Message from the Director
Welcome to the Indigenous Law and Policy Center
The Indigenous Law and Policy Center was created to help provide competent, experienced, and inexpensive legal services to tribal governments in an effort to assist them in attaining their judicial and governmental goals. The Center has provided services to tribes in Michigan, Alaska Native Corporations, and tribal courts across the country. We have delivered testimony to the Michigan Law Revision Commission and provided written comments on Proposition 2 (a constitutional amendment eliminating affirmative action) to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. The Center’s students have presented to the Michigan Legislature on Michigan’s Tribal Economies through the Legislative program, "House University." The Center runs Turtle Talk, a highly regarded and popular law blog covering American Indian law, and regularly updates its Occasional Papers Series.
In addition to our work with tribes and tribal organizations, we also hold a major conference every year in the fall. In the spring we host three to four events in our Spring Speakers Series, which features new books in the broadly understood area of American Indian law. The Center also has hosted the Michigan Indian Judicial Association and its keynote speaker, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Michael Cavanagh.
The Center staff consists of two tenure track professors, Professors Matthew L.M Fletcher and Wenona T. Singel; a staff attorney and adjunct professor, Kathryn E. Fort; a Fellow, who is a recent law school graduate; and a program coordinator, who is an undergraduate at Michigan State University.
Professor Fletcher teaches various American Indian law courses and Constitutional Law I. He also sits as an appellate judge for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Recently Professor Fletcher was asked to be an editor for the highly regarded casebook, Federal Indian Law, edited by Getches, Wilkinson and Williams. Professor Fletcher is a member of Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
Professor Singel is the Chief Appellate Judge for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and a former member of the tribe’s Economic Development Commission. She is also an associate on leave from the law firm of Kanji & Katzen, PLLC, a firm with offices in Ann Arbor and Seattle that specializes in representing tribes in Indian law matters. She is also an enrolled member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.
Kathryn E. Fort graduated from MSU College of Law and was one of the first two recipients of the Indigenous Law Certificate. As a student and staffer, she has been involved with the Center since its inception.
Center faculty and staff have published papers in the Federal Lawyer, Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, Michigan State Law Review, Yellow Medicine Review, Intercultural Human Rights Law Review, Harvard Journal on Legislation, Tribal Law Journal, George Mason Law Review, San Diego Law Review, and others. Center faculty and staff have presented papers and research at the NCAI, Harvard Law School, Boalt Hall, the University of Michigan, the Federal Bar Association's Indian Law Conference, and at numerous other symposia.
Sincerely,
Matthew L.M. Fletcher
Wenona T. Singel
Kathryn E. Fort