Category Archives: Faculty

Can International Law Support Changes to Federal Indian Policy? Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Conference

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April 19, 2013 – 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University
Great Hall, Armstrong Hall, 1100 S. McAllister Avenue, Tempe, AZ  85287
Free and Open to the Public – Registration requested.

Keynote Speaker:  S. James Anaya, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Agenda and registration online at:  http://conferences.asucollegeoflaw.com/drip/
Contact:  Darlene Lester / darlene.lester@asu.edu / 480-965-7715
Sponsored by the Indian Legal Program & the Center for Law and Global Affairs at ASU
CLE Registration $150.00 is available for Attorneys seeking  CLE credits.
CLE Credits: 5 CLE Credits for AZ & CA, 5.5  MCLE credits for NM
Live Web-streaming at:  http://law.asu.edu/undrip2013

Please Join Us!  Please help us spread the word about this important conference . 

 

 

Distinguished professor and executive director hired for Indian Legal Program

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Distinguished professor and executive director hired for Indian Legal Program

01/31/2013
Robert Miller
Gregory Hill
Douglas Sylvester

The College of Law has hired Robert J. Miller, one of the nation’s leading scholars in Indian Law, and Gregory L. Hill, who will serve as Executive Director of the Indian Legal Program.

“We consider our Indian Legal Program the nation’s leading organization devoted to improving the legal systems that affect tribal governments,” said Dean Douglas Sylvester. “The addition of Bob and Greg underscores our commitment not only to providing unique opportunities and experiences to students that relate to Indian law, but also to furthering the Program’s other key objectives, including maintaining and expanding our close relationships with American Indian nations and other native governments and organizations.”

Miller will join the faculty in the fall of 2013. As a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., since 1999, Miller has taught various courses, including Federal Indian Law, American Indians and International Law and Civil Procedure.

He worked at the Stoel Rives law firm from 1992-1995 and practiced Indian law with Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker from 1995-1999. An enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Miller is Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the Grand Ronde Tribe and sits as a judge for other tribes.

He is the author of two books, “Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny” and “Reservation Capitalism: Economic Development in Indian Country.” He is also co-author of “Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies.”

“I am very excited about joining the College of Law and its outstanding Indian Legal Program,” Miller said. “I am looking forward to working with the ASU students, faculty and staff and to enjoying many rewarding intellectual and professional experiences at the College.”

Hill, a practicing attorney for 18 years, has held various leadership positions in the legal profession since 1995. A member of the Oneida Nation, Six Nations of Indians, he most recently served as a capital attorney in the Office of the Public Defender in Tampa, Fla., where he provided legal services to indigent clients.

He is a former deputy director of Stetson University College of Law’s National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law. Additionally, Hill served as Assistant Attorney General in the state of Florida, ran a solo legal practice earlier in his career, and clerked for the general counsel of the Seneca Nation while in law school.

“I am honored to be selected to serve as the executive director of the Indian Legal Program,” Hill said. “The chance to contribute to such a distinguished program, to help our students become better prepared for the future they will encounter, and to directly support the Indian communities will create opportunities that I am eager to pursue.”

The Indian Legal Program was established in 1988 to provide legal education and generate scholarship in the area of Indian law and to undertake public service to tribal governments. It trains students to effectively engage the representation of Native peoples and seeks to promote an understanding of the differences between the legal systems of Indian nations and those of the state and federal governments. The Program is among the most renowned of its kind, and its graduates work at all levels of tribal, state and federal government, as well as in private practice. The Program provides a unique set of academic and clinical opportunities for students and is committed to maintaining strong partnerships with American Indian nations and other native governments and organizations.

Lunch Lecture – George Skibine

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 “Perspective from 35 Years of Federal Service for Native Americans at the Department of the Interior”

George T. Skibine
Counsel, SNR Denton, 
Washington, D.C.

Date:    Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Time:   12:15 p.m.
Place:   Armstrong Hall, College of Law, Room 114
Lunch will be provided so your RSVP is greatly appreciated!
RSVP/Contact:  Kathy Tevis 480-965-2922 or kathy.tevis@asu.edu
Click here to download flyer!

Humetewa named Professor of Practice

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 Diane Humetewa

Diane Humetewa, the first Native American woman to be
appointed as a U.S. Attorney has been named a
Professor of Practice for the College of Law.

Humetewa, a 1993 graduate f the College of Law, has served
on the College of Law’s Indian Legal Advisory Committee
since 1997.

She also is serving as Special Advisor to the President for American Indian Affairs for Arizona State University President Michal M. Crow, and continues to practice in the tribal affairs and natural resources areas with the law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, LLP.

“ASU is committed to working with Arizona’s tribes to bring more Native American students to the university,” Crow said. “Diane Humetewa will provide advice and counsel to ASU on its efforts to design and implement programs and initiatives to better serve Native American students and to partner with Arizona’s Indian tribal governments.”

Humetewa served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona and as counsel for the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Subcommittee, then chaired by Arizona Sen. John McCain.

She takes over the duties previously handled by former Navajo President Peterson Zah, who has returned to work for his Navajo Nation.

Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, Faculty Director of the Indian Legal Program, said the Program is thrilled to have Humetewa join its ranks.

“It’s a great opportunity to have such a distinguished and accomplished Native woman serve as a model and inspiration for our students,” Ferguson-Bohnee said.  

Douglas Sylvester, Interim Dean, said the College of Law is honored to have Humetewa join the faculty.  

“Diane is an exciting addition to our Indian Legal Program,” Sylvester said. “We know she will be a great resource to our students and faculty, alike.”

Humetewa also will be chairperson of the ASU Tribal Liaison Advisory Committee, serve on the Provost’s Native American Advisory Council, and as legal counsel and in an advisory capacity with ASU in its relations with Native American tribal governments.

