Meet our Board
Executive Commitee
Fred Hill
Chair, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Fred was born in Pendleton and raised by grandparents and an uncle after his parents died in his infancy. Raised in Pilot Rock, his grandmother, Annie Jo, spoke to him in the Umatilla Yakama dialects and the Nez Perce language. Fred said when he started public school he knew little English and focused intently on mastering the language. Due to racial tension he left Pilot Rock to attend the Chemewa boarding school in Salem. There he had the opportunity to get back into traditional drumming and singing, run cross country and play basketball. Before returning to the Umatilla Reservation, Fred attended colleges in Salem, Lawrence, Kansas and Santa Fe and lived on the Yakama Reservation where he married.
A teacher at Nixyaawii Community School in Pendleton and editor of a Umatilla dictionary, Fred shares his knowledge of language, singing, drumming and traditional culture with his students. An avid big drum powwow singer and longhouse religious singer, Fred is often asked to conduct naming, first deer or elk killed or fish salmon caught ceremonies. A self-described, “happy husband, happy grandfather”, Fred is an avid reader of history and is delving into his family’s early history. He is a known presence at the Homeland Project’s Tamkaliks and attends other celebrations as a drummer and singer.
Katie Harris-Murphy
Vice Chair, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Katie a lifelong Oregonian who has lived her entire life in the ancestral homelands of the Nimiipuu & Cayuse people. She currently lives outside of Pendleton, Oregon with her husband Jackson Murphy on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Her family is Wallowa Band Nimiipuu. She is also Cayuse, Umatilla & Karuk. Her family and has been attending Tamkaliks for almost 30 years. She is a direct descendant of Chief Miitaat Weptas (Three Feathers), Chief Kalipoon, Amos Wilkinson (Chief Joseph's Nephew & Interpreter), Jim White, Cyrus Wilkinson (My great grandfather), Old Josephs family, & Khap Khap Tsonmi for who she is named. Both grandparents on both sides of her family are buried here in Wallowa.
In the past, Katie has been a Happy Canyon Princess (2010), Pendleton Round Up Princess (2012), Pendleton Woolen Mills American Indian Beauty Pageant winner (2013), and carried the American flag during the National Anthem for the PBR (2018) which has been a special memory for her. She graduated from Eastern Oregon University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry, along with two Associates degrees - while being active in both the Speel-Ya Club & Chemistry Club. Katie tries to live her life by her culture and in the way her parents Stuart Harris & Deborah Harris raised her. She is a lifelong hunter, horsewoman (Katie has 4 horses), fisher, root digger, berry picker, bead worker, short fringe traditional dancer, jingle dancer, swan dancer and avid gardener. She has been attending Tamkaliks and returning to Wallowa her whole life and with this opportunity to be on the board – she realizes Tamkaliks has always been home. As a member, she would like to keep it as a home - for all the Wallowa Band people who return to it every year.
Angela Bombaci
Treasurer, Walla Walla, WA
Angela Bombaci grew up hiking and camping in the Wallowa country, from the canyons to the Eagle Cap. She has a deep sense of responsibility for the community here, past, present and future, including the the plants and animals with whom we share this special place. In her six years as staff at the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland, Angela learned from a community of people who share her commitment to the environment and to each others’ well-being within it. Today, in addition to her work with the NPWH Angela serves on the board of the Wallowa Land Trust and the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center. Now residing in Walla Walla, Washington, she enjoys backpacking, rafting, and snowboarding with her family. f
Leita Barlow
Secretary, Wallowa Valley
Leita grew up in northeast Oregon; her dad was the deputy sheriff in Union. Horses have always shared her life. Upon her parents divorce, she was taken to Lincoln, California, just north of Sacramento. At fourteen, her nomadic style of life began, spending summers traveling and performing with the Blue Sage Tac Team at rodeos across Oregon. She has many fond memories of loading a dozen horses in the back of a stock truck and heading out with a group of girls and her mentor Lois McCrae of Union.
