EchoHawk to lead the BIA

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

Carl Artman joins the Indian Legal Program faculty

I am pleased to report that Carl Artman has accepted the College of Law’s offer to become a Professor of Practice as part of our new initiative on economic development in Indian Country.

Carl J. Artman is currently a shareholder on the Godfrey & Kahn’s Indian Nations and Environmental & Energy Practice Groups. Prior to joining Godfrey & Kahn, Carl was the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs for the United States Department of the Interior in Washington, DC. He served also as the Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs at the Department. Prior to the appointments, Carl was Chief Legal Counsel for the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin in Green Bay. Carl has represented clients in environmental, corporate, emerging technologies, telecommunications and bankruptcy matters. Carl is licensed to practice in Wisconsin, Colorado and Pennsylvania. Carl currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center. He served on the Board of the Presidential Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities, Oneida Nation Electronics, Qubit Technology Inc., Airadigm Communications, Inc. and Personal Communications Industry Association. He was the Chairman of the Tribal Management Advisory Committee and the Tribal Budget Advisory Committee. He was a member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nation’s Convention to Eliminate Racial Discrimination. While at the Department of Interior, Carl served as a member of the Trust Executive Steering Committee, Climate Control Task Force Steering Committee and Fire Policy Council. He was a member of the Board of Governance for the National Indian Programs Training Center and the Board of Regents for the Haskell Indian Nations University. He served as an editor for the Denver Journal of International Law Policy.

Artman received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia College in Columbia, Mo., his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin Business School.

National NALSA Awards

Please join me in congratulating our ASU NALSA members and the COL alumnus who were honored by the National NALSA Executive Board at the Federal Bar Association’s Indian Law Conference last week. These students were nominated by the ASU Chapter of NALSA and voted on by the National NALSA Executive Board. Congratulations!

NNALSA Outstanding 1L of the Year – Khia Grinnell
NNALSA Outstanding 3L of the Year – Nikki Borchardt
NNALSA Outstanding Alum of the Year – Marlene Rae Jones (’97)