Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Suzan Shown Harjo to Speak at UNLV

A Public Lecture with Suzan Shown Harjo

Monday, November 9th, 2015 | 4 pm - 6 pm

Thomas and Mack Moot Court Room

UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law (BSL)

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee) is president and executive director of the Morning Star Institute, a national Native rights organization founded in 1984 for Native peoples' traditional and cultural advocacy, arts promotion, and research. She is a poet, writer, journalist, lecturer, curator, and policy advocate. She is one of seven prominent Native people who led Harjo et al. v. Pro Football, Inc., a lawsuit challenging the name of the Washington football team. As a result of the ongoing legal battle, a federal court voided the team’s trademark in July 2015.

In addition to her work on mascot issues, Dr. Harjo helped pass the 1996 Executive Order on Indian Sacred Sites, the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the 1989 National Museum of the American Indian Act, and the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act. She also served as a founding trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian and was a 2004 Dobkin Artist Fellow for Poetry at the School of American Research in Santa Fe. Most recently, she has worked to oppose canonization of Father Junípero Serra, the founder of the mission system in California, a system responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Native people. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.

Sponsored by the William S. Boyd School of Law and the following co-sponsors: College of Liberal Arts, the Office of Diversity Initiatives, University Libraries, the American Indian Alliance, the Native American Student Association, the Department of English and the Department of History

For the event flyer, click here.