Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland

Transcript

Dirty Freehub:

This is The Connection, a Dirty Freehub podcast connecting gravel cyclists to where they ride through short stories about culture, history, people, places, and lands.

Katie Harris Murphy – Nez Perce Homeland:

My name is Katie Harris Murphy. My Indian name is Kap Kap Tsonmi, which is a really old family name of ours that my grandma picked for me. And it’s actually Chief Joseph’s mom’s name that I get to have. But I’m located in here in Eastern Oregon. Wish it was Wallowa County. That’s where I hope to get back someday. But I’m living on the Umatilla Indian Reservation between Pendleton and Pilot Rock right now.

Joshua Sigmon – Nez Perce Homeland:

I’m the Facilities and Grounds Director here at Nez Perce Valhalla Homeland. Been in this position for about two and a half years now, because I manage all 323 acres, right? The hiking trails, the biking trails, the gravel road. all of our facilities. And then the river runs through the property so we have fishing and swimming and stuff like that. And then invasive, as I mentioned a second, invasive species management is a big part of the job. So making sure that we have native first foods on the grounds while also removing and reducing the opportunity for invasive species and not only plants but also animals.

Dirty Freehub:

This is Katie Harris Murphy and Joshua Sigmund joining us today from the Nez Perce homeland. I’m Keir Grubit, and in today’s episode of the

Dirty Freehub:

Dirty Freehub

Connection, we will be talking about the Nez Perce homeland, the history and mission behind it, the annual Tamklik celebration, fascinating stories about traditional practices, and how we as gravel cyclists can educate ourselves more about supporting the homeland.

Katie Harris Murphy – Nez Perce Homeland:

So the Wallowa homeland started, I believe, in like 1990. And a year later, I was born 1991. So I’ve been coming over here to the Tim Click celebration that happens in the end of July. So I’ve been coming every year since 1991. So starting off as somebody who is Willowaband, returning to the homeland, being a participant being a dancer that celebrates during the powwow. My dad was actually on the board for the Wild Homeland in his younger years. And a few years later, I eventually got involved in the board. I felt like I needed voices from more people and more perspectives.

Joshua Sigmon – Nez Perce Homeland:

We’re a really unique organization, right? We are a non-profit 501 c3 and we own this land as an organization it is collectively owned by local and non-local people and tribal and non-tribal people so it’s a very unique non-profit um and i had mentioned this last time we talked but when a lot of people come here since we’re obviously involved with the tribe and we represent the three reservations a lot of people think we’re you know federal land or we’re tribal land so I think that’s just an important thing to let people know like we are not tribally owned land and we don’t want to be tribally owned land because what that does is it limits access and we’re trying to do the opposite we’re trying to have as much open access as possible not just for the first people’s that were here in the valley first to come back to their ancestral land, but for all of the local community and people from out of state and international travelers to come and be on the homeland of the Wallowa band. I mean, that’s our mission is to deepen that strength of the, you know, culture of the people that were here first by having this land opened up for people to come and be at the homeland of the Lallaban. You know, that’s what we’re focusing on. So we’re just really unique in that way. So I always stress that to people, right? We’re, we are not a state park. We are not a, you know, city park, like a lot of people think, and we are not tribal land.

Dirty Freehub:

You guys both have a little bit of different roles here on the homeland, but could you tell us a little bit more about the mission of the homeland from your perspectives?

Katie Harris Murphy – Nez Perce Homeland:

Our mission is to deepen the connection between the Wallowa country and all of the people are like involved in the country, like the locals, the Walauban people and descendants that no longer live here and rekindle relationships and bring people home. So all of our events and all of our things that we bring to the homeland is to connect community and also provide opportunities to bring descendants home, so many of the people that live on the Colville Reservation, the Nespers Reservation, and the Umatilla Reservation, there’s lots of Woolow Band people that have been displaced from the county and since the 1800s, and we’re just working to provide opportunities for people to come home.

Dirty Freehub:

Yeah, do you have a little more insight on some of the history behind that?

