Posts Tagged ‘lloyd l. house’
From Cindy Yurth, Tséyi’ Bureau, Navajo Times:
Native American state legislators have made significant contributions toward the status of Natives in this country – yet their work has largely gone unrecognized and unappreciated, said a Minnesota university professor who is co-authoring a book on them.
David E. Wilkins (Lumbee), a former Diné College professor who currently teaches law, political science and American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota, has been researching the nation’s Native legislators since 2002.
Wilkins says he has become convinced that Native nations would not be where they are today, in terms of sovereignty and civil rights, without the presence of Natives in the statehouses.
“Native lawmakers have been proactive in drafting legislation that benefits not only their own tribes, but other (Indian) nations,” Wilkins said in a telephone interview from his Minneapolis office. “At the same time, I’m finding that they take seriously their responsibility to the non-Natives in their districts.”
Tags: david e. wilkins, Dine College, lloyd l. house, Native politics, native representatives