Strickland to be Featured Speaker at 34th Annual Symposium on the American Indian

Strickland to be Featured Speaker at 34th Annual Symposium on the American Indian

TAHLEQUAH - An expert on American Indian law and Philip H. Knight Professor of Law at the University of Oregon School of Law, Dr. Rennard Strickland will be a featured speaker during the 34th Annual Symposium on the American Indian. Themed "Native Roots Run Deep, " the symposium runs April 5-8, 2006 on the Northeastern State University campus in Tahlequah.

Additional events include traditional art demonstrations and a Cherokee language forum celebrating the new Cherokee bachelor's degree program at Northeastern. There will be a Native Language Revitalization seminar offering one-hour college credit to participants on April 6-7. The Symposium will conclude with the Annual NSU Powwow on April 8.

A legal historian of Osage and Cherokee heritage, Strickland is considered a pioneer in introducing Indian law into university curriculum. He has written and edited more than 35 books and is frequently cited by courts and scholars for his work as revision editor in chief of the Handbook of Federal Indian Law. Strickland has been involved in the resolution of a number of significant Indian cases. He was the founding director of the Center for the Study of American Indian Law and Policy at the University of Oklahoma. He is the first person to have served both as president of the Association of American Law Schools and as chair of the Law School Admissions Council. He is also the only person to have received both the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) Award and the American Bar Association's Spirit of Excellence Award. Strickland was the dean of the University of Oklahoma Law School from 1997 to 2002.

Dr. Strickland will be joined by other featured speakers including Kevin Locke (Lakota), a noted cultural educator, hoop dancer, and flute player; Joy Harjo (Muscogee/Creek)), an internationally known poet, performer, writer, musician, and professor of English at the University of California-Los Angeles; Dr. Akira Yamamoto, an expert in Native American Linguistics and professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas; Wilma Mankiller (Cherokee), a noted author and former Chief of the Cherokee Nation; and Robert Conley (Cherokee), an award-winning novelist and poet.

The 34th Annual Symposium on the American Indian is sponsored by Northeastern State University, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Oklahoma Humanities Council, and the Okalahoma Arts Council.

3/22/2006

Published: 2006-03-22 00:00:00