PROFILE: Cherokee youth D. Everett ᏚᏯ Bean completes water protector course, works with local California Indian communities

16-year-old D. Everett ᏚᏯ Bean was one of only five other tribal youth to complete the tribal water protector’s course offered through a partnership between UC Davis and California Tribal College. During the completion of the course, Everett worked with the Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians whose reservation sits along the Sacramento River. Salmon are important to the Tribe–as they are for many California Indian Nations–and Everett directed his work toward understanding why they are central to Wintu life along the Sacramento and other rivers in the area. He was particularly interested in how water law and rights can be used to help local Tribes. His work in tribal water law culminated in a final presentation he gave at the recent tribal water summit in Sacramento.

During his work with the Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians, he met with one of the Tribe’s council members and discussed the deep connection that the Tribe has with the Sacramento River. As a part of this exchange of knowledge, and as an expression of gratitude, Everett presented the council member with a Cherokee double wall basket that he made himself. The council member is herself a weaver and greatly appreciated the basket.

Everett is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and Inupiaq. His great grandfather came to California to work as a farm laborer. Everett lives on a small farm with his parents and two brothers in the Sacramento Valley. He has visited the Cherokee Nation and enjoys being in community with Cherokee people, our reservation’s lakes, and our food. Everett likes to garden, work on cars, archery, making bows, and metalworking.

Currently, Everett works as an intern for the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation nature preserve where he is learning traditional knowledge about California’s environment from Tribal Elders. He is also fortunate to be mentored by his local Cherokee Elders and Elders from California Indian communities. Everett helps teach younger children martial arts at the local youth center, and teaches flint knapping and fire making for his local Indian Education program. In addition to this community work, Everett is a teen 4-H leader in metal and woodworking.

In the future, Everett wants to be a lawyer, biologist, or maker when he grows up.