These Native American UCLA law school students learn the responsibilities of tribal lawyers

UCLA established its Tribal Legal Development Clinic more than 25 years ago as a class to help law school students learn the legal needs of Native Americans and encourage more students to become tribal lawyers.

It’s come a long way: On Monday, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians presented the clinic with a $2.2 million grant to support its work helping tribes with issues big and small.

“This grant is extraordinary,” said Mica Llerandi, the clinic’s director and one of the professors.

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The clinic seeks to create a pipeline of tribal lawyers, and part of the grant will be used to pay for staff salaries.

“It's also going to help fund students who are traveling to Indian country to see their tribal clients, to experience the conditions that tribal communities are living in, and understanding the full impact of their work,” Llerandi said

Travel is an essential part of the process: Law school students get to meet with tribal members and learn a tribe’s unwritten customs and traditions.

From tribal constitutions to protecting health

Before the announcement, members of the Native American Law Students Association laid out cookies, brownies and other snacks on a table for a fundraiser.

“This past year, I worked with the clinic helping a tribe revise its constitution,” said Kyler McVoy, a third year UCLA law student who is a citizen of the Miami tribe of Oklahoma.

McVoy said he could not reveal which tribe he helped, but added he learned that when the U.S. government enacted the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, tribes were given boilerplate documents to serve as constitutions.

“They almost sound like articles of incorporation for a business, rather than, structured as a constitution for a people that need to be governed,” he said.

McVoy said he’d like to be a college professor to teach about the intersection of natural resources and Native American communities.

Other students are helping tribes with more specific policy issues that affect their members.

(left to right) Angela Riley, director of UCLA Native Nations Law & Policy Center; Mica Llenardi, San Manuel Band of Missions Indians Tribal Legal Development Clinic Director; and Michael Waterstone, dean of UCLA school of law.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

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LAist

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Caelin Marum, a second year law school student who is Woodland Cree, helped a tribe rewrite its domestic violence protection order ordinance.

The previous ordinance was dated, she said, and she’s been working with the tribe to address domestic violence issues that they're seeing in their community.

“[The change] feels like it's actually going to [make] a substantive difference in people's safety,” Marum said. Her long term goal, she added, is to help people in tribal communities reduce legal barriers to improve their health.

About one third of the students enrolled in the clinic are Native American. The students first learn federal Indian law, tribal law, and ethical considerations of working with tribal clients. The clinic is capped at 10 students, but a handful are allowed to return as advanced students.

A lot of legal needs in California, LA

There are 109 federally recognized tribes in California. The state has more Native Americans than any other state.

Indian gaming and extraction of natural resources on tribal land have made tribal law a growing field.

“Tribes have diverse legal needs. They have become very sophisticated. Tribes need tax lawyers, tribes need corporate lawyers,” said Dorothy Alther, legal director of California Indian Legal Services, during Monday’s donation announcement.

Some of the clinic’s students have gone on to work for her organization.

Those topics have to do with Native American tribes as organizations. The clinic has also helped tribal members navigate everyday issues like a public school’s evaluation of Native children for special education services.

The clinic recently helped an organization called Acorns to Oak Trees. The group helps support Native American school children in educational systems that often mark them for special education and in which there’s often little knowledge of tribal family relationships.

"[I’m helping] the World Intellectual Property Organization,” said Ann Caindec, a second year law student who is Tlingit and Hawaiian. She’s “helping design a toolkit and kind of a tribal action plan for tribes who are hoping to protect their intellectual property,” such as patterns in Native American textiles.

She said Indigenous communities need lawyers to protect and preserve cultural knowledge, practices, and traditions for generations to come.

“A big part of being an Indian lawyer,” Alther said, “is educating courts, educating judges.”