Washington: Indian Affairs official addresses LDS group
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WASHINGTON, D.C.
Larry Echo Hawk, assistant secretary for Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior, encouraged LDS students in Washington D.C. to make a difference in the lives of others. Speaking at the Barlow Center on March 31, Brother Echo Hawk shared personal stories of his Pawnee Indian heritage and his experiences as a football player, attorney, law professor and public servant. Each has taught him the importance of hard work and giving back.
"You have the ability to be an answer to prayer, an instrument in the hands of God," he said. "Become the hands of the Lord and find out where to give service."
As he crisscrosses the country tending to the needs and trust lands of the nation's 565 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska native tribes, Brother Echo Hawk believes he is in a unique position to help others. He also believes he's a long way from his roots in Farmington, N. M., the place his father settled the family after years of following work in the oil fields.
"I don't fit the mainstream of American society very well because of who I am and where I came from," noted Brother Echo Hawk. He explained that his name came from his great-grandfather, who earned it by being brave as a hawk and so humble that others had to speak of his deeds, "like an echo from one part of the village to another."
Brother Echo Hawk's family story is part of what he called "a tragic chapter in American history." In 1874, the U.S. government forced the Pawnee out of their homeland, in the area that is now Nebraska, by marching them to Oklahoma Indian territory. An Indian nation that once numbered over 20,000 dwindled to a mere 700 by the time the tribe reached Oklahoma.
"They went from a free, independent and self-sustaining people to a dependent people existing on rations issued by the government," Brother Echo Hawk pointed out. He added that succeeding generations continue to struggle to maintain their Indian identity as they seek work and an education. In his career, he has worked to help them succeed.
Brother Echo Hawk was on the faculty at the BYU law school in 2009 when Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar offered him the job in Washington with the words, "Your country is calling you into service." As a former Marine, Brother Echo Hawk respected the call of duty, but he took time to ponder the stunning implication that he would now become the face of the federal government.
He accepted this public service as "a high calling," embracing it with a commitment to improve lives and follow the law. He believes he is where the Lord wants him to be and hopes he is a good example of a Latter-day Saint.
"It was time to suit up again," he said, likening his situation to that of his days as a football player preparing for a tough game. It's a challenge, he says, that is the toughest but most rewarding of his life.
Brother Echo Hawk was 14 when he joined the Church with his family. Soon after, he attended an Indian Youth Conference where Elder Spencer W. Kimball, then of the Quorum of the Twelve, said he envisioned the young people becoming leaders of their own people as lawyers and elected officials of cities and states.
A conscientious priests quorum adviser, Richard Boren, also reached out to the young teenager and became his physical and spiritual coach. He helped Larry Echo Hawk train his body for the sports he loved — particularly football — while also conditioning his mind and heart to receive the teachings of the Book of Mormon.
He suffered a serious eye injury in high school. Confined to bed with bandaged eyes and with no assurance that he would see or play football again, he recalled Brother Boren's challenge to read the Book of Mormon. Brother Echo Hawk said he prayed that if his eyesight was restored, he would read 10 pages of the Book of Mormon each day.
Not only did he regain his vision, but he also said he began to realize that the Book of Mormon was about his own people, who had been smitten but not destroyed. He prayed and received a testimony of the book itself.
"I've never had a greater spiritual experience than that night when I knelt to ask if the Book of Mormon was true."
He later received a football scholarship to BYU, where he played from 1966-1969, and then he focused on a legal career to help "lift the Indian people." He holds a law degree from the University of Utah and attended graduate school at Stanford University. After practicing law in California and Utah, he moved to Idaho to become the Chief General Legal Counsel to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in 1977. He later served two terms in the Idaho House of Representatives and became the first American Indian to be elected to the office of state attorney general when he became Idaho's attorney general in 1990.
The Barlow Center Speaker Series is sponsored by the BYU Washington Seminar, Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, and the Public and International Office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
