Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute Historical Background
March 2026 1
The Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute is the combination of faculty support, staff efforts, student organizations programming, law school courses, conferences, and events from the two legacy law schools and the current Mitchell Hamline School of Law. In 2015, Hamline University School of Law and William Mitchell College of Law merged to form the Mitchell Hamline School of Law (MHSL) in St. Paul, Minnesota. Both predecessor law schools had decades of academic coursework, Native student enrollment, and programming in the field. Their history has shaped and strengthened the present-day Native American Law and Sovereignty (NALS) Institute. Since 2024, the Mitchell Hamline School of Law has the highest enrollment of Native American law students in the country.
The legacy and current law school are located on the treaty homelands of the Dakota peoples. The greater region in Minnesota includes the homelands of the Anishinaabe/Chippewa/Ojibwe peoples. The NALS Institute Land Acknowledgment for Mitchell Hamline School of Law records the connection of Indigenous peoples to the lands upon which the law school sits.
Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute – Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge our presence in the Tribal and treaty homelands of the Dakota Oyate since time immemorial. These lands are home to the Sisseton, Wahpeton, Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota peoples. There are four Tribal Nations who remain in these lands as Tribal governments, the Lower Sioux Indian Community, the Prairie Island Indian Community, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, and the Upper Sioux Community. We acknowledge and respect the Dakota Oyate as part of the larger Sioux Nation, traditionally known as the Seven Council Fires, the Oceti Sakowin. We also acknowledge the regional territory of the Ojibwe/Chippewa/Anishinaabe peoples in these Tribal homelands. There are seven Tribal Nations who remain in these lands as Tribal governments, the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, and the White Earth Nation. We also acknowledge the ancestral connection of the Ho-Chunk Nation to this region. In these Tribal lands, Indigenous peoples have joined together in community, stewardship, and spirituality upholding traditional values and legal principles. 2
In the urban environment of Minneapolis and St. Paul, known as the Twin Cities, the American Indian Movement has stood in protest against the denial of treaty rights and human rights for
1 This historical background was authored by Professor Angelique EagleWoman, Director of the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute, with thanks to former program administrators Lani Petrulo and Sara Wells
2 This Land Acknowledgment is not available for public use and is specific for our institution. Please contact the NALS Institute for permission to use.
Indigenous peoples. In this historical background, a brief description of the legacy schools’ initiatives, faculty and early Native American law students will be discussed.
Hamline University School of Law 1972 – 2015
The Hamline University School of Law (Hamline Law) was founded in 1972 to broaden the educational fields available at Hamline University. The first Native American law graduate of Hamline Law was the Hon. Leo Brisbois, (1987), a recognized descendant of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Judge Brisbois is recognized as one of the very few Native American judges within the federal judiciary, serving as a federal magistrate judge since 2010 for the U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota. His career includes serving as president of the Minnesota State Bar Association and as an active member of the Minnesota Native American Bar Association (MNABA). Hamline Law produced another trailblazing Native American law graduate in the Hon. Anne McKeig, (1992), descendant of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe of the Eagle Clan. She is recognized as the first American Indian to be appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2016. Her judicial career includes serving as a trial court judge in Hennepin County, Minnesota from 2008 to 2016. Justice McKeig lends her expertise as an adjunct professor and has taught a summer term course on the Indian Child Welfare Act and adoption proceedings. Among the Native law graduates from Hamline Law is Mary Al Balber, (1990), a member of the Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe. She was instrumental as one of the founding members of the Minnesota Native American Bar Association (MNABA).
From 1993 to 2015, the Hon. Mary Jo Hunter, a member of the HoChunk Nation, J.D. University of California Los Angeles School of Law, joined the faculty of Hamline Law as an expert on child welfare issues. She developed a law clinic for law students to provide guardian ad litem representation in state court proceedings involving American Indian children. Under Professor Hunter’s leadership, the Native American Law Student Association (NALSA) thrived, and she assisted the NALSA chapters from the area law schools to coordinate and hold the National NALSA Moot Court Competition in the Twin Cities in 2007. From 2011 to 2014, Ann Tweedy, J.D. University of California, Berkeley School of Law, was hired as an assistant professor and taught the federal Indian law course.
In 2006, Angelique EagleWoman (Wambdi A. Was’tewinyan), enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton (Dakota) Oyate, J.D. University of North Dakota Law School, L.L.M. American Indian and Indigenous Law Tulsa College of Law, joined the Hamline Law faculty in her first law faculty position. She taught the Native American Law course, developed an Indigenous Speakers’ Symposium, and collaborated on hosting the NNALSA Moot Court Competition as the primary problem author in 2007. After a visiting year in 2007-2008 at the University of Kansas, she then went on to build a Native American Law Emphasis at the University of Idaho College of Law over eight years from 2008 to 2016. From there, she served as the first Indigenous law dean in Canada at Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin Faculty of Law in Thunder Bay, Ontario from 2016 to 2018.
