2024 CDR John Herrington
2022 Archie Mason
2020 Walter Echo-Hawk
2018 Dr. Henrietta Mann
2016 Sam Proctor
2014 Ruthe Blalock Jones
2012 Kirke Kickingbird
2010 Billy Mills
2008 Neal McCaleb
2006 Wilma Mankiller
2004 Charles Chibitty
2020 Circle of Honor
Honoring Walter Echo-Hawk
Author, attorney and legal scholar Walter Echo-Hawk, Pawnee, has been a Native American rights attorney since 1973. As staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund until 2009, he represented Indian Tribes, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians on significant legal issues in the modern era of federal Indian law, during the rise of modern Indian nations in the tribal sovereignty movement. He was instrumental in the passage of landmark laws like the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments. He also has written extensively about the rise of modern Indian nations as a Native American author with first-hand experience.
Echo-Hawk has represented various Oklahoma tribes; served as a Justice on the Supreme Courts of the Pawnee Nation and Kickapoo Nation; taught Federal Indian Law at the University of Tulsa, Lewis & Clark and University of Hawaii law schools. He also serves as Chair, Board of Directors, Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums and is on the “Knowledge Givers” advisory board for Oklahoma’s American Indian Cultural Center and Museum.
