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Mr. Joe Tallakson (1943 - 1995) was the leading Indian rights advocate on behalf of American Indians working as a community organizer on the Quinault Indian Reservation and then in the final twenty years of his life as a superbly effective Indian Rights lobbyist working in the halls of the United States Congress. Joe Tallakson could be said to have been single handledly responsible for passage of more favorable legislation protecting and advancing Indian Rights than any organization or single person in the second half of the 20th Century. Mr. Tallakson was an active supporter of the Center for World Indigenous Studies and sat as a CWIS Founding Board Member from the first days of the Center until his untimely death. Because of his great contributions to Indian Rights in the United States, his unswerving support of Fourth World peoples around the world the CWIS Board of Directors voted to establish the Joe Tallakson Chair for Public Policy shortly after his passing.