Josiah Blackeagle Pinkham was raised on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in north-central Idaho and has worked in the cultural resource field for over twenty years as a Nez Perce Tribal Intern, Tribal Traditions Technician, Ethnographer and a Cultural Specialist. He has also worked on a variety of cultural resource workgroups with several federal, state, and county agencies, as well as private corporations and other tribes.
Pinkham is responsible for communicating important Nez Perce values to the agencies whose work impacts the Nez Perce people and tribal interests. Presently, his work deals with the DOE cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Central Washington where he participates in monthly Cultural Workgroup meetings with the DOE Richland Office. He also participates in the State and Tribal Government Working Group managed by the National Council of State Legislatures, and interfaces with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bonneville Power Administration. While he believes his knowledge comes from the elders and the Nez Perce landscape he is also a graduate of Lewis-Clark State College with an Interdisciplinary Honors Degree in Native American Studies and Psychology. Pinkham regularly speaks to public schools, college classes and the public. He has traveled nationwide and has also traveled overseas for interpretative talks and cultural exchanges.
Pinkham serves on EMAB to represent a Tribal perspective, and to contribute input derived from his experience as a tribal liaison to federal agencies.