Walter Echo-Hawk will speak at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Center for Great Plains Studies about his path toward his Pawnee ancestors in Nebraska in a talk titled “Roots: My Journey to Indigenous Nebraska.”
Echo-Hawk’s visit is part of a week-long residency at the center, where he will conduct research on the Pawnee.
The talk at the Center for Great Plains Studies, 1155 Q St., is free and open to the public. Visit the center’s website at http://www.unl.edu/plains for more information.
Echo-Hawk is the author of “In the Light of Justice: The Rise of Human Rights in Native America and the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” “In the Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided” and “Battlefields and Burial Grounds.” He is a member of the Pawnee tribe with a degree in political science from Oklahoma State University and a juris doctor degree from the University of New Mexico.
In his home state of Oklahoma, Echo-Hawk wears three hats:
Chief Justice, Supreme Court, Kickapoo Tribe
Counsel, Crowe and Dunlevy, Oklahoma’s oldest and largest law firm
Adjunct professor, University of Tulsa College of Law
As a staff attorney of the Native American Rights Fund from 1973-2009, he represented Indian tribes, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians on significant legal issues in the modern era of federal Indian law during the rise of modern Indian nations in the tribal sovereignty movement. He litigated indigenous rights pertaining to religious freedom, prisoner rights, water rights, treaty rights, and reburial/repatriation rights.
