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Russell Jim (Dr. Kiaux): Yakama Environmental Leader and Cultural Guardian

Tribal elder wearing black graduation doctoral robe, blue collar, and tam with beaded band.
Russel Jim, honored at Heritage University, 2017

Courtesy of Carol Craig, Yakama Nation Review

Article written by Sebastian Whiz-Smartlowit

Russell Jim, also known by his Yakama name Dr. Kiaux (Kii’ahl), was a ceremonial leader, traditional knowledge scholar, and one of the most influential Indigenous environmental advocates of the 20th and early 21st centuries. For over 37 years, Jim served as the Director of the Yakama Nation’s Environmental Restoration and Hazardous Waste Management Program (ERWM), where he became nationally recognized for his work on the cleanup and accountability process related to the Hanford Nuclear Site in southeastern Washington State.1 His leadership extended far beyond his scientific stewardship and political acuity, and encompassed deep spiritual and cultural responsibility rooted in Yakama traditions.

Born in 1935, Jim grew up immersed in Yakama ways of knowing. In adulthood, he became a White Swan Washat (Seven Drums) ceremonial leader and continued to guide his community through first foods feasts, seasonal teachings, and spiritual service. In addition to his role as a community and environmental leader, Jim was also an active contributor to national and international Indigenous organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and the World Council of Indigenous Peoples.2

Jim’s environmental leadership gained widespread recognition due to his outspoken advocacy in response to the Hanford Nuclear Site, a former Manhattan Project plutonium production facility situated on Yakama ceded territory. The Hanford area, according to Jim, had been a sacred wintering ground for generations: “We lived in harmony with the area, with the river, with all of the environment.”3 The land supported traditional foods and medicines found only at specific elevations, and its loss directly threatened Yakama cultural survival. “It was a sacred ground to many people,” Jim stated in a recorded interview, “and the denial of the utilization of this ancient place affects our culture because some of those foods and medicines only come up so high in elevation.”4

Following the forced displacement of Native peoples during Hanford’s development, Jim helped lead the Yakama Nation’s response to decades of radioactive waste contamination. He forced the federal government to recognize the Yakama Nation as an “affected tribe” under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act and demanded direct consultation on future clean-up efforts.5 His work helped formalize a governmental mandate for tribal participation, even as he remained critical of its shortcomings.

As manager of the Yakama Nation’s Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (ERWM) Program, Russell Jim helped develop what would become one of the most powerful environmental and cultural tools in modern tribal advocacy: the “exposure scenario.” This effort documented the traditional Yakama lifestyle, from sweat-lodge ceremonies to seasonal gathering, and transformed it into a scientific framework capable of measuring real risks posed by Hanford’s nuclear contamination. “The salmon, the deer, the eel, the food out of the ground, and the berries,”6 Jim wrote, are not simply food, but “necessary medicine, with strong genes, to provide a strong body, heart and life.”7 Through ERWM, the Yakama Nation ensured that environmental justice was inseparable from spiritual and cultural survival.

In his 2003 essay “We would like to have answers,” Jim detailed the history of federal secrecy and contamination tied to Hanford, including the intentional release of iodine-131 and other radioactive materials into the environment. “There were tremendous releases of radioisotopes… and some intentionally, in what they call the ‘Green Run,’” he wrote, citing a declassified record of Cold War-era experiments on local populations. These events, Jim warned, had lasting effects on Yakama people and the environment: “What may happen to the gene pool of the Yakama in the future?… I think it’s now.”8

Despite growing admission by federal agencies regarding the environmental damage, Jim remained critical of the cleanup’s efficacy. “They now admit that,” he said, “but are very reticent to not truly address the issue… Without utilizing proven technology, they would take the funds and maybe experiment… and never really clean the place up.”9 He noted that massive amounts of contaminated material had been shifted from site to site, rather than permanently contained, and that the long-term effects of soil and water contamination remained poorly understood.

Jim’s advocacy went beyond critique; it offered vision. He proposed a model he called “holistic environmental management,”10 which integrated Yakama ecological knowledge with conventional scientific approaches. He also mentored youth, ensuring that future generations could carry on the work. “We hope that they can eventually replace the PhDs and the Master’s degrees people that we depend upon that are non-Indian,”11 he wrote.

Throughout his life, Jim emphasized that his mission was not rooted in opposition to nuclear science, but in care for people and ecosystems. “We are neither pro-nuclear nor anti-nuclear. We are pro-safety for all people,”12 he wrote. This framing became central to his work: asserting sovereignty and accountability while remaining open to cooperative solutions rooted in justice, safety, and mutual respect.

In 2017, Heritage University in Toppenish, Washington, awarded Russell Jim an honorary doctorate for his lifetime contributions to human knowledge and environmental leadership. He was described by colleagues as “a profound world-class thinker comparable to Lao Tzu… and the Toltecs of pre-Hispanic México,”13 whose teachings had reached Indigenous communities across the globe, from Ireland and Yugoslavia to Taiwan and Peru.

Russell Jim passed away in 2018. His work remains vital in contemporary discussions about Indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice, and the ongoing legacy of the nuclear age. “The treaty is alive and well,” he wrote near the end of his 2003 essay. “To us it is as long as a mountain stands, the river flows, the grass shall grow, the sun shall shine.”14

  1. R.C. Rÿser, “Dr. Kiaux (Russell Jim), Yakama Knowledge Scholar and Cultural Guardian,” Fourth World Journal, 16:1 (Summer 2017), 7–9. https://alliance-ewu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01ALLIANCE_EWU/t2ibrl/cdi_crossref_primary_10_63428_rbnamv79
  2. Rÿser, 8.
  3. Russell Jim, “We Would like to have Answers” (2003) in Say We Are Nations: Documents of Politics and Protest in Indigenous America Since 1887, ed. Daniel M. Cobb (University of North Carolina Press, 2015), n.p. Proquest Ebooks: https://alliance-ewu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01ALLIANCE_EWU/od99n4/alma99900293087201843
  4. Russell Jim, interviewed in Tribal Perspectives on the Hanford Nuclear Site, produced for the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, Hanford Health Information Network Tribal Service Program by Upstream Productions, Inc., 1996.
  5. Rÿser, 8.
  6. Russell Jim, “Tribe Determined to Protect Usual and Accustomed Sites,” Yakama Nation Review, May 1970.
  7. Jim, “Tribe Determined”
  8. Jim, “We Would like to have Answers.”
  9. Jim, interviewed in Tribal Perspectives.
  10. Rÿser, 8.
  11. Jim, “We Would like to have Answers.”
  12. Jim, “We Would like to have Answers.”
  13. Rÿser, “Dr. Kiaux (Russell Jim), Yakama Knowledge Scholar and Cultural Guardian,” 7.
  14. Jim, “We Would like to have Answers.”

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Manhattan Project National Historical Park

Last updated: December 30, 2025