Catching The Past A Journey Into Her Family’s History Opens A New World For This Nez Perce Woman

This is the story of an indigenous woman who learned to time travel on her birthday.

She went away in her magic blue shawl that her aunt had made for her, carried by the prayers of her people and the sound of the drum, signing the ancient songs of the Ni-mii-poo.

She only took one thing with her: a sacred eagle feather, which gave her strength, honor and extraordinary powers.

It was a long time that she prepared for her journey, and many people helped her. They gave her courage to go away, and her relations spent hours making gifts for a bundle that she would find upon her return. The drummers worked hard to learn the war song that would carry her away, and the people remembered how to dance to bring her back again.

The woman had a very important reason for her time travel. She had to go back and fix something.

Long ago, the woman’s grandfather had lost his indigenous name. It was taken from him with one stroke of the pen, and the woman decided to go back and reclaim the real name for him.

The woman’s family came from the Whitebird clan of Chief Joseph’s band. Her grandfather’s name was Boyd Piatote, and he grew up on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington. He was raised by his grandfather, whose name was Piatote before it became a family name. The elder Piatote had survived the Nez Perce War of 1877 and several years in prison camp after the war.

Boyd Piatote was a musician. He was a conductor, composer, teacher and performer of jazz and classical music. When he was a young man, he loved traveling around the Northwest with is all-Indian jazz band, The Nez Percians.

Then he entered the military, and that is how he lost his real name.

The story is that when he went to enlist, the officer gave him a bad time and said, “Piatote! What kind of name is Piatote?”

“Sometimes you go outside and you look for a good omen in the sky,” he answered. “You are looking, and maybe you see something, a dark speck in the sky. Then you don’t see it. Or maybe you see it again.”

“It is an eagle that is flying so high, you can’t be sure whether you see it or not. That is what our name means - High-Flying Eagle.”

The enlisting officer looked at him and said, “We’re just going to call you Eagle.”

Then he wrote it down that way.

The woman’s grandfather carried the English name from that time on. So did his children, including a daughter who married and became of the mother of the woman.

But the woman knew her grandfather had never stopped calling himself by his real name. This is why she decided to travel back in time to that moment, to sweep down with all the power of the drum and the eagle and the people to rewrite the name.

Piatote.

She prepared for the journey for more than a year, with the help of her relations. Once, when she was trying to do too much, her elder stopped her and said, “Let us help you, because no one does anything alone in this world.”

As she prepared, she made a bundle of things for her return. She kept the bundle in her house, on a blanket her brother gave her. The bundle was filled with things she knew would be important to the people, who would remember her journey long afterward.

When the night arrived for the journey, all the people gathered to send her away and bring her back again.

The woman braided her hair in the Ni-mii-poo style, and wore a beaded medicine bag that cam from her relations in Lapwai, Idaho. She also wore a beaded medallion that her aunt had made in honor of her grandfather. She brought her bundle to where the people were gathered, and she wrapped herself in the magic blue shawl.

This was when she received the sacred eagle feather. The feather came from the Aleut People of Alaska, from a family that always looked after the woman and gave her guidance.

One of the elders took the eagle feather and used it to smudge the woman, so only good spirits would travel with her on her journey. The woman knew she was going to fly away and opened her arms; she spread her arms like the wings of an eagle and drew the sweet smell of sage into her lungs.

When the people came together, a spiritual leader came forward and thanked the Creator for the good thing the woman was about to do. He prayed for all the People to be strong and ready for the things they must do.

The people heard stories about the woman’s grandfather. Then it was time for her to go.

She pulled the blue shawl tighter around her and listened as the drum re-created the war song of the Ni-mii-poo. Then, as the elders followed her, lifting her wings with their prayers, she began to dance the circle that took her out of his world.

With each step, she went farther back in time, until she reached the moment her grandfather was standing before the enlisting officer. The woman reached out and took the pen from the hand of the military, and rewrote her grandfather’s name in his language.

Once she had done this, she was ready to come back to this world.

So her people got up and began to dance a new circle that called her back to this time. Many people were crying with pain and happiness.

When the woman returned, she opened her bundle and joyfully gave away everything in it - Pendleton blankets and dream catchers, deer skins and beaded earrings, tobacco and fabric - all kinds of things her people needed.

Then they all ate and celebrated the return of the woman and her family name.

The woman was grateful for the honor shown her on her birthday.

The woman doesn’t know when she will time travel again, if ever. She knows it was an important thing to do, but only certain things from the past can be changed that way.

She thinks it may be more important for her to stay in this world and reclaim the past - not only the names, but the land and songs and language and bones of the ancestors - from here.

MEMO: Beth Hege Piatote (pronounced PIE-a-tote) reclaimed her indigenous family name at an intertribal ceremony and giveaway on Dec. 11 in Eugene, Ore. She is Ni-mii-poo (Nez Perce) and a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes. She is a reporter with the Eugene Register-Guard and this article was reprinted with the newspaper’s permission. She can be reached at The Register-Guard, 975 High St., Eugene, Ore., 97440-2188 or by email at bhpiatote@guardnet.com