Selling Yarns

Australian Indigenous textiles and good business in the 21st century

 

Speakers

W. Richard West Jr.: Biography

Director, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institute

Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, W. Richard West Jr., a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and a Peace Chief of the Southern Cheyenne, is founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. West has devoted his professional life and much of his personal life to working with American Indians on cultural, educational, legal and governmental issues.

As director of the National Museum of the American Indian, West is responsible for guiding the successful opening of the three facilities that comprise the National Museum of the American Indian. He oversaw the creation and completion of the George Gustav Heye Center, a museum exhibition facility, which opened in New York City in 1994. He supervised the overall planning of the museum's Cultural Resources Center, which houses its vast 800,000-object collection in Suitland, Dr. West's philosophy and vision for the museum have been critical in guiding the architectural and program planning of the Mall museum, which opened on the National Mall in Washington in 2004.

West also devotes considerable time and energy to the museum's fund-raising efforts. To date, the museum has raised more than $100 million in non-federal funds for construction and the opening of the museum. West continues to oversee the fund-raising campaign of the museum, which also provides for an endowment and ongoing educational and outreach programs.

Before becoming director of the National Museum of the American Indian, West was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson, and, subsequently, in the Indian-owned Albuquerque law firm of Gover, Stetson, Williams and West, P.C. He served as general counsel and special counsel to numerous tribes and organizations. In that capacity, he represented clients before federal, state and tribal courts, various executive departments of the federal government and Congress.

W. Richard West Jr. received a Bachelor of Arts degree (major in American history) magna cum laude in 1965 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Redlands in California. He also received a master's degree in American history from Harvard University in 1968. West graduated from the Stanford University School of Law with a doctor of jurisprudence degree in 1971, where he also was the recipient of the Hilmer Oehlmann Jr. Prize for excellence in legal writing and served as an editor and note editor of the Stanford Law Review.

See also: Abstract of W. Richard West Jr.'s paper:
Native Weaving: Enduring Traditions of Life and Commerce