Humetewa said she is looking forward to discovering opportunities the university offers to Native American students. She is also excited to explore how higher education at ASU has evolved during the years since she graduated, with the addition of new campuses and advances such as the variety of course now taught online.

“ASU has changed in terms of its ability to reach outside of Tempe,” Humetewa said. “One of the comments most often heard among tribal leaders is that providing higher education opportunities to tribal members is an important goal. There’s a real priority placed on providing as much assistance to tribal members or identifying and tackling the roadblocks to education in the native communities.”

This can be challenging in an environment where nationally approximately 50 percent of Native American students don’t obtain a high-school diploma.

Humetewa, a member of the Hopi tribe, was born and raised in Arizona. She started school on the Hualapai Reservation. Her father worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and traveled throughout Arizona’s Indian Country, often taking her with him. She attended public high school in the Valley, but ties to her family and culture kept her close to the Hopi reservation. She received her bachelor’s degree from ASU in 1987.

“At the time, Indian children were still attending boarding schools far away from the reservation,” Humetewa recalled.

 

Scholarship named for Tsosie receives $10,000 pledge

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Rebecca Tsosie

A new scholarship named for Professor Rebecca Tsosie, currently on sabbatical leave from the Indian Legal Program, has been established with a $10,000 pledge from Dr. Gary Weiss and his wife, Cathleen, the parents of Melissa Dempsey, who graduated from the program in May 2011. 

The Rebecca Tsosie Spirit of Excellence Award will be given each year to the student who is most committed to the ideals of the program and plans to serve the legal needs of Native communities.

Weiss, said Tsosie was a great influence on his daughter’s life, and her choice to attend the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. 

“The first time we visited ASU, we met Professor Tsosie and I was extremely impressed,” Weiss said. “She was very helpful talking about the school and community and excited and energetic. When we walked out of that meeting, I turned to Melissa and said, ‘There’s no question this is the place you should go. We don’t need to look any further.’ 

“In the following three years, I continued to be impressed, and we wanted to do whatever we could to help other students have the same experience, to have enough money that they could participate in a law journal without having to worry about where every single penny was coming from.” 

Interim Dean Douglas Sylvester said the scholarship illustrates the strength of the Indian Legal Program. 

“The Tsosie scholarship is a perfect example of how the community that exists within the Indian Legal Program – a community lovingly created by Rebecca Tsosie in her many years as Executive Director of the Program – creates a bond between student, faculty, and family that inspires people to give back,” Sylvester said. “This gift, directed to students in a time when tuition has greatly increased, will strengthen those bonds and provides a lasting legacy befitting of Rebecca’s role and vision for the Program. 

“On behalf of the College of Law, I thank the Weiss’s for their generous gift–it will be put to great use.” 

Kate Rosier, Executive Director of the Indian Legal Program, said the award honors Tsosie’s contributions to the program. 

“The ILP wanted to do something special for Rebecca to thank her for her 15 years of service as the ILP Executive Director,” Rosier said. “We thought this scholarship for students was perfect to honor her.” 

Tsosie said she was thrilled. 

“I am extremely proud of this award, which is representative of the support and importance that President (Michael M.) Crow and Provost (Elizabeth D.) Capaldi place on serving the needs of Native students and tribal communities,” Tsosie said. “There is a legacy here at ASU, from the first days of the law school, when Judge William C. Canby Jr. taught the first federal Indian law classes and worked with tribal courts, to (former Navajo President) Peterson Zah, who was a Special Advisor to the president, to Diane Humetewa, who has taken on that role, and to LuAnn Leonard, the first Native member of the Arizona Board of Regents. 

“Because of the support of these leaders, and the generous donations of caring individuals, such as Gary and Cathleen Weiss, the Native students at ASU are well-cared for,” Tsosie said. 

Tsosie said Dempsey, who graduated in June, would have been an ideal candidate for the award. 

“She saw Native issues in a broad consciousness and on an international level and worked to prepare herself to be able to serve on that level,” Tsosie said. 

“She was always prepared, outstanding academically, and wrote a beautiful paper on environmental justice in Native communities. She was involved in the Native American Law Students Association and had a spirit of serving Native people. She also helped found the new Law Journal for Social Justice.” 

“Our treasured ILP alumni also are examples of this,” Tsosie said. “They’re serving in tribal, state and federal governments and in private practice, doing work far beyond what we ever imagined, with impeccable ethics. They are a model for our current students to emulate in professional conduct with their peers, students, faculty and the tribal community.” 

Melissa Dempsey said she was surprised when her father made the donation. 

“I think my father felt compelled to contribute this money to the scholarship because he, too, feels strongly about increasing the legal rights of Native people,” Melissa Dempsey said. “From day one, he wanted me to attend Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law because of its Indian Legal Program.” 

Dempsey said that she had studied Tsosie’s writings while earning her master’s degree at New York University, where her thesis focused on indigenous human rights and environmental justice issues. She was excited about meeting Tsosie when she first came to visit the College of Law. 

“Like many of the ILP staff members, Professor Tsosie made me feel welcome, and I knew she was one of those rare professors who wanted to build relationships with her students. She was such a caring professor, as she always made time in her busy schedule to meet with me.” 

Dempsey said that after she came to the College of Law, Tsosie helped her as a mentor and a friend and inspired Dempsey to help start the Law Journal for Social Justice. 

“One of the things I respect most about Professor Tsosie is that she inspires all students, Native and non-Native alike, to be interested in Native legal issues,” Dempsey said. “It is important to encourage non-Native students in this area of the law, so they, too, can at least understand the perspectives and history of Native people.”