event • Conferences & Symposia

Native Peoples, Native Politics

Friday, April 29, 2016
Knafel Center
10 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Photo by Tony Rinaldo

Politics requires more than voting and electoral mobilization. It requires knowledge of law, organization, identity, history, and culture. This reality is very much evident in Native American life today, where Native communities are sovereign nations within the United States, yet must still negotiate politically within a federal democratic system that at times inconsistently honors their rights, their land and water, and their ways of life.

The Radcliffe Institute, in partnership with the Harvard University Native American Program, is hosting this conference to explore a range of mechanisms for political expression with leading members of Native communities, academics, policy makers, journalists, students, artists, and writers.

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This event at the Radcliffe Institute is part of the Initiative on Native and Indigenous Peoples.

Keynote Address

Introduction by Alyssa Mt. Pleasant (Tuscarora [patrilineal]), assistant professor of Native American studies, University at Buffalo; 2015–2016 Radcliffe Institute Fellow

Keynote Address by Robert Odawi Porter (Seneca Nation), senior advisor, Dentons US LLP; 67th President, Seneca Nation of Indians

Panel 1: Native Law and Legal Strategy

OPENING BLESSING

Jonathan Perry (Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head [Aquinnah]), tribal councilman

WELCOME

Lizabeth Cohen, dean of the Radcliffe Institute and Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies in the Department of History, Harvard University

INTRODUCTION

Daniel Carpenter, faculty director of the social sciences program at the Radcliffe Institute, member of the Provost’s Advisory Council on Native and Indigenous Issues, and Allie S. Freed Professor of Government in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University

PANEL 1: NATIVE LAW AND LEGAL STRATEGY

Moderated by Maggie McKinley (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), Climenko Fellow and lecturer on law, Harvard Law School

Richard Guest, attorney, Tribal Supreme Court Project, Native American Rights Fund

Diane J. Humetewa (Hopi), United States district judge, United States District Court, District of Arizona

Panel 2: Native Governance and Politics

Moderated by Daniel Carpenter

Karen Diver (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa), special assistant to the president for Native American affairs, White House; Former Chairwoman, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

John Dossett, general counsel, National Congress of American Indians

Sylvia McAdam (nêhiyaw Nations), cofounder, Idle No More