I am sorry to report that long-time University of Tulsa law professor Bill Rice passed away over the weekend. Cribbing a little from the University of Tulsa memorial:
It is with deep sadness that we announce that Professor G. William (“Bill”) Rice passed away Sunday, February 14, after an extraordinary career in practice and as an academic focusing on issues and rights of American Indians and indigenous people around the world. Rice, a member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, served as attorney general for the Sac and Fox Nation, chief justice for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, assistant chief and chief judge for the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma and associate justice for the Kickapoo Nation of Indians in Kansas. He was a tireless advocate for Indian tribes and Indian peoples, successfully arguing on behalf of the Sac and Fox Nation in the United States Supreme Court in Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Sac and Fox Nation, 508 U.S. 114 (1993). He played an active role in the United Nations Working Group on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which led to the UN General Assembly’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. When he began this work, Rice would frequently say “indigenous people – that’s ME!” with a twinkle in his eye. Clearly, his impact reaches from central Oklahoma to Geneva, Switzerland, and his passing is a great loss to many.
You can read the rest of the memorial here.
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