Katie Harris Murphy – Nez Perce Homeland:

Back in, I believe, like 1877, the Nespers people, there had been like kind of like angst growing because there’s people settling in the county and there’s a Nez Perce people that lived here. There’s back up a bit. There’s a there’s many different bands of Nez Perce people. So like there’s Kamei bands, Walla Walla bands, Yakima bands in Nez Perce. there’s many different familial bands that lived throughout the Northwest. So the particular bands that we’re talking about, Wallowa bands or Mnaha bands, they’re the ones that lived in Wallowa County and spent the majority of their time here. So during the war of 1877, the U.S. government was working to push out the Native people and working to like assimilate them into society. And the law ban were definitely very resistant. Those are the people I’m descended from. And what happened was there’s this thing called the flight of the nest purse that they were trying to escape imprisonment and death by escaping to Canada. So they went on this trek. I don’t even know how many miles, but from Malala. They escaped and made it almost to Canada because they were trying to escape for freedom. So on foot and horseback, crossing over rivers, mountains, through all of the weather, we’re trying to escape the cavalry to the Canadian border to seek refuge. But the Wloban people were caught. and they were kind of distributed between different places. So some of them were taken to Oklahoma, some of them were dispersed between the Nez Perce tribe in Idaho, Chief Joseph himself in some of his family were displaced to Nisbilim on the Colville Reservation. So that’s why there’s many Wallowa Band people. Chief Joseph was Wallowa Band. That’s why there’s many Wallowa Band people that live in Nisbilim in northern Washington and around Spokane because they were displaced there. And then also like my family, my family was kind of displaced between the Nespers Reservation and the Umatilla Reservation because we had some Umatilla and Cayuse family members and Nez Perce family members. So we kind of got split between the two tribes. So I have family enrolled in all three of those tribes, but definitely our goal is to bring home people that used to live in Wallowa County and provide opportunities to them to reconnect with land because there’s a healing element that comes from going back home and going back to your place of origin and just being where your family has lived for thousands and thousands of years.

Dirty Freehub:

I feel like there’s a lot of parts that are often generalized. So how do you keep a lot of the traditional cultures alive, per se?

Katie Harris Murphy – Nez Perce Homeland:

Yes, that is one thing I also am always trying to fight against, is generalization. I personally do a lot of Nespressvide work, and I worked at the Temeslic Museum for three years, some of the best three years ever. And I got to do so much research on our traditional like Kyussi, Matilla, Nessper speed work and have spoken to many professionals about things like that. Even before I worked there, though, I was really interested in our culture and heritage and family history. I was obsessed with family history. And I think there’s been kind of an overgeneralization, like what you said. Even with our own modern day beadwork, there’s definitely a place for it. But I really like to keep alive like the really old styles and traditional designs alive that maybe have been forgotten or are only in museums nowadays. So I think there’s so much opportunity to learn about traditional clothing or traditional language that I think the Nez Perce tribe and the Umatilla tribe are doing a really good job at working on bringing the Nez Perce language back.

Dirty Freehub:

I appreciate you sharing all of that because I know it’s not always easy things to talk about. But the Tampa Glug celebration, I heard about this. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about that? Because it sounds like a really neat experience.

Katie Harris Murphy – Nez Perce Homeland:

definitely joshua jump in whenever you want on the tamklik celebration so it started off as a powwow in the local wallowa high school gym and that was definitely one that like my parents would go to it’s not only a powwow it’s a lot more laid back then I would say like a casino powwow where it’s very competitive. Our powwow and celebration is a lot more family-oriented, low stress. There’s a friendship feast that happens where it’s people from the community come together with everyone who’s there camping and staying for the powwow. There’s also the horse parade that happens Saturday morning, it’s just like a time to relax, time to be home. And then, of course, like there’s social dancing that happens throughout, like Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night and then Sunday. Lots of vendors to go check out and different longhouse ceremonies that happen for families that are wanting to rejoin from having memorials. So like after like in our culture, like after somebody passes away, You wait a year before you get active in the community again, and then you have a giveaway where you literally give things away to give back to the community so you can rejoin again. So they have different services that happen for families throughout the weekend and also naming ceremonies for people. That weekend is also a good weekend where there’s lots of people that get together where people might get their first Indian name. Kind of how I mentioned, I have an Indian name. Many people get multiple Indian names throughout their life. You usually get a childhood one and an adult name. So people would be getting those during that weekend as well.

Joshua Sigmon – Nez Perce Homeland:

