The UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law and The Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution present the 2023 Memorial Beecroft Lecture, "Truth. Regardless of Reconciliation?"

Visiting speakers Professor Michael Moffitt and Bobbie Connor will discuss the following: On June 3, 1850, five Cayuse Indians were executed for the killing of missionary Marcus Whitman and several other settlers, even though they almost certainly were not responsible. Their burial locations remain unknown, preventing repatriation, reconciliation, or whatever other steps might be appropriate today. History presents no shortage of injustices. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions present opportunities in some of those contexts, but the fit is imperfect (at best) in others. What does the ongoing search for the burial locations of the Cayuse Five look like today, and what generalizable questions and perspectives might that search offer to those engaged in various forms of conflict resolution?

Presenters

• Professor Michael Moffitt holds the Philip H. Knight Chair in Law at the University of Oregon, where he also teaches as faculty-in-residence at the Clark Honors College. Professor Moffitt previously served for six years as the Dean of the Law School at Oregon and for two years as the Roger D. Fisher Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Immediately after law school, he served as law clerk to United States District Judge Ann Aldrich.  Professor Moffitt spent several years as a consultant with Conflict Management Group, designing and delivering mediation services and negotiation workshops for public and private sector clients in two dozen countries.
• Bobbie Conner is the director of Tamástslikt  (Tah-MAHST-slickt) Cultural Institute, the 45,000 square foot tribally-owned museum on the Umatilla Reservation near Pendleton, Oregon, which opened in 1998. The Institute serves three goals: to accurately present the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla peoples’ history, to perpetuate knowledge of their history and culture, and to contribute to the Tribal economy. Bobbie is Cayuse, Umatilla and Nez Perce, is enrolled at the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla, and is a graduate of Pendleton High School, the University of Oregon, and Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management.

Schedule

• 5:30 p.m. - Welcome and Introductions
• 5:40 p.m. - Program
• 6:30 p.m. - Q&A
• 6:45 p.m. - Reception sponsored by the State Bar of Nevada Alternative Dispute Resolution Section