The 2022-2023 American Indian Law Clinic (the Clinic) students have already been hard at work; parsing national election laws; digging through historical聽treaties and local laws; and supporting international clients to elevate聽Indigenous human rights concerns before the United Nations.
A critical component of the Clinic is to get out of the classroom and into communities. Under the leadership of the director, , students have been able to directly observe on-the-ground impacts of the laws they have been researching and analyzing on behalf of their clients. This work has helped students to聽articulate the ways in which laws have disparate impacts on tribal communities. Client work and reflections on the current political climate and important issues facing Native Nations has grounded students in the modern state聽of affairs and to consider the important role of Indigenous attorneys and their allies in the efforts to uphold Native sovereignty.
Ensuring the Native Vote
Three students, Siena Kalina '23, Michele Manceaux '24, and Kate Newman '24, worked聽to provide important legal research for the website, a聽partnership between聽,听, and聽First聽Peoples Worldwide. These students have parsed state and local voting聽laws; looked at county maps and redistricting efforts; identified聽many聽state offices to provide clarity on obscure language; and tracked all active聽litigation.
The students identified the ways in which Native voters face a unique set of issues when both registering to vote and casting their ballots. For example, in Montana, Native voters on one reservation must drive 120 miles to reach a voter registration site. Without online registration, this is the only option to then be eligible to cast a ballot in November. Although mail-in voting is appealing to many voters, and something that is accessible in the state of Colorado, Native Americans are not always able to take advantage of this due to lack of traditional addressing and postal delivery on reservations.聽
After conducting this research, the students developed language for the Natives Vote website so that Native voters had a resource tailored to the information they need to vote. This included whether states provide materials in Native languages, state laws on mail-in and absentee ballots, how to get an address if one does not have a 鈥渢raditional鈥� address as described the state, and what types of identification are needed to register and vote.
For the mid-term November elections, the entire Clinic travelled to North聽Dakota to provide poll observation to support the聽. Four groups of clinic students were sent out聽to polling locations near the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and聽Spirit Lake Tribes鈥� reservations.
North Dakota is the only state that does not have voter registration. The聽students imagined this would make voting easier as it removed one large聽obstacle for Native voters, but the reality was much different. The students noted that many people showed up to the wrong polling place, because the state had not notified them of the correct polling location. Others faced challenges squaring their address on their ID with the address the election officials had on file in their electronic system. While they observed confusion about specific election laws, the students also observed a sense of community familiarity and a聽willingness to help people cast ballots if they chose. They met individuals聽who were voting for the first time or voting with a tribal ID they had obtained just the previous day.
Building Capacity within our Colorado Community
Students have also had the opportunity to work on building outreach programs in addition to clinical practice. These moments not only help to grow awareness of contemporary Indigenous issues and ways to build allyship, but they also聽hone the students' presentation skills. Ms. Manceaux has also contributed to聽these efforts. She said,
鈥淟earning American Indian law really changed my聽legal perspective and what I want to do with my career. It also inspired me to be involved in outreach programs where I and other students can teach the聽community about the importance of understanding Native American history聽and how current events impact all of society.鈥�
Ms. Manceaux and Joshua Bertalotto '24 presented to local聽company, Rowdy Mermaid, on Indigenous Peoples鈥� Day in October 2022.聽They discussed the ramifications of critical moments in history, such as聽allotment and removal, and offered employees ways to engage with Native聽American tribes and support tribal sovereignty in their professional and personal lives. 鈥淚t was rewarding to meet people where they were and give聽them solutions on how to make positive, individual changes,鈥� Manceaux said.
Following her participation in the Byron R. White Center for the Study of聽American Constitutional Law Constitution Day Project in September, Ms.聽Manceaux organized a day to discuss tribal sovereignty with high school聽students at Northglenn High School in Broomfield, CO. To anchor the聽conversation in modern issues, she taught students about what tribal聽sovereignty looks like in practice by addressing the case , which is currently in front of the United States Supreme Court. Ms.聽Manceaux watched how students grappled with the concept of tribal聽sovereignty within the complex case of Brackeen, highlighting multi-party聽interests and the duty that the United States has to tribes.
As the clinic students gain the practical experience of lawyering on behalf of聽Indigenous Peoples, they are also encouraged to consider how to best live聽the values of client-centered lawyering.
鈥淲e approach this work with a聽constant reminder of our north stars: tribal sovereignty and self-determination. I ask that each student interrogate how they show up as聽lawyers, as students, and as humans and how we can do better to聽incorporate these north stars in our practice,鈥� Stanton said.聽
Thanks to Siena Kalina, Michele Manceaux, and Kate Newman for their聽contributions to this article.