Native America Calling: Remembering civil rights pioneer Hank Adams

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Monday, January 15, 2024

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Remembering civil rights pioneer Hank Adams

An aide to President Richard Nixon once paid Hank Adams a backhanded compliment, saying he could speak both Indian and “American”.

As misguided as that praise is, it highlighted one of Adams’ gifts that helped him steer the armed standoff at Wounded Knee to a peaceful conclusion. Adams, who was Assiniboine from the Fort Peck Tribes, is probably best known for his dedicated fight for Native fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest that culminated in the Boldt Decision.

Join Native America Calling to remember the civil rights champion with some of the people who knew him best.

Hank Adams speaks at a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the historic Boldt decision in support of tribal treaty rights in 2014. Photo: Northwest Treaty Tribes / Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

Guests on Native America Calling

Dr. Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee), president of the Morning Star Institute and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Dr. David Wilkins (Lumbee), E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies at University of Richmond

Mark Trahant (Shoshone-Bannock), editor-at-large for ICT

Natalie Charley (Quinault and Assiniboine Sioux), Hank Adams’s niece