University of North Dakota School of Law for three years, directing its Northern Plains Indian Law Center, and then another eight at the University of Kansas School of Law, directing its Tribal Law and Government Center. Leeds’ move to Arkansas in 2011 marked the fi rst
time an American Indian woman was named dean of a U.S. law school. Her research has focused on property, natural
resources, tribal governance and economic develop- ment, and Indian law. T is year, Leeds received the American Bar Association’s annual Spirit of Excellence award. Donald “Del” Laverdure, a strategic adviser
24
at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP whose acquaintance with Leeds dates to his University of Wisconsin law student days, calls Leeds’ hiring of Hipp to the Arkansas law school typical of her leadership philosophy. “Not only has Stacy had phenomenal achievements, but she cares about who’s coming in and tries to bring people along with her. She doesn’t feel threatened by others. She’s a super role model and precedent-setting lawyer.” As the fi rst female justice on the Cherokee Nation
Supreme Court, Leeds’ four-year term included the racially charged 2006 ruling in Lucy Allen v. Cherokee Nation Tribal Council that attracted national news headlines. T e ruling declared that descendants of
the Freedmen—former African slaves of the Cherokees—were unconstitutionally prevented from enrolling as Cherokee citizens, rendering them ineli- gible for tribal benefi ts and voting. T e Cherokees had formally adopted the Freedmen in 1866, but subsequent generations of Cherokees disagreed over what the adoption was supposed to mean long-term and how to regard the descendants. T ey banned some of the latter from enrollment. In explaining the court’s majority opinion favor-
ing Allen, a Freedman descendant who had been prevented from enrolling, Leeds wrote that if the Cherokee constitution was “intended to limit mem- bership to citizens ‘by blood,’ it should have said so.” After the 2006 ruling, however, Cherokee Nation
voters passed a constitutional amendment restricting citizenship to people with Indian blood ancestry. More litigation over the matter has ensued, and Leeds, who two years after leaving the high court won a $50,000 Fletcher Foundation stipend to write a book exploring the history of the Freedmen, hopes
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JULY/AUGUST 2013
to incorporate the results into her book. T roughout her tenure on the high court, she
made her home in Tahlequah, Okla., so that people could approach her in public to discuss or disagree with rulings. “It was my responsibility to allow them to hold me accountable,” she says. She commuted weekly for four years to her
teaching jobs: 1,600-plus miles round-trip to Grand Forks, N.D., then 400 miles round-trip to Lawrence, Kan. Now that she is ensconced at the University of Arkansas, the 100-mile, round-trip drive is a cinch by comparison. Since 2011, she has been one of fi ve members of a
national commission appointed by then-Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to examine and recommend improvements to Interior’s management and administration of trust assets for the 566 federally recognized tribes.
“ IT WAS AS IF I GREW UP AT THE SAME TIME THAT THE CHEROKEE NATION GREW UP.”
—STACY LEEDS In the course of this work, Leeds began wonder-
ing how tribal members who raised livestock or grew crops managed their property resources in the fi rst place. Delving deeper, she realized the legal infra- structure surrounding these livelihoods wasn’t as well-developed as other laws and policies. “It wasn’t that surprising,” she says. “Modern-day
tribal government is relatively recent.” For instance, the priorities at the inception of such government are typically establishment of elections and hiring gov- ernment employees as well as setting up courts, law enforcement, and social services. T en come business codes and policies, she says. Further motivating Leeds to launch the agricul-
ture initiative at her law school is the possibility of improving the economic self-suffi ciency and employ- ment rate in Indian Country. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 percent of American
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