-Q-Name?
-A-Randy’L Hedow Teton. Hedow in Soshone is meadowlark and in Bannock it’s “close to ground.”

-Q-Where are you from?
-A- Grew up in Lincoln Creek outside of Blackfoot located in Southeastern Idaho. That’s where my whole family still resides today.

-Q-Current job?
-A-I really don’t have a current job job. I’m pretty open to anything and I play it off my contracts.

-Q-Favorite movie?
-A- I gave that some thought. I’m a movie fan. I always go to movies. So I would have to say I don’t have a favorite, I have a lot that I like. One of them being “Woman on Top,” it’s Brazilian. I usually like foreign films, anything comedy and humor.

-Q-Favorite book?
-A- Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie. He is a renowned Native American writer from the state of Washington. He’s written several other books and he also has that movie that recently came out called “Smoke Signals.” That’s actually derived from several of his past books he had written when he was in college, and Reservation Blues was one of them.

-Q-Child’s book about Sacagawea?
-A-Naya Nuki by Kenneth Thomasma. He’s a non-native teacher from Wyoming. He wrote this book a couple years back about two girls, Naya Nuki and Sacagawea getting enslaved by the Minitarees and their whole flight into returning back home. Mostly it really highlights Naya Nuki. But it is a good book and I recommend it.

-Q-Your computer comfort (pen and paper or email junkie)?
-A- I’m both. I get tired of the email. It’s too time consuming. You end up spending more time on it than you think you are. So I prefer the traditional pen and paper.

-Q-Your immediate family?
-A- I’m the second to the oldest. They called me the “Little Mom” cause I was the one that always disciplined them, to help my mom and my dad. I guess I was a stricter kind of sister. They still considered me that. I do have two little brothers and I have two little sisters. We’re very close and have been ever since we were small. We’ve always been pretty close due to the way my mother taught us to be. I have to say it’s mostly my mother. She’s the type that kind of binds us together. All are still in Idaho except for my mom who resides in Santa Fe.

-Q-What is your most embarrassing teenager event you can share?
-A- Well, let’s just say I was silly when I was growing up. There are probably several moments when I embarrassed myself in front of my family. As you know I have a large extensive family so there always moments when we all gathered together, and the kids would make fun of each other, and we would do stupid things just to get attention. So I would have to say my whole childhood was pretty silly. I really didn’t have an embarrassing embarrassing moment. All of them were just silly acts of childhood.

-Q-What accomplishment(s) (either professionally or non-professionally) has given you the most satisfaction?
-A-Graduating from college. I’m the first in my immediate family to receive a college degree. I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Art History and a minor in Native American studies out of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Before that, I received my Associates degree in Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.

-Q-Why did you get a degree in that field?
-A-Because my mother was our tribal director for ten years. I practically grew up in the museum field, knowing how to care for objects, and the whole efforts of preserving our past and our culture and traditions. I think that’s been one of my life’s important goals of accomplishments in the future for me. There’s not that many Native Americans in the field. So just to be able to teach another non-Native about our history would be complete gratitude so they can better respect the variety of Native Americans living today. There is so much diversity nowadays. But when I was growing up, I remember going to a museum, and there would be a non-Native teaching Natives about Native American history. I thought that was so wrong. Where the majority of them received that knowledge was from books. And a lot of time books are writing stereotypical. So that’s one of the reasons why I’ve always stressed going into the museum field. At the moment, I’m pursuing my Masters degree in the museum field.

-Q-What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a spokesperson for Native Americans?
-A- I would have to say being able to be open-minded to all the issues that are going on, or that Native Americans are facing. There are so many issues that are political, and it’s kind of hard for me to get into that realm because I am not a political kind of person. It seems that when I got the modeling “gig” as I like to call it, I was automatically put into that position. Because Native Americans nowadays, we’re all striving for sovereignty so each tribe has their own problems. To be the spokesperson for all indigenous people, it’s kind of hard for me to kind of pinpoint what issue I would like to highlight in their behalf. So I would have to say that’s the most difficult, actually having to gain the support from each of the tribes because it’s pretty hard. I think I’ve been doing okay so far. I’ve haven’t received any negative comments or any feedback; it’s all been positive.

