John was born on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. He has over 50 years of
experience as a caseworker, program director, teacher, and trainer. At Fort Belknap, he worked
as a tribal health planner, group home director, parenting project coordinator, foster parent, tribal
councilman, and tribal college president. He also directed a student substance abuse program at
Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon for seven years and directed the Social Services
Department at the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde for three years. John taught part-time
for 20 years at the School of Social Work at Portland State University (1998-2017) and served
for 6 years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves (1963-69).
Since 2009 John and his two co-workers have involved hundreds of kids from all nine
Oregon Tribes in horse therapy workshops. He is also the author of Crazy Wolf: A Half-Breed
Story (2021, KMC Media) which is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.