All events are in Central time unless specified.
Lecture

“The Sea of Grass: A Family Tale from the American Heartland”

Date:
Time:
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Center for Great Plains Studies
1155 Q St.
Lincoln NE 68588
Directions: 11th and Q streets
Contact:
Katie Nieland, (402) 472-3965, knieland2@unl.edu
Attorney and legal scholar Walter Echo-Hawk will speak about his new book “The Sea of Grass: A Family Tale from the American Heartland.”

Echo-Hawk spent time as a visiting scholar at the Center for Great Plains Studies while doing the research to develop this book. The historical fiction novel is inspired by real people and events that were shaped by the land, animals, and plants of the Central Plains and by the long sweep of Indigenous history in the grasslands. Major events are presented from a Pawnee perspective to capture the outlook of the Echo-Hawk ancestors. The oral tradition from 10 generations of Echo-Hawk’s family tell the stories of the spiritual side of Native life, and give voice to the rich culture and cosmology of the Pawnee Nation.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. This event is co-sponsored by the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs and is part of the 2018 Nebraska Book Festival. Visit http://bookfestival.nebraska.gov/2018/index.aspx for more information on the Festival’s events.

PRAISE for Echo-Hawk’s SEA OF GRASS:
“…a powerful evocation of the Native American Plains culture … written with notable perception, humility, and imagination. It tells the intricate and arresting story of a unique landscape, a people of profound resilience and pride, and a heritage that is rich and deeply human.” — N. Scott Momaday (Pulitzer-Prize winning author of “House Made of Dawn”)

“This is how the story of a people should be told. Whether read as a textbook, a novel, or a history, this history-told-as-a-novel is certain to become a standard study of the Native American experience.” — Roger Welsch (Nebraska folklorist and author)

“Walter Echo-Hawk has presented his people and our nation with a magnificent gift—his engrossing and amazing story of the Pawnee, told through his own family’s long history. His tale is filled with unforgettable people, heroism, tragedy, removal, poverty, unbreakable family ties, resilience, survival, and triumph. Your heart aches when Echo-Hawk tells of a Skiri band’s victory over the Sioux, only themselves and the tribe to become infected with their captives’ smallpox. Your heart soars when he tells of George Echo Hawk, a field hand who discovered oil under his small patch of inherited land and makes his big house the gathering-in place for his entire clan. This is an American story, the First American story, and a stunning page-turner.” — Richard Edwards (Director, Center for Great Plains Studies).

“This book vividly traces the extraordinarily difficult journey taken by ten generations of one Pawnee family … it is the story of us—the Pawnee people—and how we got to the Twenty-First Century through service, sacrifice and traditions passed down by our ancestors.” — Andrew Knife Chief (Executive Director, Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma)

Additional Public Info:
Parking is usually available in the Que Place parking garage attached to the Center.

https://www.unl.edu/plains/great-plains-great-ideas-paul-olson-seminars

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This event originated in Center for Great Plains Studies.