Alvin J. Ziontz

"ALVIN" is the story of a life - a career as a lawyer defending Indian tribes and a parallel career in photography. The writer, 87, tells stories; stories of a young man from a middle class Jewish family in Chicago, a voracious reader with a talent for art and music, yet seeking out the work of a manual laborer, a story of racial bigotry in the U. S. Army, the story of his rise from a mediocre law student to the founder of a law firm in Seattle that became a national leader in the defense of tribal sovereignty, the story of the love of "Lennie", the girl he married and her conquest of cancer, the story of his children and their lives, and the story of his immersion in the art of photography. The stories include devoting his lawyer's skills to exonerate a mailman wrongly accused of stealing from the mails, arguing a case in the Supreme Court, persuading a court that his client's possession of gold bullion was not a crime, debating an "Equal Protection" issue with the future Justice of the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, meeting John F. Kennedy, litigating a Rabbi's will by crossing swords with the highest authority in Orthodox Judaism and his part in the struggle of American Indian tribes to reconstruct their tribal governments.

In his memoir, Alvin Ziontz reflects on his more than thirty years representing Indian tribes, from a time when Indian law was little known through landmark battles that upheld tribal sovereignty. He discusses the growth and maturation of tribal government and the underlying tensions between Indian society and the non-Indian world. A Lawyer in Indian Country presents vignettes of reservation life and recounts some of the memorable legal cases that illustrate the challenges faced by individual Indians and tribes. As the senior attorney arguing U. S. v. Washington, Ziontz was a party to the historic 1974 Boldt decision that affirmed the Pacific Northwest tribes' treaty fishing rights, with ramifications for tribal rights nationwide. His work took him to reservations in Montana, Wyoming, and Minnesota, as well as Washington and Alaska, and he describes not only the work of a tribal attorney but also his personal entry into the life of Indian country. Ziontz continued to fight for tribal rights into the late 1990s, as the Makah tribe of Washington sought to resume its traditional whale hunts. Throughout his book, Ziontz traces his own path through this public history - one man's pursuit of a life built around the principles of integrity and justice.

In his memoir, Alvin Ziontz reflects on his more than thirty years representing Indian tribes, from a time when Indian law was little known through landmark battles that upheld tribal sovereignty. He discusses the growth and maturation of tribal government and the underlying tensions between Indian society and the non-Indian world. A Lawyer in Indian Country presents vignettes of reservation life and recounts some of the memorable legal cases that illustrate the challenges faced by individual Indians and tribes. As the senior attorney arguing U. S. v. Washington, Ziontz was a party to the historic 1974 Boldt decision that affirmed the Pacific Northwest tribes' treaty fishing rights, with ramifications for tribal rights nationwide. His work took him to reservations in Montana, Wyoming, and Minnesota, as well as Washington and Alaska, and he describes not only the work of a tribal attorney but also his personal entry into the life of Indian country. Ziontz continued to fight for tribal rights into the late 1990s, as the Makah tribe of Washington sought to resume its traditional whale hunts. Throughout his book, Ziontz traces his own path through this public history - one man's pursuit of a life built around the principles of integrity and justice.