Like his younger sister Carmelita, Wilbur Smith lived both as the traditional Wel-mel-ti of the past did, and embraced change during a time of rapid social shifts. His mother was Sierra Valley Wel-mel-ti, and his father was Paiute from nearby Pyramid Lake, Nevada. The two groups of Native Americans had maintained good relations with each other and traded resources for generations. The Sierra Valley Washoe had a yearly abundance of camas and deer, which they would trade the Pyramid Lake Paiute for cui-ui, an ancient fish that can only be found in Pyramid Lake. This long-standing relationship led to Wilbur’s mother and father meeting and having two children.

However, his mother, Lorena Wiltse, raised her children with her in the Sierra Valley. Wilbur grew up living with the Wel-mel-ti and took great pride in hunting and fishing throughout his traditional homelands. Later in life, Wilbur, who was an enrolled member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, established a fishing store that served fishermen at Pyramid Lake. He learned how to make all his fishing flies, and many would stop by the store just to purchase these unique flies. He and his family ran fishing charters on Pyramid Lake for many years, and they continue to do so after Wilbur’s passing, maintaining his home in Loyalton, California, as well.

Wilbur was very worldly, maintaining good relationships with the immigrants that settled the valley, a diversity of people at his Southern California boarding school, and in the Navy during WWII. He found strength in other Sierra Valley Wel-mel-ti values as well, such as eating healthy and staying physically active.

Cultural/Historiographical Note: Paragraph 5 of Wilbur Smith’s biography mentions Wel-mel-ti taking the names of their Euro-American employers. This assimilative pressure meant siblings could end up with different family names, and one’s name could change if employment changed (cf. Bissonette, 1999, pp. 9-10). The practice not only furthered Native American language and culture loss in the region, but could also make it difficult to track one’s ancestry via Euro-American records, further loosening descendants’ ties to the anchors of kinship and cultural traditions. (Neither Wilbur nor Carmelita had a birth certificate until after high school.) Wilbur’s family was lucky to include a number of community historians who have helped maintain ancestral ties, both by collecting written records and passing down unwritten Wel-mel-ti oral history – mother Lorena, sister Carmelita, and descendants who’ve contributed to these lessons.