Board Chair, Author, and Attorney
Walter Echo-Hawk is a past President of the Pawnee Nation Business Council, author, attorney, jurist, and legal scholar. In 2023, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He authored The Sea of Grass (2018); In The Light Of Justice (2013); In the Courts of the Conqueror (2010); and Battlefields and Burial Grounds (1994). A Pawnee Indian with a BA, Political Science, Oklahoma St. Univ. (1970) and JD, UNM (1973), he practices law in Oklahoma. In the field of philanthropy and nonprofit service, he is Chair, Board of Directors, Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM); member, Board of Directors, The MICA Group; and member, Board of Directors, Pawnee Evening Star Fund. As a staff attorney of the Native American Rights Fund (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.