About Shawn Hamilton

Shawn Hamilton is a teacher and reporter in California. He began his teaching career in Taiwan in 1989 when large rallies were supporting the protesters at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. He returned to the relative calm of the United States and took a teaching position in Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles, in time for the rioting that occurred there, sparked by an unpopular court decision.
Hamilton moved to Sacramento where he taught college classes part-time and covered the capitol as a reporter for Pacifica Radio’s KPFA in Berkeley. He received a Project Censored award in 2011.
As a teenager, Hamilton was introduced to Oswald “White Bear” Fredericks by his high school anthropology teacher, and he became intrigued by native cultures. The experience led to his traveling to Meta Tantay, the camp of Shoshone healer John “Rolling Thunder” Pope in Nevada. While attending Humboldt State University in the California redwoods a few years later, Hamilton took classes in Native American Studies and began participating in ritual sweat lodge ceremonies on the Eel River. He said these experiences changed his life.
Shawn Hamilton can be reached at [email protected]
For more information, visit his website: http://theswillbucket.com/