Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will administer the oath of office to Larry Echo Hawk as Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs at a 10:00 a.m. ceremonial event on Friday, June 26, 2009, in the Sidney R. Yates Auditorium of the Main Interior Building.
Echo Hawk, 60, is an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. His nomination by President Obama was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 19, 2009. Prior to his appointment, Echo Hawk served for 14 years as a Professor of Law at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School where he taught federal Indian law, criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, criminal trial practice, and published several scholarly papers. A former U.S. Marine, Echo Hawk built a civilian law career that has included legal services, private practice, tribal counselor, county prosecutor, and election in 1990 as Attorney General for the state of Idaho, the first American Indian to achieve that distinction. In the mid-1980s, he served two consecutive terms in the Idaho House of Representatives.
Leaders of the Pawnee Nation will be in attendance along with members of the Echo Hawk family and representatives from other tribes and Native organizations. A Pawnee elder will perform an honoring blessing for the new assistant secretary.
