Earl Brown Obituary, Death – On April 15th, at the age of 59, Earl Brown peacefully passed away with his family by his side. Betty and Donald Brown welcomed him into the world in Gold Beach, Oregon, and he is one of seven brothers and sisters. He is a citizen of the Yurok Tribal Nation. Although he spent some of his childhood in Montana and Washington, he has spent the majority of his life in Del Norte County, California.
He received his secondary education from Del Norte High School in 1982 after having completed his middle school years at Redwood Elementary. During the summer of 1996, he signed up for classes at College of the Redwoods–Del Norte. After completing his associate’s degree, he continued his education at Humboldt State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in economics in December of 2000.
In order to attend his lessons in Arcata while still spending time with his family in the evenings at home in Smith River, he would make the trip there many times a week and drive back. The primary motivation behind him returning to school was the desire to become a more capable provider for his family. Because he knew he eventually intended to work with local Tribal communities, he was able to maintain his motivation throughout the entirety of his journey toward a higher degree.
He has a huge family and looked forward to attending all of the celebrations that they held. At each and every Christmas, he took on the role of Santa Claus and was in charge of distributing the gifts. It wasn’t until after the death of his sister Beth that he decided to chop his hair short and never let it grow out again. He had long hair for the majority of his life. He took great pleasure in braiding his hair and donning one of his crochet caps. Gill netting on the Klamath River was one of Earl’s favorite activities, along with camping and fishing.
In addition to that, he had a lot of fun swimming, jumping from rocks, and snorkeling on the picturesque Smith River.
Earl was a participant in the Tolowa and Yurok cultural traditions. He spent a lot of time at fish camp at the beach with his family because he loved being outside. He had a passion for working with wood and has crafted a number of drums throughout the years. In his early years, he was a passionate dancer, and he instilled that interest in his children and encouraged them to participate in the culture as well.
At a young age, he impressed upon his children the significance of acquiring an education and exposing themselves to different cultures. Earl never failed to regale his listeners with tales of the time he spent with his Yurok and Tolowa ancestors, who educated him on both the history and the language of the traditional ways. Earl had a wonderful time during his 18-year career as a housing counselor for Native Americans in Yurok and Tolowa Country. He was the one who laid the groundwork for the Dat-naa-svt Housing Village that we see today. Behind Lucky 7 Casino, he was in charge of supervising the construction of See-waa-dvn, Chit-xu mee-ne, and the elderly housing. He oversaw a team consisting entirely of Tribal Citizens and found the most satisfaction in seeing them restore the homes of fellow Tribal Citizens.