Without Disclosing My True Identity
century and a half to call an Indian to serve as an LDS General Authority. Nearly a quarter-century
later, only the second Native American was called and sustained by a vote of the people as a General
Authority of the LDS/Mormon Church. That event occurred on 31 Mar. 2012, when Larry Echo
Hawk, a lawyer and an “urban, non-based, enrolled member”() of the Pawnee Nation, was called as
a member of the First Quorum of Seventy, the selfsame body in which Dr. Lee had served in good
faith for some fourteen years.
Upon receiving that ecclesiastical calling, Echo Hawk promptly resigned from his position as
Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs (ASIA), being the top-ranking official in the Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA) at the time. (See, e.g., “Top BIA official Larry Echo Hawk resigns to take LDS Church post,” Deseret
News, 1 Apr. 2012, Deseret Media Companies, 11 Apr. 2012
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765565091/Top-BIA-official-resigns-to-take-LDS-Church-
post.html.)
But those accolades do not accurately reflect the angst expressed by numerous Indian tribes
and nations prior to Echo Hawk’s confirmation by the Senate during the early part of the Obama
Administration, owing to his actions that were knowingly contrary to Federal/Indian law while he
served as Attorney General for the state of Idaho. He later apologized to the native peoples of
Idaho for “the controversies [his actions had] spawned,” as well as attempted to make amends
with his fellow Indians elsewhere—“who felt he did not have the commitment to Indian
Country required for that important office”—in order to gain support for his nomination to the
BIA. The extensive documentary evidence of these facts can be seen at: “STATEMENT
REGARDING THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF LARRY ECHOHAWK’S NOMINATION FOR THE
OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,” Crowell Law Office | Tribal
Advocacy Group, 10 Apr. 2009, Crowell Law Offices, 11 Apr. 2012
http://www.crowelllawoffice.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10&Itemid=11.
() An expression sometimes used to define an enrolled Indian who does not live under
Treaty rights, meaning one who is not based on a reservation and has little or no personal experience
with traditional Indian life; i.e., “an urban Indian.”