Everett Leroy Thompson

Driftnetter, Business Owner, Father

Everett Thompson is a lifelong resident of Naknek, Alaska, and a driftnet fisherman who fishes all five districts in Bristol Bay. He also subsistence fishes and hunts in the wilderness between Naknek to Iliamna. Everett is a single father with one daughter, Lakota Love Thompson.

"I've fished this area for 25 years, every season, all season since I was 7 years old," Everett said. He began by set netting, but has been a drift fisherman since the age of 21. Everett is now 33 and about to begin his 26th year fishing Bristol Bay. His fishing boat, Chulyen, which means Raven in Athabascan, is one of the oldest aluminum boats in Bristol Bay.

Everett is a shareholder in the Bristol Bay Native Corporation and a tribal member of the Naknek Native Village. He is co-owner of a small business, Naknek Family Fisheries, a family affair also owned by his mother, two sisters, his daughter and a niece.

He is an ivory and bone carver and enjoys traditional Alaska Native artwork. He has won several statewide art competitions, and his work has been featured at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, the Peabody Museum, and the Seward Visitor’s Center.

In recent years, Everett has become an activist for Bristol Bay’s protection, opposing the proposed Pebble Mine project north of Iliamna and proposed off-shore drilling in "Cod Alley" in Bristol Bay.

"The pure waters of Bristol Bay have sustained my family for generations. This watershed provides a subsistence lifestyle and commercial fishery worth fighting for," Everett said. "We will fight to save this place with all we have so that my daughter and her generation have the opportunity to carry on living from and protecting Bristol Bay – a home beyond compare."

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