Published: Jan. 26, 2017

CU Law and CNAIS Core faculty, Charles Wilkinson will be delivering the Department of History's annual Athearn Lecture this year.

"Writing a Tribal History: My Long and Rewarding Journey with the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon."

DATE: Thurs. Jan. 26, 2017

TIME: 5 PM - a reception will follow the lecture

WHERE: Eaton Humanities 150

Althearn poster

Charles Wilkinson at CU Boulder

Dr. Charles Wilkinson

Professor Wilkinson's primary specialties are federal public land law and Indian Law. Most recently he's been in the news for his role in the Bear Ears Monument - see CNAIS story. His Law School bio page includes the following:

 In addition to his many articles in law reviews, popular journals, and newspapers, his fourteen books include the standard law texts on public land law and on Indian law. He also served as managing editor of Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the leading treatise on Indian law. The books he has written in recent years, such as 1992's The Eagle Bird, are aimed at a general audience, and they discuss society, history, and land in the American West. He won the Colorado Book Award for Messages From Frank's Landing, a profile of Billy Frank, Jr. of the Nisqually Tribe of western Washington. In his book, Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations, he poses what he calls "the most fundamental question of all: Can the Indian voice endure?"  In his latest book The People Are Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon, Professor Wilkinson writes about how the history of the Siletz Tribe is in many ways the history of many Indian tribes: a story of heartache, perseverance, survival, and revival. Prior to joining the faculty of Colorado Law School, Charles Wilkinson practiced law with private firms in Phoenix and San Francisco and then with the Native American Rights Fund

Photo of Dr. Robert Athearn

Dr. Athearn

The late Prof. Robert G. Athearn (1914–1983) was a professor of Western History at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1947 until his retirement in 1982.As part of his legacy, Dr. Athearn endowed a lectureship in the Department of History at the University of Colorado at Boulder to be held on topics in Western history.