Leita married and raised three children, a son and two daughters, who carry on their father’s Cherokee blood. They also had a foot in two worlds, traveling in the summer to northeastern Oregon, listening to the drums at the Friendship Feast weekend in Wallowa since its beginning. Leita also served on the board for the annual Maidu-Miwok Big Time in Auburn, Cali. In 2010, Leita Jean was finally able to come home permanently to the Wallowa Valley. In the summer of 2012, she retraced the steps of the Nimiipuu on horseback and shuttling her partners along the way. Ending at the Bear Paw battleground, an owl flew overhead dropping a feather on the path. It was a deeply significant journey.
Nancy Crenshaw
Wallowa Valley
Nancy lives in Wallowa and is of Osage Nation heritage. Her family had a farm allotment in Oklahoma. When her grandfather died during the Great Depression her grandmother moved the family to Oregon. Nancy grew up in Grants Pass and afterward attended the University of Oregon. After graduation she married and she and her husband Terry moved to Wrangell, Alaska, an island in the southeast corner of the state. They taught school and their children Jason and Marnie were born there. After six years in Alaska Nancy and Terry returned to Oregon, making Wallowa their home.
In 1991 Nancy and Terry helped start the Tamkaliks Celebration, the beginning of the NPWH. She has served as a board member ever since. Terry died in 1995 of ALS. Nancy taught special education in Wallowa for 20 years and is now retired. She is a Court Appointed Special Advocate and active at St. Pius X Catholic Church. Her son Jason and daughter-in-law also live in Wallowa along with their two children and her daughter Marnie lives in Portland with her two children. Nancy is very social around the Wallowa Valley and travels extensively, domestically and abroad.
Rich Wandschneider
Wallowa Valley
After a five-year stint in the Peace Corps, Rich Wandschneider came to Wallowa Country in 1971, as a community development agent with the OSU Extension Service. In 1976, he opened the Bookloft bookstore in Enterprise and in 1988, with help from historian Alvin Josephy and Kim Stafford at Lewis & Clark College, he founded Fishtrap Inc. to promote “clear thinking and good writing in and about the West,” and served as its executive director until 2008.
He has written for the Oregonian, High Country News, Portland Magazine, and High Desert Journal and contributed a regular column to the Wallowa County Chieftain. He currently serves as the Library Director for the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph, Oregon.
Skip Novakovich
Kennewick WA
Skip and his wife Shannon own Wallowa Mountain Properties and The Business Center in Enterprise, and live part time in Kennewick, WA. The couple makes both communities their homes.
A Whitman College graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Skip is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel. Skip has has been recognized for his years of community service by countless organizations around the Tri-Cities area and Wallowa County and is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Tamastslikt Trust. Skip has served in government positions with the Benton-Franklin Council of Governments and is the president of the Port of Kennewick Commission.
A former rodeo cowboy, he rode for the Walla Walla Wagon Wheelers Sheriff’s Posse and the Benton-Franklin Counties Sheriff’s Posse. As a distance runner he competed in over twenty marathons including qualifying for and competing in the 1982 Boston Marathon, finishing in 2:49.
Ralph Swinehart
Wallowa Valley
Ralph grew up in Boise and attended the University of Idaho in Moscow. After college he worked for a Portland engineering firm for three years before moving to Wallowa County where he’s lived on the same property on Alder Slope outside of Enterprise for 45 years. The first few months Ralph lived in Wallowa County he lived in a wall tent while building a barn and farming part-time. After a year he was hired as an engineer for Anderson Perry and worked in La Grande and Enterprise for nine years before starting his own firm on Enterprise’s Main Street. Ralph is a generalist when it comes to engineering, designing residential and commercial buildings as well as water and sewer systems and water rights work. Wallowa County’s pace of life and sparse population have kept Ralph in Enterprise all these 8 years as well as the beauty of the mountains and the change of season. He has raised sheep on his farm since 1975 where he and Janet Pulsifer, his partner, live with their dog Ruby.
Ralph became involved with the Homeland Project a couple years after its inception – about 1997. He said he had gotten involved with Nez Perce Tribe issues while working on the Chief Joseph Days encampment. When the Homeland Project started he said volunteering was a natural way to get more involved with Nez Perce culture and he is still involved with both groups. Ralph is in the Wallowa County Rotary chapter and the Enterprise Oddfellows, Friends of the Joseph Branch excursion train and the Joseph Branch Trail Consortium. A history buff, Ralph collects cars and has spent several years restoring the Enterprise Merchant and Milling building that he owns on Main Street.
