Senior Advisory Committee’s announcement of Elder of the Year 2025

On August 7th, the Nez Perce Senior Advisory Committee presented the Elder of the Year Awards to Charles “Chucky” Axtell and Julia Davis Wheeler.

This years commencement was held at the Clearwater River Casino Event Center. The Circle of Elders, Senior Advisory Committee, family members, and community members were in attendance. This Award, for both Chucky and Julia, was a complete surprise.

The two elders, who were once classmates, shared the stage as Shannon Jackson introduced them. Bill Picard, DelRae Kipp, and Leroy Seth spoke on behalf of the elders and their many accomplishments,. They received a well deserved standing ovation.

In 1988, Julia Davis Wheeler was elected to Tribal Council and she served twenty-two years. She was the Vice-Chairman in 1996. Additionally, she was the Chairman of the National Indian Health Board, on the H-R Subcommittee, helped with the Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations, worked with the Nimiipuu Diabetes Program and Health Records, and she helped secure funding to build the Nimiipuu health buildings. Currently, she has nine children, thirty grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren. She’s very proud of her family and her sobriety of forty-five years.

Charles “Chucky” Axtell will turn eighty years old in two weeks. He was raised by his grandparents who only spoke the Nez Perce language, Nimiipuutimpt, at home. Now, he is one of the few fluent Nimiipuutimpt speakers alive. In 1966, he enlisted in the army then was stationed in Korea as a helicopter mechanic. He worked for the Nez Perce Fisheries Program for twenty nine years, and then retired in 2019. Currently, he’s on the Circle of Elders; he helps teach the Nez Perce language, and he’s been sober for thirty five years.

Qe’ci’yew’yew’, Charles and Julia for what you’ve both done for the Nez Perce people.

Congratulations!