SHAUNNA MCCOVEY
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Shaunna Oteka McCovey (Yurok/Karuk) grew up on the Yurok and Hoopa Valley Indian Reservations, and in Karuk Country in Northern California. She spent her childhood on the Klamath, Salmon and Trinity Rivers fishing, swimming and rafting. Shaunna is a poet and writer and her works have been published in anthologies, magazines and news journals.

She is the author of The Smokehouse Boys, a collection of poems about growing up in the river communities. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Social Work from Humboldt State University and Arizona State University, respectively, and she holds a Master of Studies in Environment Law and a Juris Doctorate from Vermont Law School. You can never take the river from the girl…