We’ve been doing the Tam Clicks celebration for three decades. What Tam Clicks basically represents is a homecoming for people to come home to their land. I mean, it’s grown, right? It’s grown over the years because initially it was just, it was a small feast, a small gathering, a small ceremony, and it has turned into a little bit of a bigger powwow. But our focus is still, you know, we’re not trying to be the biggest powwow in the nation. We’re not trying to, you know, be the showiest. We’re literally focused on bringing people back to their ancestral land, which does make us a unique celebration as well. And then after the three days, right, we do multiple grand entries on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and we’ll do ceremonies and our dance competitions, you know, during those three days. But then at the end of the powwow, we have a huge community feast, which brings basically like everyone in the community together. And we have like a 600 person sit down meal with all of our tribal people involved in Tamklicks from the three reservations and from other tribes throughout the country and then local non-tribal people as well and we have this huge feast and we do fresh salmon and elk and buffalo and a ton of traditional first foods and it’s I mean it’s a huge deal and I really think that that’s what definitely sets us apart as well because it is about that community. It’s about the bridging of those of those two cultures, you know, the not only just like honoring and celebrating the Native American culture and the history of the Wabam people, but then like bringing people that might not know that culture and say, hey, come eat with us, come celebrate with us. So it is very much an all inclusive. People are always asking, oh, I I ain’t Indian, can I still come? Or I ain’t this, or I ain’t that, can I still come? And the answer is always yes. Come, please celebrate, be a part of it, because that’s how you deepen people’s understanding and knowledge, is by having them be there and be involved.

Dirty Freehub:

And that’s the third week in July every year, is that correct? Yeah. You mentioned a little bit earlier about people getting their names at the celebration. Do you want to tell us how you got your name, if I can ask?

Katie Harris Murphy – Nez Perce Homeland:

So I’ll tell you about my dad’s too, I guess, because his is really special. And I like sharing about how he got his, because the way he got his is a lot more traditional than how people do it nowadays. But mine, my younger one was Keauakea, which is Katie did. And that’s what like my whole family had called me my whole life. And then still kind of do like my parents, my dad might call me that still. My grandma would call me that. And then my second name that I got was cup cups on my and that’s one that my grandma chose and usually only one person has that name and they’re chosen by looking at your family heritage and your like who’s in your past in your family, or maybe you got it a different way. My dad’s childhood name, for example, Yaka Akwasiata Pushpa, back when he was a kid, they would actually have kids go up in the mountains and they’d be there for three days on their own. And they would just be in the mountains experiencing life and come back and tell like whoever’s their elders or whoever’s guiding them what they saw. So he had seen when he was in the mountains, there’s a black bear feeding on the side of the mountain. And he just watched it. So that was his childhood name. And then his older name got given by my grandma, which is he who rides wild horses. And horses are a very prevalent thing in his life. All of us have horses and have been riding our whole life. It’s usually chosen by family members or by experiences that you’ve had and you usually choose names that have been in your family or names that you’ve earned.

Dirty Freehub:

That is really neat actually. Now for us as gravel cyclists, are there ways we can educate ourselves more about the homeland as well as get involved with it?

Joshua Sigmon – Nez Perce Homeland:

Yeah, so I mean aside from obviously coming, coming to events is one of the biggest things that I think can get people involved. Like because we’re definitely one of those places that like you can talk about it as much as you want and you can read about it but until you’re here you really can’t get that that understanding and you can’t build that connection. Obviously the visitor center is a great spot to stop at here in town. and come into the powwow, but there’s events all throughout the year. September is the Cycle Oregon is actually using the gravel road and Cycle Oregon is going to be host is going to be setting up like a stop. So there’s going to be like 700 cyclists here at the homeland in September. Joining our newsletter is a great way to stay involved and see all the updates. But honestly, seriously Kira, we need donors. We need support. I have a pretty good group of volunteers here. I have a really good local community. But we operate in the negative. Even as a non-profit, our goal is to break even at the minimum. But we lose money on a yearly basis.

Katie Harris Murphy – Nez Perce Homeland:

Yeah, I think one other thing that I want to kind of clarify as well is that we are not associated with the Nez Perce tribe. We are separate. We are a non-profit that is representative of the Wallaupan people who are dispersed between three, if not more of those tribes. One thing I wish we could also aid members in or like descendants in is helping them like research their family history, helping them realize who they’re descended from, helping many people realize that there was so many different bands, like maybe 15 or 20 different bands of Nez Perce from different regions. And they’re all unique. They all have their own history. So I think that’s something that I’m personally interested in, besides like providing opportunities for people to come home, providing them an opportunity to get involved in their culture and know their specific history, descendancy, because not everyone is. My sister and I are really interested in family history, knowing where relatives came from, where they lived, where they descended from. And I wish more people would get a lot more in tuned with knowing their heritage, knowing people that came before them and what bands they came from. Because, I mean, there were so many bands. And I think a lot of those other bands are getting forgotten. I think there’s a real need to kind of have people learn those again.

Joshua Sigmon – Nez Perce Homeland:

The end goal is to have the land, you know, be open and available and bring back our displaced Alabama people.

Dirty Freehub:

Well, you two both are doing some amazing work and have some really powerful voices in the community. So I’m really excited to hear about that. And thank you so much for doing this today.

Dirty Freehub:

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