In a full circle, Professor EagleWoman returned to the combined Mitchell Hamline School of Law as a visiting professor in 2018 and 2019 and after a national search was joined the faculty as a tenured professor in 2020. She served as co-director of the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute in 2020-2021 She has been the sole director since September of 2021 and implemented the NALS Certificate program beginning in October 2021.
William Mitchell College of Law 1972 – 2015
According to William Mitchell College of Law (William Mitchell) alumni records, Charles LaDue, (1972), enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, was the first Native American law graduate. He went on to establish a law firm in the Twin Cities and practiced for almost forty years as a lawyer. In 1873, Bernard “Bernie” Becker, J.D. University of Minnesota Law School, was hired as a faculty member at William Mitchell with the intent to offer federal Indian law courses. Through his advocacy as an ally, he was known for litigation wins on behalf of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe on treaty hunting and fishing rights and arguing on behalf of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe in the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Bryan v. Itasca County, 3 preventing attempted state taxation on Tribal lands and property. After he was called to serve as a magistrate judge in a part-time capacity in 1985, he continued to serve as an adjunct professor.
With a law program in place, the number of Native American law graduates increased with many significant graduates making their mark. One such graduate was the Hon. Lenor Scheffler Blaeser, (1988), member of the Lower Sioux Indian Community, and a founding member of the Minnesota Native American Bar Association (MNABA). Her legal career has spanned leading the Indian law practice at Best & Flanagan to serving as Chief Judge for the Upper Sioux Indian Community. She was the first Native American to serve as a member of the William Mitchell Board of Trustees. At Mitchell Hamline School of Law, she has continued her commitment as a member of the inaugural NALS Institute Advisory Board launched in 2022.
The Indian law program lapsed at William Mitchell with the sudden passing of Bernie Becker in 1991. As an adjunct professor, the Hon. John Jacobson, J.D. University of Minnesota Law School, offered classes in the field as an ally. The lapse ended with the hiring of Sarah Deer, member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, in 2008 as a visiting assistant professor on the faculty. In 2009, Professor Deer became a permanent hire and a co-director of the Indian law program as Colette Routel, J.D. University of Michigan Law School, joined the faculty as the other codirector and ally
Until the merger of William Mitchell in 2015 with Hamline Law, the two co-directors grew the Indian law program by adding the Tribal Code Drafting Clinic from Professor Deer’s legal knowledge and the Indian Law Impact Litigation Clinic from Professor Routel’s experience. The two professors advised Native American students and those interested in the field. The William Mitchell NALSA received a chapter of the year award and the law school became well-known for competing in the National NALSA Moot Court Competition. Professor Deer excelled on the national, regional, and local level as an advocate to address violence against Native American
3 See Bryan v. Itasca County, 426 U.S. 373 (1976).
women. Her many accomplishments have included testimony to the U.S. Congress in support of federal legislation, receiving the Macarthur Fellows Program “Genius Grant” in 2014, and the American Bar Association’s 2016 Spirit of Excellence Award
Mitchell Hamline School of Law 2015 -
In 2015, Hamline University School of Law and William Mitchell College of Law assumed legacy status with the new Mitchell Hamline School of Law resulting from the merger. The Indian law program co-directors positioned the program to benefit from the innovative online J.D. coursework and allow potential law students to remain in their home communities while attending courses. They helped establish the Native Justice scholarship to encourage more Native Americans to be lawyers and to support those interested in the field of Indian law who had demonstrated a prior work commitment and ongoing plan to assist Tribal communities.
In 2016, Professor Deer returned to the University of Kansas to teach in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program. For several years, Professor Routel stewarded the Indian law program as an ally, advised students, coached moot court teams, and provided litigation work opportunities through the clinic she offered.
In 2018, Professor EagleWoman was recruited back to the Twin Cities by Judge Hunter and Professor Routel as a visiting professor at Mitchell Hamline, then hired after a national search to tenured professor in July 2020. From July 2020 to September 2021, Professors EagleWoman and Routel served as co-directors and renamed the program as the Native American Law and Sovereignty (NALS) Institute. In September of 2021, Professor Routel departed for an appointment as a state court judge for Hennepin County, Minnesota in the Fourth Judicial District. As of 2021, the NALS Institute has a staff member as the program administrator to assist with the daily operations of the Institute.