Josiah Blackeagle
Nez Perce Tribe
Josiah Blackeagle Pinkham is Nez Perce or Nimiipuu. He resides on the Nez Perce Reservation in Lapwai, Idaho. His Nez Perce name is Tipyelehne Cimuuxcimux and it is commonly translated as Blackeagle. Josiah’s father, Allen Pinkham Sr., is a Nez Perce and Josiah’s mother, Shirley Mosqueda, is a Yakama. There are many figures in his family that would be known by historians. Some of them are Red Grizzly Bear, elder Chief Joseph, and John Pinkham who fought in the Nez Perce War of 1877 as a young man.
Josiah is an Ethnographer, which involves cultural research and documentation. He graduated with honors from Lewis and Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho with a degree in Native American Studies and Psychology.
Joe Whittle
Wallowa Valley, enrolled Caddo Nation of Oklahoma & Delaware Nation
Joe is a born-and-raised resident of Wallowa County, as well as an enrolled member of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and a member of the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma. He is a freelance writer and photojournalist, indigenous rights activist, and seasonal field ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. He is also an avid outdoorsman and wilderness skills practitioner and instructor, and has volunteered for various indigenous human rights and media organizations such as the Indigenous Environmental Network and Indigenous Rising Media, to name a couple.
Tiyana Casey Blackeagle
Lenore, ID
(Wasq'u/ Nimiipuu) uses science to perpetuate the values of her indigenous culture; advancing the understanding and management of her ancestral territories for both tribal and non-tribal people.
As a life-long advocate for tribal youth, she has been responsible for the cultural transmission and education of indigenous youth across the PNW with the intention of offering healing pathways to professional spaces. The synthesis of her education, research, and leadership roles with the invaluable education she has received from tribal elders, hunters, gatherers, and community members informs Tiyana's current roles both professionally and in her community.
General Board of Directors
Soy Redthunder
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Soy has been involved in the Wallowa Valley for over 30 years. He has worked with both the Homeland Project and the Chief Joseph Days encampment. Soy’s late wife was also very much involved with the Homeland Project and Chief Joseph Days.
A retired federal employee, Soy is a Vietnam vet who helps veterans having problems with their military benefits. He currently serves as the chairman of the Nespelem Elders committee.
Albert Andrews Redstar
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Milton “Jewie” Davis
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Is from Nespelem, WA. A descendant of the Chief Joseph Band of Nez Perce ~ wal'waama, the Palus ~ waw'awiipo, Moses/Columbia ~ skwaxcnexw, Wenatchi ~ snpesqwawsexw. Was raised by my grandmother Agnes Andrews Davis. Agnes' father was Willie Redstar Andrews. Willie's father passed away in Oklahoma while in exile after the War of 1877. Willie's mother passed away when they came back to the Pacific Northwest area. Willie was thus like an orphan. Willie was then raised by Chief Joseph..
Started working with the Colville Confederated Tribes (CCT) Language Preservation Program in 2000. Had the honor in working with my grandmother and Frank Andrews. My grandmother was the last fluent speaker of the Nez Perce Longhouse here in Nespelem, WA.
Rodney Cawston
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Rodney grew up on the Colville Reservation in Nespelem, Wash. He attended Washington State University and graduated from Eastern Washington University. He is currently working on his dissertation for a PhD from the University of Washington. Rodney took office on the Colville Reservation Tribal Council July 1. His focus, while in office, is to establish a Nez Perce cultural center at Nespelem. After college Rodney worked for the tribe for 15 years. He left to live in New Mexico where he was the self determination officer for the Navajo Tribe. He returned to the Northwest to work in Tribal Relations at Washington State University. Later, he worked as the tribal liaison for Washington Department of Natural Resources and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Upon completing his coursework for his PhD in natural resources, Rodney moved back to the reservation where he is close to one of their three children and one of their two grandchildren.
