Building a better America for everyone
Part one
BOULDER, Colo. - Are you looking for a modern-day warrior society? Try the Native American Rights Fund's 13 attorneys, support staff, board of directors, the national Indian legal defense fund and, most recently, the Tribal Supreme Court Project that NARF was asked to lead.
Gone are the days when, with the smoke of early-morning fires at their backs, warriors leveled arrows at invading marauders who had an untamed lust for possession. Instead, this phalanx of contemporary men and women warriors at NARF take their stands in law libraries, around the sleek lines of conference tables and, finally, before the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States.
In a low, unassuming voice projecting a quiet dignity to be reckoned with, NARF Executive Director John Echohawk, J.D., stated, ''We are building a better America for everyone - Indian and non-Indian.''
But it wasn't always this way. When NARF came into being 35 years ago in 1970, as Echohawk put it, ''The very existence of Indian tribes in America was at stake. Would the federal policy of terminating Indian tribes altogether prevail, or could the tribes adapt to become viable sovereign governments in modern-day America, using their strong legal foundation in American law?''
The timing was auspicious. The era was ripe for change. Inspired by the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision that desegregated schools in 1954, blacks staged protests over civil rights. Distraught by the war in Vietman and bored by middle-American culture (or lack thereof), the counterculture and political left rose up against its own parents, challenging the very ethics in place in the nation. Mainstream middle-classers coming of age in the late '60s went on to embrace the civil rights movement, become champions of environmental and healthy living reforms and, of course, look toward the nations within to see how they could support what was up in Indian country.
It turns out that although there was plenty of demoralization and dissolution that had come about through 100 years of cultural dislocation, those coming of age in Indian country felt the same winds brush their faces that were sweeping across America. Indeed, some, like Echohawk, poised right on the cusp of progressive change.
''When I was a senior in high school, I decided to study law and started on that path. So after I graduated, I enrolled at the University of New Mexico and earned a B.A. in government.''
The year was 1967, when as an expression of the signs of the times and part of Johnson's ''war on poverty,'' the federal government took the unprecedented step of offering graduate scholarships to American Indian law students. ''The school the government picked to administer the program happened to be the University of New Mexico, and I applied. So I was in the first class of Native American law students with federally funded scholarships. The idea was to get some professionals among Native Americans, since at that time we had only a handful of doctors and lawyers.''
Echohawk and seven others received scholarships - and proceeded down a path that has had radical implications for Indian country.
''To their credit, the U&M law faculty put together one of the first Indian law courses, and that's where we started discovering that we had this strong legal foundation for things none of us knew about. Of course, we all had a general idea that things weren't right; but not the specifics. It was a real eye-opener.''
The following year, another batch of Indian law students started through law school. ''They came away with the same impressions we had. And the year after there was another group,'' Echohawk said. ''By then we had enough critical mass to form the Native American Law Student Association, a group based on the realization that we had this strong legal foundation that we could build on for the future of our tribes.''
It was 1970 when Echohawk graduated from law school, and he didn't let any grass grow under his feet. NARF was born the same year, and he was on the ground floor. ''The federal government was still in the mentality of terminating tribes, but that began changing as we started bringing these cases.
''Also in 1970, Nixon became the first president to officially embrace the idea of Indian self-determination and reject termination. Still, it took time; I think many people in 1970 just couldn't believe the treaties were still applicable and the tribes could exercise sovereign authority.''
He added that another aspect of the ''war on poverty'' that ensued during the 1970s ''dealt with the provision of legal services to poor people by the federal government. They realized that millions had no legal representation because they couldn't afford a lawyer.''
Legal aid services were established around the country, and ''some of the brightest students coming out of law school ended up on reservations. There, they basically stumbled onto the area of Indian law on their own. They realized the potential - all these unrepresented clients - and ended up collaborating with those of us coming out of the U&M program,'' said Echohawk. ''I had a summer job with these folks. It was a way to connect what was going on in the field with what we had studied in the formal setting.''
The rest is history. NARF has enjoyed 35 years of success and, in the process, has changed the lives of Indian people. Echohawk has been there the entire time.
''We've been real fortunate to work on these issues of importance to Indian country. There are a lot of people out there that need help. We have a lot of work to do and will keep doing it as long as we can generate the support we need,'' Echohawk said.
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