to the present, a desire that continues
to this day,” she said in explaining her next association with the UNR Oral History program.
In addition to her videography, she is also employed by The Nevada Urban Indian Association as a Washoe
Education Indian Education High School Advisor. In this capacity she oversees the educational progress of Washoe
County urban high school Indian students.
JoAnne’s two grandchildren who live in the Reno area also keep her busy. She is quite proud of Katie, a UNR
freshman UNR Millennium Scholar and Jessie, a senior at Spanish Springs High School. One might also find her at an
Indian gathering at the McDermitt Indian Reservation, the Paiute-Indian Reservation in Fallon or the former Stewart
Indian School at Carson City. A film on that historical institution is in the planning stage. When JoAnne finds she has a
moment or two of spare time, her love of reading or passion for gardening takes center state.
Most recently JoAnne has become a NWHP Oral History Committee volunteer and in the capacity of Videographer
and Advisor, she helped produce video oral histories of Paiute Elder Francis Hooper, Shoshone Elder Leona Hicks and
former University of Nevada Home Economics Dean and Nevada State Legislator, Pat Tripple. JoAnne’s talents are
indeed a welcome addition to our ongoing mission of collecting oral histories of Nevada women.
