Turtle Island Storyteller Josiah Pinkham

Josiah and Tamahsat Pinkham.

My Indian name is Tipyelehne Cimuuxcimux

My name is Josiah Black Eagle Pinkham. I'm a member of the Nez Perce tribe. I was born on the Yakama Reservation, but shortly after birth raised on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. That's the only place that I've basically gone to school as far as my formal non-traditional education. Most of what I've learned comes from studying, listening and watching some of the old people. I guess they're the ones that reared me and taught me what I know.

My Indian name is Tipyelehne Cimuuxcimux and that's loosely translated as Black Eagle, a name passed onto me by my grandmother that was held by one of her brothers. It's a long line of Black Eagles. There are numerous Black Eagles that stretch back into the years, the early formative years of our Nez Perce people.

No telling how far it goes back because many of the stories that have to do with Coyote and various people or animal people that are key characters in our oral traditions. Black Eagle was one of them and so it is indeed a very old name.

I guess in a matter of a few words that's my personal history. My family history is the Pinkham name. The first Nez Perce Pinkham to have the name was a warrior in the Nez Perce War in 1877. After he survived that ordeal he was given the name in order to get an allotment here on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

We do have family members that served in the Nez Perce War. That's part of what I talk about amidst the Coyote stories and various other oral traditions that we know about. I also discuss the contemporary Nez Perce as well as Nez Perce language efforts to perpetuate the Nez Perce language.

There's a host of different things that I discuss in my presentations. Lewis and Clark stuff seems to be something that people are oftentimes interested in hearing about and I'm always eager to share some of the things that I learned from our old people over here on the Nez Perce Reservation—our perspectives and the arrival of Lewis and Clark, how they changed things, for good and bad, and how our old people prophesied that time and how those prophesies came to be true.

I guess another aspect is Nez Perce song and dance. Sometimes I'm asked to talk about those things as well.