G. WILLIAM RICE
1951 - 2016
G. William “Bill” Rice, a longtime Attorney and Professor of Native Law at the University of Tulsa, passed away on Sunday, February 14, 2016 at Hillcrest Hospital in Tulsa with his family by his side at the age of 64.
Bill was born on August 3, 1951 in Anadarko, Oklahoma to the late Edgar William and Dorris Irene Aldridge Rice.
He graduated from Madill High School in 1969 and attended Phillips University in Enid, graduating with a B.A. in Chemistry in 1973; Lowell Technological Institute in Lowell, Massachusetts, graduating with M.S. Program in Radiological Safety and Control in 1975; University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman, Oklahoma, graduating with a J.D. 1978 Editor, American Indian Law Review.
He married the love of his life, Annette Hunter on January 24, 1981 in Moore, Oklahoma. They lived in Norman and then moved to Cushing where they have lived for numerous years.
Bill had an extraordinary career in practice and as an academic focusing on issues and rights of American Indians and indigenous people around the world. Rice, a member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma; served as Attorney General for the Sac and Fox Nation; Chief Justice for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation; Assistant Chief and Chief Judge for the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma and Associate Justice for the Kickapoo Nation of Indians in Kansas. He was a tireless advocate for Indian tribes and Indian peoples, successfully arguing on behalf of the Sac and Fox Nation in the U.S. Supreme Court in Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Sac and Fox Nation, 508 U.S. 114 {1993}. He played an active role in the United Nations Working Group on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which led to the U.N. General Assembly’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. When he began this work, Rice would frequently say “indigenous people – that’s ME!” with a twinkle in his eye.
Clearly, his impact reaches from central Oklahoma to Geneva, Switzerland, and his passing is a great loss to many.
Rice joined The University of Tulsa College of Law in 1995 teaching constitutional law, jurisprudence, international indigenous law, Native American and indigenous rights, tribal government and tribal gaming law. He treated his students with great compassion and kindness while challenging them to achieve at the highest levels. In addition to TU Law, Rice taught at Cornell Law School, University of North Dakota School of Law, University of Oklahoma, University of New Mexico and Antioch School of Law’s Indian Paralegal program.
Rice’s book Tribal Governmental Gaming Law {Carolina Academic Press, 2006} is the first law school casebook for use in Indian gaming law classes. He contributed to the two latest revisions of Felix Cohen’s classic Indian law treatise, the Handbook of Federal Indian Law, and wrote extensively in the field of Indian law. Regularly called upon to speak at scholarly and governmental meetings, his speaking engagements included presentations to the United Nations Workshop on Indigenous Children and Youth, University of Paris VII – Denis Diderot, The Federal Bar Association’s Indian Law Conference, the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s Sovereignty Symposium and numerous appearances at functions sponsored by government agencies, major university law schools and Indian tribes.
His great passions were the implementation of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the revitalization of the legal and political systems of Indian tribes. He was the founding director of the LL.M. degree in American Indian and Indigenous Law and the Master of Jurisprudence in Indian Law and served as co-director of the Native American Law Center at TU Law.
Rice was a teacher and mentor to generations of Indian lawyers. He had enormous influence on the field of Indian law. John LaVelle, his colleague from the University of New Mexico, best expressed what Rice meant to those who knew him: “Bill was a champion for Indian people in heart, mind and soul. I am honored to have known and worked with him.”
Bill enjoyed gardening.
His grandchildren were his pride and joy.
Survivors include his wife Annette of the home, sons, Lloyd Hunter of Cushing, John Queton and wife Jennifer of Cushing, Brian Queton and wife Tracey of Jenks, Harrison Rice and David Rice of Oklahoma City, daughter Karen Rice and Brandon One Feather of Falcon Heights, MN, brother James S. Rice and family of Cumberland, OK, sister Laurie G. Rice and Nancy Damron of Sun Valley, CA., grandchildren Ivy Whitehead, Kevin Queton, Victoria Queton, Taylor Queton, Isabel Queton, Ryan Queton, Micha Pahsetopah, Maddox Pahsetopah, Kadence McDowell and Gabriel Queton.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his father-in-law Harrison Hunter Jr.
Wake services will be held at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday at the Sac and Fox Community Center, south of Stroud, Oklahoma.
Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Wednesday at the Sac and Fox Community Center, south of Stroud.
Interment will follow at Hunter Cemetery, Cushing, Oklahoma.
Arrangements are entrusted to Palmer Marler Funeral Home, Cushing, Oklahoma.
Condolences and online guest book are available at www.palmermarlerfh.com.
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