On Wednesday the College of Law was incredibly fortunate to have Walter Echo-Hawk come and speak as part of theCOL’s McDougall Lecture Series. For over thirty five years Mr. Echo-Hawk has been working on litigation and legislation that affect the Native American community here in the United States. He is also an accomplished scholar (I picked up his book, In the Courts of the Conqueroryesterday and can’t wait to read it).
Wednesday’s lecture should be of particular interest for those who practice in the BHR area. The UN has identified business and human rights impacts vis a vis indigenous communities as an area of particular concern that they would like to assess over the coming months. Justice Echo-Hawk’s comments on The Rise of Human Rights in Native America provided a timely discussion of a paradigm shift that is beginning to happen in indigenous communities worldwide.
From Left to Right – Dean Joyce McConnell, Justice Walter Echo-Hawk, Prof. Bonnie Brown and Associate Dean Anne Lofaso
His talk explored issues of racism, colonialism, protective features of federal Indian law as well as how emerging norms under international law for indigenous communities can help inform how we address our legal structures here. Truly, I cannot do his talk justice. If you have an hour to spare, I highly recommend that you see it for yourself.
The link to the webcast is here.
