{"id":427,"date":"2023-05-19T17:46:54","date_gmt":"2023-05-20T00:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/?p=427"},"modified":"2023-05-19T17:46:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T00:46:56","slug":"where-you-come-from-is-important-who-you-are-is-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/2023\/05\/19\/where-you-come-from-is-important-who-you-are-is-important\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Where you come from is important. Who you are is important.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before walking across the stage at Beasley Coliseum, Ila Pinkham could hardly believe he was graduating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, Pinkham looked up to his mother, father, and uncle, all of whom earned master\u2019s degrees. He said college felt like just a step he should complete in his journey to something more important \u2013 \u201calmost like washing the dishes.\u201d However, Pinkham found a deeper appreciation of preserving his history from his time at WSU. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pinkham, who graduated from WSU on May 6 with a degree in strategic communications, spent nine months working for Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections on the Plateau Peoples\u2019 Web Portal<\/a>. The website creates an online space where Native artifacts and stories are shared with their cultural context from tribal members themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to me because it\u2019s who I am,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big part of my identity, being Nim\u00edipuu [Nez Perce]. It\u2019s important to perpetuate that history because it\u2019s our responsibility. No one else is going to do it for me or for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collaboration between tribes and archivists is especially important in a time when tribes are not speaking their Native languages as commonly, and cultural practices are inaccessible for people like college students, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raised in Spokane, Wash., a predominantly white community, Pinkham learned it was easy to not think about his Native teachings.\u200b\u200b He had to hold onto them more so than others who grew up on reservations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrowing up Native in a white town, you do feel different,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s important for people to know that where you come from is important. Who you are is important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Pinkham grew up with knowledge of his own history, he said he found a greater appreciation for it through his work at the WSU Libraries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nim\u00edipuu experts from a cultural resource program, whom Pinkham considers his uncles, spoke with him and other students, recording themselves interpreting artifacts or stories. Pinkham and his coworkers then added captions to the video, listened for Nim\u00edipuu words or place names, and translated them into English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When his uncles are speaking, Pinkham listens closely and really tries to comprehend their message. Within some tribes, writing stories down is taboo, meaning students may only hear them one time and need to remember them. This tradition is something Pinkham is still trying to navigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen they tell you, it\u2019s going to be up to you to eventually tell someone else, you know?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only does he collaborate with his family at the libraries, but Pinkham works alongside his roommates as well. He and his three \u201cbros\u201d are, as far as he knows, the only Nim\u00edipuu <\/em>students on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Payton Sobotta \u2013 his friend, roommate, and cousin \u2013 believes Pinkham is extremely put together and holds himself to a different standard than most college students his age. Whether it\u2019s driving friends on the weekends, reading over Sobotta\u2019s essays, or assisting Sobotta with his broadcast production projects, Pinkham is always looking out for people other than himself, Sobotta said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I didn\u2019t have him, I probably wouldn\u2019t have finished this semester, and I\u2019d probably say the same for him,\u201d he said. \u201cWe kind of relied on each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the spring semester, Sobotta was visiting his hometown and left his laptop in Pullman \u2013 the only device with a saved copy of his media law take-home exam, which was due at 11:59 p.m. on a Sunday. Sobotta could not make it back to Pullman in time, so Pinkham logged into his computer and submitted his test for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe really saved my behind on that one,\u201d Sobotta said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As elders are passing away, Sobotta said it\u2019s important to retain their knowledge within the Plateau Peoples\u2019 Web Portal and place it on the internet for others to see, especially those in the Nim\u00edipuu community, given WSU resides on the lands of the Nez Perce Tribe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIla\u2019s work is really important for not only now, but also for future generations,\u201d Sobotta said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he is not editing videos, Pinkham said he is often found in the libraries\u2019 archives, \u201cpoking around\u201d for drawings, quotes, and other pieces of his history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular, Pinkham remembers a drawing<\/a> from a Nim\u00edipuu warrior, who depicted his tribe stealing a cannon from the U.S. military in 1877. Pinkham said it was powerful to see history from the lens of Native people rather than a Western perspective, and he always admired such warriors of the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose are the people that fought for us,\u201d he said. \u201cI grew up looking up to those warriors \u2026 They [were] willing to fight and die for something more important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pinkham plans to get \u201ca big boy job\u201d in the advertising field. His dream is to work for Nike or N7, a Native offshoot of the brand. Pinkham said he is also considering working in internal communications for a company and telling Indigenous stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s not very high profile,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t even know sometimes the Native land they\u2019re on \u2013 the people that occupied the land before them. That\u2019s kind of unfortunate because there\u2019s usually a rich history there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up and not seeing many Native people outside visiting family, Pinkham was drawn to work that creates visibility for people like himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis sounds clich\u00e9, but representation does matter,\u201d he said. \u201cSeeing somebody that looks like you and that has grown up in a similar way is important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before walking across the stage at Beasley Coliseum, Ila Pinkham could hardly believe he was graduating.  For years, Pinkham looked up to his mother, father, and uncle, all of whom earned master\u2019s degrees. He said college felt like just a step he should complete in his journey to something more important \u2013 \u201calmost like washing […]","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[60,42,62,61],"class_list":["post-427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-browse","tag-ila-pinkham","tag-manuscripts-archives-and-special-collections","tag-nimiipuu","tag-plateau-peoples-web-portal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}