April 11, 2009

Brigham Young U. Law Professor Will Head Bureau of Indian Affairs

President Obama has chosen a Brigham Young University law professor, Larry EchoHawk, to be the Department of the Interior’s assistant secretary for Indian affairs. He will oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which provides services for 1.7 million American Indians and manages 66 million acres of tribal land.

Mr. EchoHawk, a member of the Pawnee tribe and a Democrat, teaches criminal law and federal Indian law at the university. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, he is a Mormon and a Brigham Young alumnus who was the first American Indian elected to a statewide office when he became Idaho’s attorney general, in 1990. In 1994 he ran for governor of Idaho but lost. He has taught at Brigham Young since. –Lawrence Biemiller