Jeremy Red Star Wolf is Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Chair of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
Jeremy’s Indian name, Xitsiw-ilp-ilp, means “Red Star.” For most of his life he grew up on the Umatilla River in Cayuse, Oregon. His father is David Wolf Jr. whose ancestry includes the Palouse Chief “Old Man” Wolf (whose children were enrolled as full-blooded Walla Walla), Cayuse, Colville and Yakama. His mother Jennifer Mesteth’s (Lewis/Conner) ancestry is Umatilla and Nez Perce through the Nez Perce War (Chief Ollicut; son of Old Chief Joseph; son of Cayuse Chief Wilewmutkin).
Jeremy and wife Althea Huesties-Wolf have four children: Aiden, Manaia, Stella and niece Althea Loretta who they continue to teach and learn from. He is also an artist, horseman, traditional slick-style dancer, youth basketball and football coach, wild horse racer, fisherman, hunter and gatherer.
In 1996 Jeremy graduated from Weston McEwen High school in Athena, Oregon. After serving a year with Salmon Corps, he eventually worked his way up the ranks at the CTUIR Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Program from a Fisheries Seasonal Technician during high school to Technician I, II & III and finally a Biologist. Within the Fisheries Program, he had the privilege of working with nearly all projects and employees, addressing a variety of subjects and species such as Salmon, Steelhead, Lamprey, Freshwater Mussels and other resident species, macroinvertebrates, habitat, production, etc. Within that time, grants ended, and he used a few years of his technical experience at the CTUIR Department of Science and Engineering’s Air Quality Program.
After returning to the CTUIR Fisheries Program full-time, he acquired his degree from Oregon State University’s School of Forestry with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Natural Resources. As a Biologist he worked on projects that included studies of watersheds within the CTUIR’s traditional use homelands that had been extirpated of anadromous fish.
Currently, Jeremy is serving his third two-year term as the CTUIR Board of Trustee’s Vice-Chair. Within this position, the BOT appointed selected him for a third time as the delegate for the Fish & Wildlife Commission and the Tribal Farm Committee where he serves as Chair and Member respectively. He is also a Commissioner of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and currently serves as its Chair. His CRITFC roles include the CTUIR Policy Delegate for the Strategic Planning and Organizational, United States v. Oregon, and the Columbia River Treaty that is currently undergoing renegotiations between the US and Canada.