Many of you have heard the debate on who will be the next U.S. Supreme Court justice. As you may know, no Native American currently sits on the federal bench anywhere.

President Barack Obama said he is looking for someone who shows empathy for people and has demonstrated a history of working for the defenseless. Many of us believe no one can fill those criteria better than John Echohawk, the executive director of the Native American Rights Fund.

But, now is the time to act. If you have a mailing list of tribal leaders please consider using it to encourage your fellow leaders to please consider John Echohawk.

This is not a mass mailing to all my Native friends. I've already done that and the effort has been picked up by Native Times, The Tulsa World, Indianz.com. the Nation and Pechanga.net to name a few, but this is an historic moment in a year full of historic moments. .

You have valuable list, send this out to your people. We can let people know that the change everyone voted for applied to Indians as well.

If you believe what I believe -- that John Echohawk deserves to be the next Supreme Court Justice -- then you have a chance to do something about it.

You can email the White House and say you support John Echohawk for the U.S. Supreme Court

Or you can call the White House and leave a message saying you support John Echohawk to be the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Better yet; do both.

Louis Gray, the former publisher of The Native American Times, is a member of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma.

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WaPo Chat: A Native American on Supreme Court (5/12)
Turtle Talk: Supreme Court nominees and Indian law (5/7)
ICT: John EchoHawk on Supreme Court cases (5/6)
Turtle Talk: Justice Souter's Indian law legacy (5/4)
Louis Gray: A Native nominee for the Supreme Court (5/1)
Justice David Souter to retire from Supreme Court (5/1)
Supreme Court delivers more bad news to tribes (04/07)