Rodney and his wife are involved with the Chief Joseph Nez Perce Longhouse, help organize the annual powwow in Nespelem, are strong supporters of cultural preservation as seen in their beadwork and weaving; he and his wife are members of the Northwest Native American Basket Weavers Association. Rodney said he takes youth groups fishing and teaches community classes in weaving, clothes-making and the gathering and preparation of traditional foods. To help preserve Native American culture Rodney consults with museums all over the Northwest including the University of Washington, the Museum of Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane and the High Desert Museum in Bend. He served on the Native American advisory board for the American Girl doll collection’s Nez Perce doll and storybook and helped edit the story line. Rodney was recognized by the First Peoples Fund for preserving Native American art.
Carla Kauffman Timentwa
Nez Perce Tribe
Carla is a proud member of the Nez Perce Tribe - her Nez Perce name is Al-la-way-mah and she is from the Whitebird, Lookingglass and old Joseph bands. She lives in Nespelem, Wash. with her husband, William Timentwa and works for the Colville Service Unit Health Clinic in Administration. Carla belongs to the Nez Perce Longhouse and the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, both in Nespelem, and served on the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee and as the Nez Perce Tribe's General Council Chairman. The mother of seven adult children, 18 grandchildren and one great grandson, Carla loves horses of all kinds and owns two of her own as well as two cats and Freckles, her dog. She enjoys beadwork, horse riding and spending time in the mountains and on the rivers gathering foods, medicines, hunting and fishing.
Rosa Yearout
Nez Perce Tribe
Rosa (Wice’se/Born and Reborn) is an enrolled Nez Perce Tribe member and lived her entire life on the Nez Perce Reservation; first in Kamiah, then Lapwei and now in Sweetwater where she lives on the M-Y Sweetwater Appaloosa Ranch with Jon, her husband of 45 years. Rosa has nine children, 36 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Rosa attended Catholic boarding schools, primarily two years at DeSmet, Idaho, on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation; Kamiah elementary and high school (freshman year); and high school at Lapwai, graduating in 1957. She completed Portfolio program to convert work experience to college credits in Business at Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho and is continuing higher education classes for a degree at LCSC. For 35.5 years Rosa worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Northern Idaho Agency, Lapwai, and retired in 4 1994. Rosa and Jon raise Appaloosa Nez Perce Registry horses. During the Chief Joseph and Warriors Memorial Powwow she followed her mother serving as whipwoman and is involved with the Nez Perce National Historic Trail and the Appaloosa Horse Club’s annual Chief Joseph Trail Ride.
Lukas Angus
Portland Or, enrolled Nez Perce Tribe
Joe McCormack
Wallowa Valley, enrolled Nez Perce Tribe
Joe is a Nez Perce Tribal member from Eastern Washington. The oldest of seven, Joe’s father was Nez Perce and a bit of Irish; his mother was Scotch Irish and a bit of German, so he’s been to a lot of powwows and St. Patrick’s Day parades, plus a trip to Ireland.
He attended quite a few colleges after graduating from high school because of itchy feet and an early interest in art. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and from 1968 to 1969 served in the Vietnam War. Joe worked in several trades while searching for a profession including a four-year apprenticeship in floor-covering and owned a specialty contractor business in Spokane Wash. for many years. He also worked in Alaska in the Bristol Bay sockeye fishery and as a tribal fisher on the Columbia River in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With the encouragement of two professors he met working on a sturgeon propagation program in the lower Columbia he enrolled in the College Of Southern Idaho’s Aquaculture School and went to work on a juvenile steelhead research project on the lower Imnaha River with Nez Perce Tribe Fisheries.
Joe has served on the NPWH board for many years as a resident Wallowa Nez Perce. His son Joe lives in Bellingham, Wash. works as a union ironworker in the Seattle area, and is the father of three children.
Michael McFarland (not pictured)
Nez Perce Tribe
Redwing “Nickles” Twomoons (not pictured)
Nez Perce Tribe
Woodrow Star
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Woodrow lives in Mission on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation where raises horses. He was born in Nespelem on the Colville Reservation. Members of the Wallowa Band, his great grandfather and aunt were orphaned during the Nez Perce War and adopted by Chief Joseph. When his mother contracted tuberculosis and was sent to a sanitarium in Spokane his father took Woodrow and his two sisters to his homeland in North Dakota. Woodrow attended boarding school at St. Francis Mission on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was married twice; both wives came from the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.
