W. Richard West, Jr. To Keynote for Arizona State University’s Annual Conference on Native American Repatriation

Expert in cultural and graves repatriation will recount experience of the National Museum of the American Indian at 3rd annual ASU law conference

Tempe, Ariz. — January 22, 2010 — Founding Director and Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, Mr. W. Richard West, Jr. will provide a keynote presentation at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law’s annual conference — Repatriation at Twenty: A Gathering on Native Self-Determination and Human Rights.

The conference, which will be held January 28 and 29 in Tempe, Ariz., will feature experts from across the country in Native American sovereignty, repatriation and human rights. West will present a keynote lecture on January 29 about the “journey of cultural redemption” that resulted from Native American repatriation legislation passed in 1990.

“Twenty years after the watershed Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, we must remind ourselves of the tireless efforts of many at the National Museum of the American Indian to not only implement this seminal congressional act, but the impact it also had in empowering that Native cultural voice” said West, who served as the Founding Director of the National Museum of the American Indian for almost two decades. “It is an amazing story to tell, and I am especially honored to present it at this gathering.”

The two-day conference will feature other dignitaries in Native American self-determination including current director of the National Museum of the American Indian, Kevin Gover; executive director of the Arizona State University Indian Legal Program, Rebecca Tsosie; and representatives from various tribes including Gila River Indian Community, Ponca Nation, Tohono-O’odham Nation, Cherokee Nation, Oglala Lakota Nation, and San Carlos Apache, among others.

West, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, and is an Of Counsel attorney at the Stetson Law Offices, P.C. in Washington, D.C. where he specializes in sacred sites protection, graves repatriation, and cultural, art, and museum concerns. West was educated at University of Redlands, Harvard (M.A.), and Stanford University (J.D.) and is licensed in Washington, D.C. and California. He is member of the Executive Council, International Council of Museums; and a member of the National Support Committee, Native American Rights Fund. He is also on the Board of Trustees for the Ford Foundation, the National Conservation System Foundation, and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

About Stetson Law Offices, P.C.
Stetson Law Offices, P.C. is a minority-owned professional corporation formed in 1997 by Catherine Baker Stetson, the former managing partner of Gover, Stetson, Williams, & West P.C. The firm provides general legal services to tribes and tribal entities in many states, representing them in administrative, legislative, and judicial proceedings, sacred site protection and cultural preservation and in tribal, state, and federal forums. More information is available at the Stetson Law Offices website, http://www.stetsonlaw.com/.