Sapsik’^walá Advisory Council
Wendell J. Jim is Paiute, Wasco, and Yakama Indian and an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. He was raised on the reservation, and with his family he learned the foundations of his Indian heritage and cultures. Wendell takes pride in preserving his unique heritage and enhancing the educational opportunities, combining tradition and technology, keeping his Indian beliefs, values, traditions, and Native American perspectives alive.

Wendell graduated and received his degree of bachelor of arts in education from Washington State University. He was the president of the Ku ah mah Native American Indian Student Association and the Culture and Education program coordinator. In 1981 The National Indian Education Association awarded Wendell the Native American student of the year for his leadership and cultural education program.

Wendell is currently the Education General Manager for the Confederated tribes of Warm Springs. He is an active leader, advocating for Indian education issues and rights and forming consortiums that bring together land grant universities, Indian Tribes in Oregon and the Northwest. He represents and serves on a number of advisory boards, committees, and associations: The OSU-Cascades Advisory Board, The Washington State University Native American Advisory Board, The University of Oregon Tribal Council, The Oregon State University Extension Citizens Network, The Columbia Gorge and Chemeketa Community College Advisory Boards, The Affiliated Tribes Northwest Indian Education Association, The Oregon Indian Education Association, The Oregon Multi-Cultural Education Advisory Board, and The Oregon Government-to-Government Education Cluster.

He is instrumental in the development of the government-to-government framework, collaborative models, interagency partnerships, and legislation pertaining to Tribal Sovereignty and Treaty rights, and the advancement for technology for rural tribal communities. He provides education and research through information technology to the Indian Tribes, Colleges, and the Oregon departments of Education. He develops and promotes Native American Indian curriculum models that protect and maintain the Native American Indian perspectives of Indian law, government, history, health, business, heritage and culture, language, music and dance, education, tribal oral histories, and the important contributions of our Native American Indian Nations and Tribes.