Events › Indigenous Law Panel

THURS | NOV 16 | 5:30-7:30 PM | Library Auditorium

Join the Lawrence Public Library in partnership with local indigenous voices, leaders, activists, and Willow Domestic Violence Center to hear about the realities of violence experienced in our Indigenous Communities. We’ll have local indigenous voices speak to the work they are doing to combat violence on local, state, and federal levels, and opportunities for community members to support this work. This panel is geared towards individuals with an interest in learning more about violence, specifically gender-based violence, in Native American
communities, Indigenous law and solutions to this issue.

D'Arlyn Bell, will join us as moderator. She is is a leader of the Indigenous Community Center. She is a doctoral student in KU’s School of Public Affairs and Administration, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and an Indigenous Education Cobell Scholar. She advocates on MMIWG2ST issues and on Native American empowerment and visibility at KU and in Lawrence as a whole.

We'll have the following panelists join us for discussion:

• Christina Haswood (Diné/Navajo) is a State Legislator for the Kansas State House of Representatives House District 10. She is Policy Chair in the House Democrat Leadership and is known for her Native American and Public Health policy expertise. Christina is widely known for her usage of social media in politics and building the bench for young Kansans to be involved in state politics. Christina currently sits on the Federal and State Affairs, Health and Human Services, Taxation, and the Joint Committee and State and Tribal Relations
• Professor Sarah Deer, is a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas and Chief Justice for the Prairie Island Indian Community Court of Appeals. Justice Deer’s legal scholarship focuses on the challenges facing Tribal Nation in the United States, particularly criminal justice. Her 2015 book, The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America is the culmination of over 25 years of working with survivors and criminal justice personnel and has received several awards. As a tribal jurist and scholar, Justice Deer’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of federal Indian law and victims’ rights, using indigenous principles as a framework. She currently teaches at the University of Kansas (her alma mater), where she holds a joint appointment in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Indigenous Studies Program and a Courtesy Appointment at the School of Law.
• Sierra Two Bulls, is an Oglala Lakota originally from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and has called Lawrence, Kansas her second home since 2012. She is the Haskell/KU Exchange Program Coordinator at the University of Kansas as well as an adjunct social work instructor at Haskell Indian Nations University. Sierra proudly serves as a current board member of the Indigenous Community Center as well as for the Willow Domestic Violence Center and the Lawrence Douglas County Public Health- Health & Equity Advisory Board. She is also a member of our local MMIWG2ST Chapter.