For 31 years he worked in law enforcement for the Bureau of Indian Affairs patrolling coastal fisheries and working in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. In 2003 he retired to care for his mother. He later worked for as a saddle maker for Hamley Saddles before becoming an elected official.As a trustee for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Woodrow was dedicated to using equine therapy to curb youth suicides and drug and alcohol abuse.He has recently returned to his position at Hamley Saddles. He serves on the Bear Paw project protecting an important Nez Perce battle site and cemetery. Woodrow sees being on the NPWH board as a return to the homeland and a part of his never-ending thanksgiving for his ancestors.
Andrew Wildbill
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Andrew is a Cayuse Indian from the Umatilla Indian Reservation and lives in the Nixyaawii Community of Oregon. Raised hunting and fishing, he promotes the preservation of the Columbia River Indian identity as modern influences tug at cultural ways. As a community member he has always advocated for fishing and hunting rights – what he calls the backbone of tribal sovereignty. For 17 years Andrew has worked in salmon research and monitoring for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in his ancestral territory. Fish behavior, physiology, and chemoreception are his specific areas of interest. Much of his work for tribes has been published in scientific journals.
Andrew's other passions are traditional crafts and cultural art expression. Most recently he contributed to Native Kids Ride Bikes, an international indigenous project for native youth to connect and express themselves culturally. Andrew participates in celebrations and ceremonies regularly, teaching his children the robust ways of their ancestors.
Celeste “Cece” Whitewolf
Tigard OR, enrolled Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Mondo Jud Hart
San Francisco CA
Jud’s involvement with the Homeland Project started in 1997 when Earl “Taz” Conner invited him to get involved by way of the Friendship Feast. That involvement started with a surprisingly emotional response (Jud has admired Young Chief Joseph for 35+ years) to a 1996 New York Times article Jud stumbled across by Timothy Egan about the Nez Perce being “invited to ‘return’ to Wallowa”. Egan’s article mentioned Taz Conner, Soy Redthunder, and Terry Crenshaw. Thanks to Soy Redthunder, Jud was able to get in touch with Taz and after an exchange of letters, met him in-person at CTUIR in Spring of 1997. He also eventually met Terry Crenshaw. In his meeting with Taz, they talked and Taz liked Jud’s illustrated book project idea: “Wallowa: 10,000 Years and Counting” - about the “return”, centered on the Tamkaliks Celebration. Jud continues to work on this project today.
Jud grew up in Denver, Colorado and took an early turn to art and bohemia in high school. He went to the University of Denver on a track scholarship and graduated in 1965 with a degree in painting. In 1967 he was drafted by the U.S. Army and spent two years at Ft. Campbell in Kentucky. Jud is a father and grandfather, a 3-4 day/week bike-rider, and an artist with a long, varied history. He has had exhibitions in NYC, Boston, Denver, San Francisco, Slovenia, Japan, and South Korea. Between 1984 and 2003, Jud built parade floats with his late friend Kip Farris. Jud is also the author of The Book of Jabbo: Revelations in Six Languages. From 2000 to 2016, he worked as a middle school substitute teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District and wouldn’t trade those years for anything.
Mary Hawkins
Wallowa OR
Mary lived in Wallowa as a child, then went to school out of the area. In a hurry to get home to eastern Oregon, she worked in the family trade of horse & mule packing into the Lostine & Minam drainages. During that time, she frequented the Tick Hill trail on the grounds, volunteered at the Nez Perce in the Wallowa Art Show and built relationships with many of the local people involved in the project. As a culmination of an assortment of non-profit experiences, in 2013 she came onboard at the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland as the Office Manager, happy for the opportunity to support one of few intercultural organizations in the area.
Mary is determined to bring up her two children here and see them share her strong connection to the Wallowa mountains. Her work at the Homeland has given her a better understanding of how to steward this place, pass that along to her family, and understand the many ways it has shaped the people who have lived here; past, present, and future. In addition to her work at the Homeland, Mary is also a chicken farmer and operates a state inspected poultry processing facility. Her legendary chicken feed recipe is now carried by Grain Growers and sold by the ton.
