Pioneer in Indian Law to Speak at TU March 28 as Fifth Annual Buck Franklin Civil Rights Lecturer

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Published on 2/15/05

Rennard Strickland, who pioneered the inclusion of Indian law in the university curriculum, will speak on “The Indian Dilemma: Impossible Choices and Unfulfilled Promises” at The University of Tulsa College of Law’s fifth annual Buck Colbert Franklin Memorial Civil Rights Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 28. The event is part of the Presidential Lecture Series and will be held in Kendall Hall at TU. Parking is available at Fifth Place and Florence Avenue.

Strickland is the Philip H. Knight Professor of Law and former dean at the University of Oregon School of Law. He is often cited for his work as revision editor in chief of the Handbook of Federal Indian Law.

Of Osage and Cherokee heritage, Strickland is a native of Muskogee, Okla. He was professor and acting dean at TU’s College of Law in the mid-1970s, and the John W. Shleppey Research Professor of Law and History at TU, 1977-1985. He served as law dean at Southern Illinois University, 1985-1988, and at Oklahoma City University 1995-1997. From 1990 to 1995, he was the founding director of the Center for the Study of American Indian Law and Policy at the University of Oklahoma.

“Rennard is a distinguished scholar whose work has elevated the visibility and importance of Indian civil rights,” said TU President Steadman Upham, a colleague of Strickland’s at Oregon. Paul Finkelman, Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law at TU, calls Strickland, “the most important scholar of Native American law in the country.”

The Buck Colbert Franklin lecture is named in honor of one of the first black attorneys in Oklahoma, who represented victims of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, e-mail rita-langford@utulsa.edu or call (918) 631-2560.