Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, Osage, announced at this year’s Sovereignty Symposium that Oklahoma City University School of Law is creating a juris doctorate specialty for tribal law.
Titled the OCU Tribal Sovereignty Institute, Holt said the program is still in development and will take about a year to find and hire an executive director.
Holt, a 2009 graduate of OCU School of Law and named dean in February, said tribal sovereignty is especially important considering Oklahoma is home to 39 federally recognized tribes. Holt said he is committed to using this program to serve the students, community, tribes and the state.
“We’re one of the three law schools in the state,” Holt said. “American Indian law has never been more prominent than after McGirt, and I think there’s really a need for a credible, independent legal institution that’s providing research and information to not just lawyers, but policymakers at large on the issue of tribal sovereignty.”
OCU Law has dedicated time to the Native American community in Oklahoma over the past 15 years.
“At OCU, we’ve had our American Indian wills clinic for the last 15 years,” he said. “Students have provided wills and estate planning for over 1,000 tribal citizens across the state. We’ve had various faculty members specialize in this. But we thought it was time to take it to a higher level, and we’re launching this institute that will be staffed by an executive director who is a full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member, and we hope to build upon it in the years ahead.”
Phase one is underway with the search for an executive director to set up scholarships, instruct students and communicate information about the program to the community. Once phase one is completed, more faculty will be brought in to teach different courses, more scholarship opportunities for students and create relationships inside and outside of the university. The timing will depend on the resources available to OCU Law.
“I would love to have some user-friendly information that advocates for and explains tribal sovereignty to people who might not be lawyers,” said Holt, “I think you need credible, established, independent sources like OCU to provide that.”
Eventually, Holt hopes there’s interest in specializing in certain parts of Indian law. Coursework possibilities will start with the basics of federal Indian law and offer more courses as specialties in certain areas of tribal law as they become available.
“You just sort of build around it and there are endless possibilities. It starts with the foundation of federal Indian law and then branches out into classes that specialize in water law or gaming law, and let it organically develop over time,” he said.
Ten percent of OCU’s current student body are Native American. The hope is to bring students from all over the country to learn at the Tribal Sovereignty Institute.
Osage Congressman Billy Keene received his juris doctorate from OCU Law with a certificate in Indian law, and said law degrees with a specialty in tribal law are important for a multitude of reasons.
“A lot of our programs, like IHS (Indian Health Service), are based on treaty obligations the U.S. has to Indian tribes,” Keene said. “We’re really uniquely tailored to be aware and knowledgeable in all things law.”
Post-McGirt, it’s more important now than ever that tribal law is needed in Oklahoma.
“Now Indians are thrust into tribal court systems,” Keene said. “Since July 2020 when McGirt was handed down, I have to become aware of Cherokee Nation laws. If I get stopped in south Tulsa, I have to become aware of Creek Nation laws. Before McGirt, you’d just deal with Oklahoma laws. There’s a wider range of tribal law. Just the baseline knowledge is important.”
Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear believes that tribal law programs offered at universities are essential to tribal sovereignty.
“It’s important to have classes for students to learn about how governments work,” Standing Bear said. “One thing about tribal nations wherever you work, is unique in one facet or another. It’s important for people to understand different ways governments can organize themselves. It’s also important to know how a tribal nation interacts with its neighbors.”
For those interested in tribal law, OCU offers a month-long tribal law course during the summer. According to OCU Law’s website, Tribal Law I has four modules where students engage and complete at their own pace. The cost is $600 with materials.
