Leeds, professor of law and director of the center since 2002. “We have very recent graduates doing extraordinary work with tribes, the federal government and the private sector – work and responsibilities that attorneys in other areas of the law might not see until they are 10 years out of law school.” *** Count Tiger among that group. She took her current job just three years out of law school. Now she spends her days writing legislation, reviewing contracts, negotiating lawsuits and providing legal advice to the legislative body of the fourth largest tribe in the United States.
Yonne Tiger, L’06, is in-house counsel for the National Council of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma.
“Growing up I always wanted to come back and help my community, help my people,” says Tiger, a Muscogee Creek from Tahlequah, Okla. “Then working as a paralegal, I noticed a lack of Indian law attorneys and people who understood the unique needs of tribes and Indian people.” Tiger met Leeds while attending the Pre-Law Summer Institute in New Mexico the summer before law school. Leeds sold her on KU’s program. Tiger found a welcoming community at
“Every time some different issue comes up that involves the area of law that they specialize in,” Tiger says, “I can call them and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this question. Can you help me or direct me to the right place?’” Those types of connections prove crucial in a field that so few understand. Other areas of law have substantive differences but are premised on inclusion within the U.S. legal system, Leeds explains. Tribal law, however, is based on law from indigenous nations that is both pre-constitutional and extraconstitutional as it relates to U.S. law. So while federal law ultimately governs native people, each tribe stands as a sovereign nation with its own unique laws and systems of governance. The scope of that sovereignty, however, is constantly called into question. *** At the time of its inception, Porter believed the Tribal Law & Government Center was the first law school-based program in the country to focus on legal and governance issues facing Indian people at the tribal level – as opposed to other programs that emphasized federal laws pertaining to tribes.
Green Hall and became active in the Native American Law Students Association, serving as its president and competing in the National NALSA Moot Court. Perhaps most importantly, Tiger met an increasingly large network of Indian law experts and alumni from across the country each year at the center’s Tribal Law & Government Conference.
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Mark Dodd works within those sometimes dueling systems. The 2006 graduate serves as one of two tribal attorneys for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in Mayetta, Kan. His day-to-day work mirrors that of a general practitioner because of the breadth of issues he confronts: drafting legislation, revising codes, forming businesses, dealing with tax and property law, grappling with