Who We Are
The Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland (NPWH) is a place-based nonprofit led by tribal and non-tribal people with a common commitment to upholding, perpetuating and celebrating the people and practices native to wal’áwa (Wallowa), our shared home.
Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland is a Native-led, nonprofit landback organization that holds and stewards land not only for Native use, but as a shared space that brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the spirit of return, relationship, and responsibility.
Most land return efforts fall into one of these categories:
Tribal governments reacquiring lands within their treaty areas.
Nonprofit partners (like land trusts) holding land on behalf of a single tribe or returning it to tribal control.
Allied groups supporting advocacy for land return or repatriation (e.g., the Land Back movement), but not owning or stewarding land themselves.
What makes us unique:
We are a landback nonprofit—not a tribal government, land trust, or advocacy campaign.
We hold title to land that is actively used for cultural, ecological, and community purposes year-round.
We welcome all Indigenous people, regardless of tribal affiliation or enrollment.
We are not creating a separate space solely for Native people, but a place where Native culture is prioritized and everyone is invited into a relationship with the land.
We are led by both Native and non-Native people working together toward cultural healing and resurgence.
We serve as a bridge between Indigenous communities and local institutions, fostering understanding and shared responsibility.
We are doing this work in a rural, predominantly non-Native region—and doing it with both Indigenous and local non-Native leadership.
Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland is truly unique.
Our model is rare, powerful, and deeply needed. But it is also complex and challenging. Through our work, we aim to demonstrate what land return can look like when it centers inclusion, cultural leadership, and connection to place and community.
It is time once again to let the land hear the familiar sounds that have been developed over thousands of years here in the land of winding waters — the rhythm of the drum beat, the songs, the language, the prayers, the people, and all creation joined to co-exist and respect mother earth and this law of the land.
— Taz Conner, 1994
Our Mission, Vision, and Work
Our Mission
Our mission is to deepen the connection between the wal’áwa country and all those who care about it. We inspire a way of working together as wé·tesne qicxnew̓é·t (caretakers of the earth) to rekindle relationships and welcome people home.
Our Vision
We envision kinship among land, water and beings of wal’áwa restored, celebrated and lit up. We envision wé·tesne (the land) and people together maintainin titoqanwí·tki· (native culture) in the way titlúme (ancestors) had intended.
Our Work
Since their forced removal in 1877, the first people of this valley (Wallowa Band Nez Perce) have been scattered across the Northwest, Canada and Oklahoma. Today, many descendants live on reservations including the Colville, Umatilla and Nez Perce Reservation. Due to an overwhelming number of social, logistical and financial barriers, few have returned.
In Nez Perce culture loss of a homeland is loss of self, and descendants continue to be affected by the traumas of genocide and exile. For over thirty years, NPWH has worked to provide compelling reasons for the indigenous people of this valley to come back to their ancestral homeland to remember and reconnect with the land, language, people and culture.
Our Guiding Values
The teachings of tamáalwit show us how to live in reciprocity with our relatives of the land and water. This principle provides the framework for how we at Nez Perce Wal’áwa Homeland think about relationship building, generational succession, land stewardship and our daily operations. To put those teachings into practice, we define six values embodied in tamá•lwit to guide our work.
SHARING
We seek a right way of working together by respecting the love that people past and present have for wal’áwa, and remembering the ideas we’ve been given by our predecessors.
RESPONSIBILITY
We take responsibility for one another and honor this sacred home.
CELEBRATION
We find joy in time spent together on the land, in cultural practice and in planning for a better future together.
TRUST
We recognize that renewing relationships requires honesty and vulnerability, and we are invested in the slow work of listening, repairing and relearning.
RECIPROCITY
We take care of each other.
COURAGE
We take on the complexities of our shared history with the courageous intent to open up dialogue and move toward healing.
What is tamáalwit?
Learn More
Organizational History
Our work is rooted in the millennia of stewardship by the original inhabitants of wal’áwa, carried into the present through the founding of the Tamkaliks Celebration in 1989 and the formation of the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland in 1996.
Our Staff
Today, the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland is managed by a team of volunteer and paid staff dedicated to preserving the land and growing its connections among Native peoples.
Our Board of Directors
Our board takes seriously its duty to protect the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland while sharing its history, culture, and traditions with our community.
Work With Us
Interested in working with the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland? Browse current openings and submit your application.
Support Our Work
The Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland is a certified 501(c)(3) nonprofit built on a long tradition of volunteer support. Learn more about how we fund and sustain our work, or make a donation below.
Contact us
Get in touch with the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland team using this form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.