Learn the unique story of our community member, Darwin Simtustus, through his own words.

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Darwin Tommy Simtustus was born in Redmond, Or, and raised on the Warm Springs Reservation. Darwin's father was Chief Amos Simtustus Sr. of the Warm Springs tribe, and his grandmother was a descendant of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe. Darwin's uncle was Pipsha Simtustus, a scout for the calvary in the 1880s, whom the Simtustus Lake near Madras was named after. Darwin has a condition called Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome and lost his vision in 1982 at 19. Darwin has been a resident of Bend since 1992, and initially it was difficult to find other people and organizations to help with his condition. After living in Bend for 20 years, he finds that the opposite is true and now has many people in his support system. One of those organizations is Oregon Adaptive Sports, where he has enjoyed kayaking, hiking, tandem biking, and all of their winter sports programs. Another one of those organizations has been the Deschutes Public Library, where he first came to listen to audiobooks and borrow movies, joining the book club. He continued to use the library's resources through the pandemic and up until today. Darwin has worked in Customer Service at Habitat for Humanity since 2019.