-Q-Are you a coin collector?
-A- Well, starting to become one. Actually I find the currency and the tokens and all the coins, the ones with the Native American images on them, more interesting to me because one thing I said last night was the whole history behind that token or that note is very interesting to me. To have a Native American on there, why did they select a Native American? I mean I always wonder what was going through whoever selected that image. To me, it makes me proud to be a Native American because we actually have a long history of currency dating all the way back to the 1700s, and they have Native American images on them. So Native American people have been a part of U.S. history for the longest time, and I find that very important to me to collect. I collect it for eye appeal. I’m not going to be really technical and get to the grading and all that. I collect what is interesting to me and that’s what is interesting to me.

-Q-Any moment with Glenna Goodacre that stands out from the rest?
-A- Let’s see. I have to say the first time we met, and that was at her studio in doing the two-hour photo shoot. She made me feel really relaxed because I was nervous. To be honest I was really nervous. I had no clue what to do. As a kid growing up, you imitate models, and people on the runway. You’re just having fun as part of girls’ dress-up. For me, that was doing it. Doing just that, it was dressing up; it was acting. She was crazy because she be teasing me and so I had fun with that. I think that was the most memorable moments that we had. Nowadays we are close, but we both have our own private lives, and she’s doing her own thing and I’m doing mine. We try to stay in contact with each other, from here to there. Probably later on I’ll end up remembering something and I’ll be like “Oh, I should have told him that.” That always happens to me.

-Q-What are your future plans (short and long range)?
-A- Short term is receiving my Masters. Long term, I would like to establish a cultural center that actually highlights not only my tribe’s history, but more or less the Great Basin. The Great Basin is very large and extends from Idaho, Wyoming to Nevada, and Oregon and Washington – parts of those areas. The cultural centers that exist today are mainly small non-profit centers due to the tribes not having the budget for such a large institution. So that is what I would like to do. I think it’s real important in today’s changing society. It all narrows down to preserving what is left, and I’m not saying that we don’t have anything left, it’s just preserving what knowledge the elders hold. Because a lot of the elders are passing away, it’s one of my wishes to return back home and record what knowledge they have. I think that’s really important.

-Q-What is the most important lesson you have learned from numismatics?
-A-Actually, from the time I’ve been here as an intern and also part of the summer seminar, I learned a lot of things about how to handle coins, what to look for, what not to look for. I learned a few conservation techniques. I’ve also learned how to catalog and register coins and bank notes. I find numismatics very interesting. One thing I also learned was the history of the Mint and the process behind the coin’s making. And to look not only at what is there that you’re holding in your hands, but look beyond that at the Mint directors, the coin treasurers, and the engravers. I took a class in which we talked about all that, and I thought that was just even more interesting to me than the coin itself, because those were the people that made it happen. It showed how the coin reflected that time in history.

Open microphone to add anything about yourself:
That I’m very proud. I’m happy but like I said last night, it is a struggle because I’m doing this all by myself – there is no other model out there for me to kind of talk with and compare things with. I’m doing this all by myself. But I think I’m doing okay. I’m trying to do as much as I can. You never know where the road will lead, cause like I said, there’s so many paths that I’m able to take, and it’s just choosing which path to take. Right now I’m just taking it real slow. I was always taught that things would come to you if you’re just patient. So, I’m patient and I have a lot of people who ask me “Well, how come you’re not doing this? How come you’re not doing that?” Well, it has to come to me; I’m not going to go running after it. I’m going to do what I like to do, and that is I want to maintain a stable job which is kind of hard for me cause I’m always called onto the road. So that’s why I said I don’t really have a job because I’m always here and there, different states, doing different things. So, that is my job. But I just want to say that I’m proud of this, I’m happy to be here as part of the Summer Seminar. It’s my first time here, and first time in Colorado Springs, and so far so good. And I just think it’s wonderful to meet all the instructors and even the YNs. It’s wonderful to see the younger generation getting involved and actually taking an interest in coins. Because when I was growing up, you didn’t see that many coin collectors especially at that age. Especially where I came from, you didn’t see any. So, I just think that’s really, really wonderful, and just to keep doing it.