Law Professor Building Native American Program

MOSCOW, Idaho

Angelique EagleWoman remembers the moment she decided she wanted to devote her life to law.

She was 8 years old and watching the television in her family’s living room in 1978 when news broke that her uncle, a Black man who had married into a Native American family and was beaten by five deputies when he went to pay a speeding ticket, was awarded $75,000 in punitive damages.

“I knew I wanted to make my life about justice,” said EagleWoman, who grew up in Kansas and lived on a reservation in South Dakota.

Roughly 30 years later, EagleWoman has built a program focusing on Native American law, an area of the legal profession that experts say is often misunderstood and sometimes ignored.

“There are over 35 states that have sovereign, independent tribal nations within their boundaries, if you’re practicing in any one of those states you have to understand the basics of Indian law,” said Heather Dawn Thompson, president of the National Native American Bar Association.