Wenona T. Singel is an Associate Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law and the Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center. She teaches Federal Law and Indian Tribes, Property, and other courses related to Natural Resources, Environmental Justice, and Indigenous Human Rights.
Prof. Singel’s research and writing address issues related to Tribal Sovereignty and Indigenous Rights. She served as an Associate Reporter (co-author) of the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, The Law of American Indians from 2012 to 2022. She is also a new co-author of Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law, the leading casebook in the field of Federal Indian Law, and she is writing a book called Indian Removal, Past and Present, that describes the intergenerational impact of federal Indian law and policy on Native families which weaves in stories of multiple generations of her own family’s experience of forcible Indian removal in Michigan; land dispossession at Burt Lake, Michigan; attendance at Michigan Indian boarding schools; and removal of children from their families and placement into foster care and adoptive homes. Prof. Singel’s most recent law review article, co-authored with Matthew Fletcher and titled, Lawyering the Indian Child Welfare Act, was published in the Michigan Law Review in the summer of 2022. Prof. Singel’s scholarship on the Indian Child Welfare Act and the history of federal child removal policies impacting Native children was cited extensively by the U.S. Supreme Court in its recent decision in Haaland v. Brackeen.
Prof. Singel served as deputy legal counsel for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from 2019-21, advising on Tribal-State affairs. She also served as Chief Appellate Justice for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians for thirteen years and Chief Appellate Judge for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Recently, she returned to serve once again as Chief Appellate Justice for the Little Traverse Bay Bands. She is the former president of the Michigan Indian Judicial Association, and she serves on the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund. In 2012, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Advisory Board of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp., a position she held until 2017.
Prof. Singel is an enrolled member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and she is a descendant of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, and the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians. She was the first in her family to attend college, and she is committed to widening access to higher education and law school for other first generation students. Wenona received an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
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J.D. Harvard Law School
B.A. Harvard College
Law Faculty Repository »
Indian Tribes and Human Rights Accountability, 49 SAN DIEGO L. REV. __ (forthcoming 2012)
Indian Country Law Enforcement and Cooperative Public Safety Agreements, 89-FEB Mich.B.J. 42 (2010) (co-authored with Matthew L.M. Fletcher and Kathryn E. Fort)
Introduction: New Directions for International Law and Indigenous Peoples, 45 Idaho L. Rev. 509 (2009)
The Indian Child Welfare Act at 30: Facing the Future (Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Kathryn E. Fort, and Wenona T. Singel, eds., MSU Press 2009) (collection of 12 essays)
Introduction: Indian Experience and Randall Kennedy's Mythology, in The Indian Child Welfare Act at 30: Facing the Future (Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Kathryn E. Fort, and Wenona T. Singel, eds., MSU Press 2009) (co-authored with Matthew L.M. Fletcher) (collection of 12 essays)
The Institutional Economics of Tribal Labor Relations, 2008 Mich. St. L. Rev. 487 (2008) (symposium)
Contributor, The Encyclopedia of American Indian History, Bruce E. Johansen and Barry M. Pritzker, eds. (ABC-CLIO 2007)
Indian Treaties and the Survival of the Great Lakes, 2006 Mich. St. L. Rev. 1285 (2006) (co-authored with Matthew L.M. Fletcher) (symposium)
Cultural Sovereignty and Transplanted Law: Tensions in Indigenous Self-Rule, 15 Kan. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 357 (2006) (symposium)
Power, Authority and Tribal Property, 41 Tulsa L. Rev. 21-50 (2006) (co-authored with Matthew L.M. Fletcher) (symposium)
Labor Relations and Tribal Self-Governance, 80 N.D. L. Rev. 691 (2004) (symposium)
Advanced Topics in Indian Law
(Formerly DCL 563)
Provides an opportunity for in-depth discussion and examination of current legal issues of federal and tribal law in Indian country including tribal gaming and economic development, tribal policy and governance, treaty rights, international indigenous peoples, and other contemporary topics.
Federal Law and Indian Tribes
(Formerly DCL 486)
An examination of the law and policy of the United States regarding Indian tribes and their citizen members. Study the relationships between the federal, state, and tribal governments; and examine the source and scope of federal, state and tribal authority in Indian Country
Indigenous Law and Policy Center
(Formerly DCL 625)
This experiential learning course addresses the issues involved in
creating and operating tribal judiciaries, and the federal, state, and
tribal tax laws that affect tribal governance. Students learn about the
appellate process in tribal court systems, including preparation of
bench memoranda for pending cases in tribal appellate courts. Students
also have the opportunity to assist in developing tribal court
structures and improving tribal court administration. In addition,
students assist in drafting tribal tax codes, creating administrative
tax tribunals, and handling tax controversies for qualifying clients.
Other projects may include legislative and policy work for tribal
governments, including drafting and revising tribal laws and providing
legal assistance regarding land tenure systems.
Indigenous Law and Policy Center II
(Formerly DCL 625A)
Continuation of ILPC I
Natural Resources Law
(Formerly DCL 463)
This course will explore the legal regimes under which public natural resources are allocated and managed. In addition, this course will consider the laws governing federal public lands, which constitute one-third of the nation. Special attention will be given to the costs and benefits of resources development and conservation, and to the philosophical, historical and constitutional underpinnings of natural resources law and policy. Resources studied will include forests, minerals, oil and gas, rangeland, recreation, water, wilderness and wildlife.
Property
(Formerly DCL 113)
This is a survey course of the fundamentals of property law. Possessory interests of real and personal property including findings, bailments and adverse possession are discussed and analyzed. Topics also include future interests, concurrent ownership, lease holds, transfers of land and land use controls.
