One biography states that he acquired the name "Nipo" (short for "Nee-Ha-Pouw") during a show after he fainted and regained consciousness. It was as if he had risen from the dead, and the name is interpreted as "he lives!" or the imperative "live!" He added "Nipo" to his Yakama name, "Chtu-Tum-Nah," which he translated as "Strongheart". Another biography states that the name "Nipo" was given to Strongheart in his infancy by his adoptive mother. At some point his official status as a member of the Yakama Nation ended. At a performance in 1927, he said that when his military service had ended, he was given the choice of returning to the reservation or losing his tribal rights. He did return but soon left the reservation again. In the 1930s, Strongheart attempted to document his Yakama lineage, when the government was encouraging tribes to reorganize their governments under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Strongheart was an honorary member of the Yakama tribe during the administration of the 1946 Yakima Enrollment Act --> after having helped the Tomaskin family. Leonard Tomaskin would have been 22 yrs old in 1946. Some 22 years later he was elected as chairman of the General Council of the Yakama Nation, their tribal government, serving from 1968 to 1983. Strongheart wrote an article in 1954 that dates his involvement in what he called "historical ethnological studies" to around 1905, perhaps between seasons of the Wild Bill show. He claimed to have attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. He also claimed to have participated in a Lubin film company production of the silent film "The White Chief". Because he spoke enough English and a smattering of other Indian languages to act as a translator, he played a crucial role as a liaison between the non-Indian production staff and the Indian children they had picked for the movie. In 1910 Strongheart was reported to be in Oklahoma, which had recently been admitted to the Union. He was serving in the 5th Cavalry Regiment during the period of the United States' Border War (1910–1919) with Mexico, when it was engulfed in its own civil war. In 1910–12, he again worked in the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and Pawnee Bill traveling shows as a bareback trick rider. Later newspaper coverage reports that Strongheart was serving in the military in the West in 1914; it may have been with the 16th Infantry Regiment, which was stationed there.