A SEAT AT THE TABLE:
More Information On Dialog Participants

BIO FOR HOST, HUSTON SMITH
Professor of the History of the World's Religions

Professor Huston Smith is widely regarded as the most eloquent and accessible contemporary authority on the history of religions. A leading figure in the comparative philosophy of religion, he has taught at Washington University, MIT, and Syracuse University. He currently teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. His classic study, The World's Religions has sold over two and a half million copies. His recent book, Why Religion Matters was a New York Times best seller. His other works include Forgotten Truth, Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, Primordial Truth and Postmodern Theology, One Nation Under God: The Triumph of the Native American Church (with Reuben Snake), Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals, and his most recent book, with Phil Cousineau, The Way Things Are. Dr. Smith is also an accomplished filmmaker. His three-part series on world religion in the 1950s is widely regarded as a classic.

FEATURED AMERICAN INDIAN LEADERS
Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee);
Senior Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund (NARF)
A history & overview of the American Indian struggle for religious freedom

Walter Echo-Hawk is a courtroom attorney, political activist, lobbyist, tribal Judge and scholar. He has worked on cases involving Native American religious freedom, prisoner rights, water rights, treaty rights, and reburial and repatriation rights. He was a leader in the Indian civil rights campaign to obtain passage of the "Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act". In 1992-94, Walter led national NARF efforts to secure federal legislation to protect Native American religious freedom.

Mr. Echo-Hawk is a member of the Carter Center's International Human Rights Council. He has been profiled in Notable Native Americans (1995) and other publications, such as People Magazine. A prolific writer, his publications include an award winning book Battlefields and Burial Grounds (1994). He has received various awards including the American Bar Association "Spirit of Excellence Award" for legal work in the face of adversity (1996).

Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabeg);
Founding Director, White Earth Land Recovery Project
Native religions & the Earth; pollution & clear cutting as religious persecution

Winona LaDuke is an Internationally acclaimed activist. She is Founding Director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project and the Indigenous Women's Network. She is also Program Director for The Honor The Earth Fund. She is the author of 2 books; "Last Standing Woman" and "All Our Relations". In 1994 she was named by Time Magazine one of America's 50 most promising leaders under 40. In the 1996 and 2000 Presidential campaigns, she served as Ralph Nader's running mate for the Green Party. In 1997, along with The Indigo Girls, she was named a Ms. Woman Of The Year. In 1988, she received the Reebok Human Rights Award.

Charlotte Black Elk (Lakota);
Primary Advocate for protection of the Black Hills
Protection of The Black Hills & Native access to sacred sites

Charlotte Black Elk is Oglala Lakota. She is a primary advocate for the protection of the Black Hills, and lives with her family on The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Doug George-Kanentiio (Akwesasne Mohawk);
Journalist / Activist
Destruction of Native languages & resulting damage to Native ceremonies
Chairman of Round Dance Productions, Inc., a non-profit cultural foundation formed specifically for the preservation and development of indigenous North American language, history, music and art.

As a former Mohawk Nation delegate to the Haudenosaunee Standing Committee on Burial Rules and Regulations, Kanentiio was involved in coordinating the return of Iroquois sacred objects from museums across the United States. From 1993-2000 his articles were published weekly basis in the Syracuse Herald American. His columns have also appeared the L.A. Times, The Washington Post, Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette, The London Free Press, Schenectady Gazette and the Albany Times Union. He is a correspondent for News From Indian Country and Akwesasne Notes. He is the author of the books "Skywoman" and "Iroquois Culture and Commentary" as well as a contributor to "Treaty of Canandaigua". During the 1994 UNITY conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Kanentiio was presented with the "Wassaja Award" for contributions to journalism , the highest honor bestowed by the Native American Journalists Association.

Lenny Foster (Dine)
Director/Spiritual Advisor, Navajo Nation Corrections Project
Injustices faced by incarcerated Native Americans

Lenny Foster is the Director of the Corrections Project of the Navajo Nation Department of Behavioral Health Services. He is a spiritual advisor for approximately 2000 Native American inmates in 96 state prisons and federal penitentiaries across the US. Mr. Foster has authored state legislation in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah permitting American Indian religious practices for prisoners. He has testified as an expert witness before U.S. District Court hearings; on the Native American Free Exercise of Religion Act before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, before the UN Human Rights Commission on Racism in Geneva, Switzerland and before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He is a board member of the International Indian Treaty Council; is the National Coordinator for the National Native American Prisoners Rights Advocates Coalition; and a member of the American Friends Service Committee Native American Task Force. He participated in many American Indian Movement campaigns from 1969 to 1981 including the Occupation of Alcatraz; The Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan; Wounded Knee; The Longest Walk ; and Big Mountain. He has traveled extensively to Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Holland, South Africa, Switzerland, Guatemala, Chile, England, and New Zealand as Indian Rights activist. He has also received many awards and accolades for his work.

Tonya Gonnella Frichner (Onondaga);
President, American Indian Law Alliance
Spiritual threat to Indigenous peoples by the Human Genome Diversity Project

Tonya Frichner is a lawyer and activist, devoted to the pursuit of human rights for Indigenous peoples. In 1987, she served as a delegate for and was legal counsel to the Haudenosaunee at the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights/Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva, Switzerland. Since then Ms. Frichner has been an active participant in international forums affecting Indigenous peoples including the establishment of the Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues, the negotiation processes concerning the draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the proposed OAS Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She was awarded the Harriet Tubman Humanitarian Achievement Award and the Female Role Model of the Year (one of 10) of the Ms. Foundation for Women, among others.

Guy Lopez (Crow Creek Sioux);
Sacred Lands Specialist, Association on American Indian Affairs
Disrespect of Apache beliefs by University of Arizona & Jesuit Astrophysicists

Guy Lopez is Coordinator of the Sacred Lands Protection Program for the Association on American Indian Affairs. He also serves as a national coordinator of the Sacred Places Protection Coalition. From 1988 until '94, Mr. Lopez was International Campaign Organizer for the Student Environmental Action Coalition and the ASEED Indigenous Hub. He organized youth participation in the UN Earth Summit and has coordinated events for the Mt. Graham and Apache Survival Coalitions. From 1999 until 2001, he was Policy Analyst for the Center for Biological Diversity, responsible for their program focusing on the Endangered Species Act and Indigenous Peoples.

Joanne Shenandoah (Oneida)
Grammy Award Nominated Singer, Composer and Voice Over Artist
Narrates the documentary and sings to the Opening Session of the Parliament

Joanne Shenandoah; Wolf Clan member of the Oneida Nation, Iroquois Confederacy, was the "2002 - Native Artist of the Year". She has won a Native American Music Award 9 times and is a Grammy nominee. Ms. Shenandoah is one of America's most prolific aboriginal artists. With 12 albums to her credit, Shenandoah's music is heard on Bose sounds systems as well as on PBS, HBO, CBS, and Discovery Channel documentaries and television shows. www.joanneshenandoah.com. The Associated Press said of her, "Joanne Shenandoah has become the most critically acclaimed Native American Singer of her time."

participants

Legendary Professor of religious studies, Huston Smith (The World's Religions) hosts one-on-one conversations with eight American Indian leaders.

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