Jason Bryon Redheart, who carried the name Nee Nee Tsa Koos Stin, was born April 4, 1958, in Lewiston, Idaho, to Jesse “Ty” Redheart and Audrey Pinkham Redheart. Jason passed away September 25, 2026, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, surrounded by his loved ones after suffering severe heart failure. He was 68 years old.

Jason grew up surrounded by his brothers, sisters, cousins and a large extended family. His childhood was spent swimming in the Clearwater River, running the hills at the family ranch at Chaweekta, riding and breaking horses, and getting into adventures with his siblings and cousins. He attended Lapwai Elementary and was a Lapwai High School Class of 1977 graduate.

Horses were part of Jason’s life from an early age. His father was a well-known Appaloosa horse breeder, rider and racer, and Jason learned from him and his Uncle Tom Redheart. Together they trained, showed and raced Appaloosas, traveling to races and shows throughout the country.

Jason broke horses, swam horses across the Clearwater with his cousins, and became an accomplished young rodeo athlete. He was a champion bull rider in junior rodeo, high school rodeo and on the rodeo circuit.

At Lapwai High School, Jason played football and was part of a team that advanced to the state playoffs. He was also active in FFA and played trumpet in the Lapwai High School Band. In 1974, he traveled with the band to perform center stage at Expo ’74 in Spokane, a memorable achievement for the Lapwai High School Band.

Jason was also a singer and dancer. Along with Danny Stevens, Philip Penney and Doug Marconi, he sang with the Lapwai Indian Club Drum Group, which earned championship honors at the Northwest Indian Youth Conference in Warm Springs, Oregon. The group was presented with a big drum that remained with Lapwai High School.

During his high school years, Jason was among a generation of young Nez Perce men learning songs and dances from their fathers and elders. The Lewiston Morning Tribune photographed him dancing and sitting drum side for an October 3, 1976, story titled “Young Men Learning the Old Ways.” Another photograph that year recorded Jason placing second in the senior boys’ dance division at an event held on the Lapwai High School football field alongside his relative Levi Pinkham.

In 1979, Jason was among a group of Nez Perce students who completed heavy-equipment training through Nez Perce Enterprises. Their final project was the construction of a half-mile access road to the Cottonwood Creek home of Louis and Margaret Broncheau. The family had previously been isolated during periods of bad weather because their home had no road connection to the county road.

In 1980, he was photographed with other Nez Perce fishermen stopping at Teedy’s Market in Craigmont while traveling to Rapid River during the confrontation between the Nez Perce and the State of Idaho over treaty fishing rights.

Throughout his life, Jason remained connected to the places, foods and activities he had known since childhood. He hunted, fished and gathered for his family. He camped along the Selway and Lochsa, fished at Bergdorf, and brought home salmon, moose, kous kous and berries.

Jason was a ceremonial rider at the Chief Redheart Band Memorial at Fort Vancouver. The memorial honors Chief Redheart’s Band, where 33 Nez Perce men, women and children were imprisoned without cause at Fort Vancouver for eight months in 1877–78.

Pendleton Round-Up was another longtime family tradition. Jason joined his family there, where his mother, aunts and grandmothers established camp year after year. He also sang with his brothers and the Nez Perce Nation Drum.

Jason worked construction in Chicago, where he trained as an ironworker, and later worked at Omark/Blount in Lewiston and Pacific Foods in Tualatin, Oregon. He also became a journeyman pressman, eventually operating the large printing presses at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. He took pride in his work and was known for his strong work ethic wherever he went.

Jason married Kathryn Sohappy and later Lee Rae Barrows. Eventually, as Jason himself liked to put it, he ended up “wild and single.”

He spent his retirement years back home in Lapwai at the Chief Joseph Complex. There, Jason and his dog, Yakah, enjoyed their days together.

Jason is survived by his children, Samantha Redheart (Leland Bill), Melissa (Nathanael) Roberts, Sara Redheart (Andrew Seavy), and Jesse (Kim) Redheart; his grandchildren, Rennae Bill, Sheryl Redheart (Nicole Pimms), Shayla Bill, Dylan Bill, Kupkana Leavitt (Tyleigh Brady), Cody Bill, Leilani Redheart, Jeffrey Bill (Desirae Craig), Ahren Roberts, and Gavin Roberts; and his great-grandson, Josiah Redheart.

He is also survived by his siblings, Lyle Gould, Frank Weaskus Jr., James (Tina) Redheart, Yvonne Weaskus (Alfred) Nomee and Jessica Redheart, along with many beloved aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and extended family from both sides of his family.

Jason was preceded in death by his grandparents, Jesse and Lucy (McFarland) Redheart and Alexius and Annette (Blackeagle) Pinkham; his parents, Jesse “Ty” and Audrey Redheart; and his brothers, Vernon D. Redheart and Vonley Weaskus. He was also preceded in death by many beloved relatives whose lives were part of the large family in which he was raised.

Jason lived much of his life around the things he had loved since he was young—horses, rodeo, singing, hunting, fishing and being outdoors. He became a father and grandfather, and in his later years returned to Lapwai, close to the Clearwater and Chaweekta where he had grown up.

Funeral services will be held Monday, September 28, 2026. The procession will leave Malcom’s Brower-Wann Funeral Home and travel to the Pi-Nee-Waus Community Center in Lapwai, where a Waaláhsat service will be held at 7 p.m., officiated by Armand Minthorn.

Burial will take place Tuesday, September 29, 2026, with a sunrise graveside service at Red Bear Cemetery in Lenore, Idaho.