Nakia Williamson

Director of the Nez Perce Cultural Research Department

Stites, ID

September 7, 2024

Ring. As a blanket of smoke settles over the Nez Perce reservation, we stand in stillness, listening to the resonance of a bell. 

Nakia Williamson, a Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) tribal member from Lapwai, Idaho, sang a traditional song as the horizon grew intensely apocalyptic. Smoke from wildfires scattered across Idaho compounded, filling the valley to its brim. As the director of the Nez Perce cultural research department, he spoke on behalf of the land; his thoughts flowing effortlessly, echoing the South Fork Clearwater River behind us. 

Post-mining, where the landscape now brims with tailings, the Sahaptian name for the Clearwater changed to a word akin to “dirty water.” The Sahaptian language is inherently relational: words are defined by their reciprocity, and their vowel-rich sounds blend into the environment itself. English, however, is a language full of arbitrary structure and rigidity. When teaching English speakers, Nakia thinks carefully about his word choice and the human-environment separation our language creates. He says he is not an environmentalist, as environmentalism implies human detachment from nature. 

Instead, Nakia spoke of a deep interconnectedness with the land in which “Natural Law” is understood. Written in the landscape, nature holds time-honored, ancient knowledge. Natural Law is boundless; it cannot be contained to a book or three-credit course. So, we interact, dig our hands into the earth, and listen…

by Ava Frans