Since September of 2021, Professor EagleWoman has been the director of the NALS Institute. She successfully shepherded a proposal from prior months and gained faculty approval for the NALS Certificate in October 2021 for the NALS Institute to gain national program status with peer law schools. Professor EagleWoman teaches the core courses in the NALS Certificate and offers the Native law clinic, Tribal Code Drafting by partnering with in-house counsel with Tribal Nations. The NALS Certificate is accessible to students in the Blended Learning program and the in-person JD full and part-time options.
In July 2022, Forrest Tahdooahnippah, Comanche Nation, J.D. University of Minnesota Law School, joined the MHSL faculty in the Intellectual Property (IP) Institute. Assistant Professor Tahdooahnippah has taught one of the required courses for the NALS Certificate and one elective in the field of IP law and cultural protection for Indigenous peoples. In the summer of 2024, he was elected Chairman of the Comanche Nation requiring a leave status from the law school.
NALS Institute Advisory Board
In July 2022, the NALS Advisory Board was established. The NALS Advisory Board as of March 2026 includes: Board Chair Dominic Terry, (2018 MH Blended Learning), member of the
Navajo Nation; Hon. Lenor Scheffler Blaser, (1988 William Mitchell), member of the Lower Sioux Indian Community, Former MH Board of Trustees member 2008-2017; Veronica Newcomer,(2013 William Mitchell), member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa; Jason Decker, (2017 MH), member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe; Jerrod Johnson, (2022 MH Blended Learning and NALS Certificate) member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation; Ashalon Goodrich, (2023 MH Blended Learning and NALS Certficiate), member of the Blackfeet Siksika First Nation, and Ben Swankier (2023 MH Blended Learning and NALS Certificate), desc. Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
In the fall of 2023, Jessie Stomski, (2008), Muscogee (Creek) Nation, William Mitchell College of Law, joined the Mitchell Hamline School of Law Board of Trustees as a member. She serves as General Counsel for the Prairie Island Indian Community. She received the MHSL Distinguished Alumni Award in August 2022 for her legal advocacy in that role.
Increasing numbers of Native American law students
The numbers of Native American law students have increased at Mitchell Hamline School of Law to the point where the NALS Institute has the largest number of Native American law students in the country. In 2019, there were 4 Tribally enrolled students. In 2020, the Native students consisted of 4 Tribally enrolled students and 3 descendants of Tribes. In the fall of 2021, Mitchell Hamline admitted a Native American law student cohort of 8 Tribally enrolled and 4 descendants of Tribes. This trend continued in the fall of 2022 with 9 Tribally-enrolled, 2 first degree descendants of Tribal Nations, and 2 First Nations law students admitted For the fall of 2023, 11 Tribally-enrolled law students, 1 Tribal descendant, and 2 First Nations students were admitted.
In 2024-2025, the Mitchell Hamline School of Law was nationally recognized with the largest population of Native American law students numbering 41 in total for all law years, of those 37 were Tribally enrolled In the fall of 2024, 17 Tribally-enrolled students were admitted. In the fall of 2025, a total of 11 Tribally enrolled students and 3 students who were descendants of Tribes for a total of 14 Native American students. In 2025-2026, Mitchell Hamline School of Law remained the largest population of Native American students with a total of 41 students for all law years. The NALS Institute builds community for our many students from a wide variety of Tribal Nations, First Nations, and allies across the country.
In the spring of 2025, a second student organization was established to advocate and uplift Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities, the Indigenous Women’s Law Society. The NALS Institute serves as a home for both the Mitchell Hamline Native American Law Student Association (NALSA) and the Indigenous Women’s Law Society (IWLS). The MH NALSA has been the largest student organization at Mitchell Hamline for the last several years.
In recent years, the NALS Institute has held a graduation celebration following commencement. Twelve graduates were celebrated in 2022, including four members of Tribal Nations. A total of five law graduates, three Native American, were the first group to receive the NALS Certificate. In 2023, a total of eleven graduates were celebrated, including five members of Tribal Nations and two descendants of Tribal Nations. Nine graduates earned the NALS Certificate, with six who were Native American. In 2024, fourteen NALS Institute graduates were celebrated with three who were members of Tribal Nations and two who were descendants of Tribal Nations. Nine graduates earned the NALS Certificate, with three who were Native American. In spring of 2025, the NALS Institute celebrated 19 graduates earning the NALS stoles, with 9 members of Tribal Nations, 2 descendants of Tribal Nations, and 2 members of First Nations. There were 12 graduates earning the NALS Certificate with 10 of those who were Native American. The NALS Institute also celebrated 11 graduates in the Indigenous Women’s Law Society with 5 of those who were enrolled in a Tribal Nation.
Through decades of efforts to maintain an educational program to support Native American law and lawyers, the Native American Law and Sovereignty (NALS) Institute at Mitchell Hamline School of Law rests on a firm foundation to build further into the future supporting Tribal Nations, Tribal law and Tribal sovereignty.