Non-voting Members
Bobbie Conner
Exofficio, Confederated Tribes of the Umatillia Indian Reservation
Bobbie is the director of Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, a museum on the Umatilla Reservation. Before moving home to Pendleton in 1997 Conner was the Sacramento district director for the U.S. Small Business Administration and previously worked with an Indian education organization in Seattle. Part Cayuse, Umatilla and Nez Perce Conner is enrolled with the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla. She is a graduate of Pendleton High School, the University of Oregon and Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management. Over the past decade Conner has contributed and edited several tribal history publications.
Conner is the Vice Chair of Eastern Oregon University’s Board of Trustees and serves on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Land Acquisition Committee. She served on the Board of Trustees for the National Museum of the American Indian from 2008 to 2014 and as chairman in 2012 and 2013 and the Board of Directors for the American Alliance of Museums from 2008 to 2014.
Jo Hallam
Exofficio, Sublimity OR
One of the original members of the Coalition, Jo hasn’t missed a single Tamkaliks Celebration since he became a part of the project in 1991. He worked closely with Taz Conner and Terry Crenshaw, serving as Chair for most of the 90’s when the organization was young and they really had to work hard to convince people that the project was for real. In a similar vein to his 30 year commitment to the Lion’s Club, Jo has remained an active partner in NPWH activities for the last 26 years. He has contributed countless hours and personal funds to the cause, and in years past you could always find him holding the drum mic during Tamkaliks. “Bottom line, we’re all alike … especially kids. I’m proud to be part of this project and I will be until the day I die.”
Jo was born in Enterprise, and lived in Wallowa County until he joined the Marine Corps at 18 years old. He remained involved in the military for the next three decades and retired as a 1st Sergeant. In addition to his work in the Army Reserves, Jo worked in banking, then for the State of Oregon as the revenue agent for veterans affairs. Since retiring in 1989, Jo traveled the United States as well as to 13 countries, many of them in Eastern Asia.
Brian Conner
Emeritus, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Charlie Moses
Vancouver WA, enrolled at Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Charlie was raised on a cattle ranch near the town of Elmer City on the Colville Reservation. He lived with a huge multi-generational family, including his grandmother who only spoke Nez Perce, and he attended the public Indian School.
After graduating from Washington State University, Charlie went on to run the ranch himself, while also growing his career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs where he worked for 35 years. He benefited from many opportunities to visit historical sites such as Bear Paw and the Battle of Canyon Creek site, as well as to meet several important Northwest, Alaska and Plains Indian tribal members, including the author of the definitive book on Nez Perce language and grammar, Haruo Aoki.
He was very interested to learn more about his native homeland after the Nez Perce National Historical Park added several sites in Nespelem to their docket. When he heard about the project in Wallowa from Jo Hallam in 1990, he knew that he wanted to be involved. He was familiar with the region after helping out with Chief Joseph Days in past years, and he has been a guiding force for Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland ever since. In 2014, Charlie sold his 200 head of cattle and moved to Vancouver. Today he is enjoying the retired life and proudly watching his five children progress in their studies and careers, while also making time to travel to Wallowa for the NPWH monthly Executive Board meetings.
Bill Timentwa
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Bill is an enrolled member of the Colville Confederated Tribes and a descendant of the Chief Joseph, Palouse and Wenatchee bands. A veteran, Bill served from in the U.S. Navy from 1964 to 1968. He retired from the Colville Tribe in 2009 after serving 32 years in forestry and fire management; however he was recruited back to the Tribe in 2015 to work part time for cultural resources, fisheries and the community center in Nespelem. He is a lifelong member of the Nez Perce Longhouse following the teachings of his mother, Ida Desautel and his grandfather, Charlie Kamiakin illiams. Bill has three sons, Ira, Grant and Desmond Timentwa. He and his wife Carla hunt, camp, fish, gather traditional foods and attend. Bill enjoys carpentry and looks forward to clearing family driveways with his snow blower in the winter months.