HUNTINGTON – The Amicus Curiae Lecture Series will welcome its final lecturer on April 7 at Marshall University.
The series is sponsored by the Simon Perry Center for Constitutional Democracy.
Dr. Frederick E. Hoxie will deliver a lecture titled: “If American Indians have rights in the United States, where did they come from? And what do they mean?”
Hoxie will describe how a succession of Native American leaders, including lawyers, diplomats, writers and politicians, “forged a vision of American citizenship that could accommodate indigenous people and recognize their unique place in the nation’s history and political life.”
Hoxie said they did this in a country whose Constitution’s opening phrase, “We the People,” did not envision them as citizens.
“Their victory – the creation of a legal space for Indian people within the legal framework of the United States – saved democracy, both for Native Americans and for everyone else,” Hoxie said.
Hoxie, the Swanlund Professor of History and Law at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is the author of eight highly regarded books on Native American history.
He is also is the general editor of The American Indians, a 23-volume series of books published by Time-Life, and series co-editor for Cambridge Studies in American Indian History.
In 2013, Hoxie was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“I am very excited that Dr. Hoxie, a scholar and writer who is highly regarded both nationally and internationally, is coming to Marshall,” said Patricia Proctor, director of the Simon Perry Center for Constitutional Democracy. “Many people in this area are quite interested in Native American history and I am sure his lecture will be entertaining as well as educational.”
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7 p.m. in the Brad D. Smith Foundation Hall.
The Amicus Curiae Lecture Series is supported by a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council.