Donations big part of American Indian legal-defense fund

BOULDER ? John Echohawk is making sure that promises made are promises kept.

For the past 31 years, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), the non-profit he helped found, has been committed to protecting the legal rights of American Indian tribes throughout the United States.

“(NARF) addresses a lack of legal representation available to Indian tribes, organizations and individuals throughout the country,´ said Echohawk, who has served as executive director of NARF since 1977.

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Prior to the organization’s founding in 1970, poverty stood in the way of legal representation for many American Indians. As a result, Echohawk said people’s rights were not being upheld, and the laws protecting those rights were not being enforced. “If you don’t have lawyers, your rights are meaningless,” he said.

From its headquarters in Boulder and offices in Washington, D.C. and Anchorage, Alaska, NARF raises money to make lawyers available to tribes that have major legal issues they can’t afford to address.

NARF is modeled after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s legal-defense fund, which was founded in the 1960s during the civil rights movement to provide legal representation for blacks who otherwise could not afford to hire an attorney. When Echohawk and NARF’s other founders saw the effect that organization was having, they decided to do the same thing for American Indians.

The Ford Foundation gave NARF its first grant ,and for the past 30 plus years, the organization has been raising funds from a variety of sources, including individuals, foundations, government, corporations and tribal contributions.

NARF has 501(c)3 status, meaning the organization is exempt from paying taxes on contributions. Echohawk said NARF also has an endowment, providing the organization with investment income, as well. NARF also asks its clients to pay whatever they can.

NARF’s operating budget for 2001 is about $7.3 million, coming primarily from donations, grants and investments. Forty-six percent of the budget is from donations, 38 percent from grants and 8 percent from investments. That’s up from $7.1 million in 2000 and $6.7 million in 1999.

Echohawk, a Pawnee, developed an interest in Indian law while in law school at the University of New Mexico. “Our people had substantial rights, and I learned why those rights were not being recognized and enforced,” he said.

Echohawk said he was part of a first wave of American Indian attorneys that received scholarship help from the federal government as part of its war on poverty. He was the first graduate of the university’s special program to train American Indian lawyers and a founding member of the American Indian Law Students Association. He is recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the nation’s top100 most influential lawyers.

One case handled by NARF that stands out in Echohawk’s mind concerns American Indian rights to salmon fisheries. In the 1960s, American Indian tribes living in Franks Landing, Wash. were fishing for salmon. “The state of Washington kept arresting them, saying the treaties were not valid,” Echohawk said.

In 1979, the federal government intervened. “U.S. vs. Washington resulted in a court decision that held that the Indian treaties are the law of the land, and that they protect the rights of the Indians to take up salmon fisheries,” he said.

NARF has 14 lawyers on staff representing clients throughout the country. Ten attorneys are based in Boulder; two are in the Washington, D.C. office; and two are in NARF’s office in Anchorage, Alaska. Echohawk said they have about 50 cases going on at any one time around the county.

Echohawk said NARF is governed by a board of directors made up of American Indians. Board members set priorities and focus on three major areas: protection of sovereignty as governments; protection of natural resources; and protection of human rights, including cultural and religious rights.

Echohawk said the most important concept often misunderstood by the public is that Indian tribes are sovereign governments. “Treaties are made between nations, governments and sovereigns. Treaties are not ancient history, they are the law of the land today,” he said.

Resistance to basic concepts, particularly the notion of modern-day American Indian sovereigns, also is one of the greatest challenges NARF has faced since its inception. For one, protection of sovereignty has led to assertion of land claims in the east. Echohawk said tribes are involved in land claims in the New England region and in the states of New York, South Carolina and Texas, among others.

Water rights are a point of contention in the West. “Water rights of tribes in the West take precedence over most non-Indian uses,” Echohawk said.

NARF is challenging trademark renewal for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League and took the lead on establishing litigation holding that tribal members are the owners of the bodies and burial goods of their ancestors. Legislation passed in 1990 required the return of religious and cultural items to these tribes.

Since NARF was founded, Echohawk said the rights of tribes have come to be recognized and respected. That wasn’t always the case. “Federal Indian policy in the 1960s pushed toward termination of tribes,” Echohawk said. “We stopped that and started a new Indian policy of self-determination.”

Under the new policy, Echohawk said conditions for tribes in the United States have improved. More American Indians have gained access to legal representation, and there are more attorneys involved in the field of Indian law.

In the future, Echohawk said NARF will continue with the progress it has already made. “Tribes are continually challenged on all of these issues. All of these issues continue.” Contact Anjanette Mudd at (303) 440-4950 or e-mail amudd@bcbr.com.