2012-01: To honor the life and achievements of Alan Robert Lovesee (posthumous)

WHEREAS, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was established in 1970 for the purpose of advocating, planning, and promoting the unique and special educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, NIEA, as the largest national Indian organization of American Indians, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian educators, administrators, parents, and students in the United States, provides a forum to discuss and act upon issues affecting the education of Indian and Native people; and

WHEREAS, through its unique relationship with Indian nations and tribes, the federal government has established programs and resources to meet the educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, residing on and off their reserved or non-reserved homelands; and

WHEREAS, Alan Lovesee was born February 27, 1949 and passed away September 1, 2012; and

WHEREAS, Alan Lovesee served as legislative counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Education and Labor Committee from 1976 to 1995 and worked to improve American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian education for thousands of students receving numerous awards and distictions for his efforst; and

WHEREAS, Alan Lovesee served as the Assistant Director of the Institute of American Indian Arts from 1995 to 1997, as Director of Congressional Relations for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma from 2000 to 2012, and as a member of the Jones Academy Education Board; and

WHEREAS, Alan Lovesee has been commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel for his work in the field of American Indian, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian education and was able to insert language in the Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988 which declared that “Congress repudiates and rejects House Concurrent Resolution 108 of the 83rd Congress and any policy of unilateral termination of federal relations with any Indian nation”,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that NIEA honors and recognizes the lifetime work, efforts and accomplishments of one truly good man dedicated to improving and preserving the education opportunities for the American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiians students.