PARAGOULD, Ark. (AP) – Don’t try to guess what David Wayaneetah’s next move will be. He couldn’t even tell you himself.

Wayaneetah, Cherokee, has done a little bit of everything. He grew up on a reservation in North Carolina, went to military school, served in Vietnam, went to law school and worked as a lawyer.

But perhaps the most pervasive aspect of Wayaneetah’s life is his artwork.

Wayaneetah, 59, has been involved with carving artwork out of wood and stone since he was a young boy. It began as a hobby and a way to help support his family’s income on the reservation, but it has since transformed into a lucrative business with pieces selling for thousands of dollars each at shows around the world.

“I’m a product of my years,” Wayaneetah said. “That’s my life. This is part of what I do. It just kind of happens, and I just go with what happens.”

His first opportunity to sell his artwork outside of the reservation came on the set of the film “Davy Crockett,” in which Wayaneetah played one of many Native children.

“At that time, minimum wage was pennies an hour, and I was getting 10 to 20 bucks for a small carving,” Wayaneetah said. “I was sitting in the back carving these things and guys would walk in and ask, ‘How much?’ It was sort of an attraction. There was this little kid who could make carvings just as good as or better than the other ones.”

Wayaneetah attended Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania when he was a teenager, where he became further involved in selling

his artwork.

“I kept going to these workshops. My idea about these things was, ‘What a good place to sell my stuff,’” Wayaneetah said.

He did just that until he joined the Army and was shipped off to fight in the Vietnam War.

“When you were going to Vietnam, the Army flew you from California. Then, when you flew back, you stopped in either Los Angeles or San Diego,” Wayaneetah said. “So, I’m sitting in San Diego and I don’t want to get on the next plane. Here I am, 22 years old – what would you do? Who wants to leave that?”

He later found out he could get a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley. He took advantage of it, and the next thing he knew, he had completed law school while still selling his carvings throughout the years.

“I had to eat, didn’t I?” Wayaneetah said.

He later went to New York, where he worked as an attorney assisting people with patents and copyrights. That specialty helped him protect his own artwork.

But he couldn’t sit and do just one thing.

“I did the whole ‘Hollywood thing,’” Wayaneetah said. “I did acting, I was in movies. I did work for American Indians, and I did all kinds of political things, too.

“I was living the ’60s life, wasn’t I?”

Being active in so many areas allowed Wayaneetah opportunities to sell his artwork to some of the most famous names in Hollywood history. He’s sold pieces to Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Caroline Kennedy, John Belushi and John Candy.

“I always did artwork on the side as an additional way of making money,” Wayaneetah said. “It was just part of what I did.”

He operates out of a showroom in Paragould, but lives in Lafe, where he’s been for about six months. Wayaneetah said he isn’t sure what his future holds. He is currently trying to get a booth at Jonesboro’s Mall at Turtle Creek for the holidays at the end of the year.

“Depending on how that goes, I might stay and I might not,” Wayaneetah said.