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POCATELLO – Terry EchoHawk’s grandchildren inspired her to write Call Me Little Echo Hawk, a children’s book paying tribute to the family’s rich Native American heritage.
“One day my grandaughter Savannah ran an jumped into Larry’s lap and she was wearing her moccasins,” she said. “I thought, does she even know why she’s wearing those, does she understand where she comes from?”
         Her husband, former Idaho Attorney General Larry EchoHawk, a Pawnee from Oklahoma, was the first native American elected to a statewide office. He made a bid for the governor’s office in 1994 and was narrowly defeated by Phil Batt.
            “This is the story of a truly American family,” Terry EchoHawk said. “I didn’t want them to lose that.” The book depicts the life of Larry EchoHawk’s great grandfather and explains that Pawnee elders named young people by watching what they did.
            Kutawakutsu tuwaku-ah, literally translated means, “hawk who’s deeds are echoed.” EchoHawk earned the name because he was not only a skilled hunter and a kind and generous man, but he was humble as well.
            Kutawakutsu tuwaku-ah was forced onto the reservation in the 1850s. He passed his name on with an oral family history. His son, Elmer EchoHawk, remained on the reservation and struggled to keep traditions in tact.
           Larry EchoHawk’s parents, Ernest and Jane EchoHawk moved their family to New Mexico, but the family returned to Oklahoma at least twice a year and stayed connected to their traditional roots. All six of Ernest and Jane EchoHawk’s children graduated from college and three of their sons went on to earned law degrees.
            Terry EchoHawk said while the lives of Native Americans were heaped with struggle and repression, they also held great promise. “In just four generations, the family went from being forced on to the reservation and into boarding school to college educated professionals who are now going back to help the Pawnee people,” she said.
            Terry EchoHawk said her children remain connected to their Pawnee heritage. “If you ask them who they are, they’ll tell you ‘Native American.’ That’s part of their identity.”
            Ernest EchoHawk passed away last year and Jane recently moved to Boulder, Colorado, where three of her children live. Larry EchoHawk told his grandchildren to remember the story of Echo Hawk, and remember the kind of man he was and be proud of their Indian heritage.
            Savannah EchoHawk, 7, said she didn’t know about the family’s history until her grandfather shared it with her. Since then, she’s told all of her friends how she got her name. “They think it’s pretty cool,” she said.
           Call Me Little Echo Hawk is illustrated by Jim Madsen and has space for children to record the story of their own name and family history. “It’s a story that speaks to every child,” Terry EchoHawk said. “Every child has a name.”
            Larry and Terry EchoHawk have been married for 37 years and currently reside in Orem, Utah. They have six grandchildren and 20 grandchildren. Larry EchoHawk teaches law at the J. Reuben Clark law school at Brigham Young University.