Tribal Self-Determination in Higher Education: The Role of Legal Education in Nation Building

This article explores the role of legal education in building tribal sovereignty, which is a core feature of self-determination for tribal governments within the United States. The author examines the historical and contemporary experience of Indigenous attorneys within the legal profession to see how their advocacy furthered tribal rights. By situating the discussion of “nation building” within the broader human rights construct of “self-determination,” which involves the territory, law, and political/cultural identity of an Indigenous nation, it becomes clearer to see that for much of U.S. history, education has been an instrument of assimilation. Today, legal education can and must be an instrument of self-determination. The article first assesses the standard model of legal education as well as the contributions of Indian law and Indigenous law programs, faculty, and curricula and then proposes alternative models of collaborative legal education that can enrich the educational opportunities for Indigenous students and other students, while also securing the participation of tribal governments and other Indigenous Peoples in the governance of the infrastructure for higher education.