Law School hosts Native American Rights Attorney Walter Echo-Hawk

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Cynthia D. Quinn, (808) 956-7966
Interim, Associate Dean for Student Services, William S Richardson School of Law
Posted: Sep 22, 2011

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's William S. Richardson School of Law will host a free public lecture by Walter Echo-Hawk, an Oklahoma-based native rights lawyer, tribal judge, scholar and activist on Monday, September 26, 2011, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in Classroom 2 at the Law School. Echo-Hawk will explore cases in Indian Law described in his new book entitled, “In the Courts of the Conqueror: The Ten Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided.”

 

Echo-Hawk is a distinguished leader of the Pawnee tribe who has described himself as one of many “foot soldiers” from the early days of the Native American Sovereignty movement which began in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

 

He received a political science degree in 1970 from Oklahoma State University and his law degree in 1973 from the University of New Mexico. As a staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund for over 35 years, Echo-Hawk has spent his legal career fighting for Native American religious freedom, water rights, prisoner rights, treaty rights, and reparation rights. In his position with the Fund, he was instrumental in securing passage of two federal laws that respect Indian and religious freedoms and the repatriation of Native American remains.

 

His legal work also helped establish a framework for a Native American nation. Too often, he has said, law is used to bring harm to native peoples and to subjugate the tribes. But it can also be used as a “shield,” to protect rights of native people.

 

His lecture is sponsored by the UH Mānoa Political Science Department, the Native Hawaiian Bar Association, and the Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law at the Law School.  Light refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m.;  Echo-Hawk will speak at 6:30 p.m., and a book signing will follow.

For more information, visit: http://law.hawaii.edu