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. In the last two years, 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."
Matthew Fletcher
In addition to our work with tribes and tribal organizations, we also hosted two major conferences in calendar year 2007 — "Facing the Future: The Indian Child Welfare Act at 30" and "American Indian Law and Literature" featuring over 60 speakers. We have begun an informal speaker series that has featured or will feature new books by Robert J. Miller, David Carlson, Christian McMillen, Dalia Tsuk Mitchell, Eileen Firebaugh Luna, and Daniel McCool & Susan Olson. The Center has also 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, Profs. Matthew L.M. Fletcher and Wenona T. Singel who act as Director and Associate Director; Kate Fort, a clinical instructor and staff attorney; and Emily Petoskey, our program coordinator.
Wenona T. Singel
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.
Kate Fort
Kate 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, the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Michigan State Law Review, the Yellow Medicine Review, the Intercultural Human Rights Law Review, the Harvard Journal on Legislation, the Tribal Law Journal, 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.
The Center also hosts an Occasional Paper Series and a law blog, Turtle Talk.
Sincerely,
Matthew L.M. Fletcher
Wenona T. Singel
Kate E. Fort