Skip to main content
VIDEO

Josiah Pinkham interview Item Info

A lot of these things that you see here hold some sort of a symbolism for the Nez Perce that says a little bit of something about who they are. The importance of material culture isn’t something that is more important than another thing. But this is how we remember who we are because there are stories about individuals in our past that we think about when we look at these different things. We need to be surrounded by our old things because it is a real threat to our identity if we were to lose these things. From time to time we have lost significant things from our people. Anything from the old eagle feather headdresses that Joseph used to wear to things such as this. Rocks are important because they were used as tools. They were something that we needed in order to process foods in order to survive. That is a real important concept for our people to remember about our identity and the maintenance of that identity, taking care of it, tending to it, making sure that our children are surrounded by the things that express who we are. That shows them how to think about the world, how to survive in the world. I feel that is something that is really important.

Title:
Josiah Pinkham interview
Date Created:
2002-03
Description:
Ethnographer for the Cultural Resource Program, discusses the importance of protecting the material culture for the Nimíipuu. Interviewed by Rodney Frey
Source
Preferred Citation:
"Josiah Pinkham interview", Nimíipuu L3, Center for Digital Inquiry and Learning (CDIL)
Reference Link:
https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/nimiipuu-l3/items/nimiipuu-l3-009.html
« Previous Back to Browse Next »
Back to top