Carrie A. Frias is a partner of Patterson Ernhart Real Bird & Wilson LLP, Native Law Group. Carrie has been working as an attorney for over fourteen (14) years. Her current practice focuses on Indian law, trademarks, copyrights, and issues of tribal jurisdiction. Recently, Carrie served as General Counsel for the Indian Affairs Department for the State of New Mexico. Previously, Carrie was Chief General Counsel for the Pueblo of Pojoaque where she was second chair in the Pueblo’s bad faith litigation against the State of New Mexico in federal court. Carrie also worked as an Associate for Anderson Indian Law. At Anderson Indian Law, Carrie lobbied on behalf of tribes in Washington D.C. and assisted in passing the tribal provisions in the VAWA Reauthorization which returned some criminal jurisdiction to tribes to prosecute domestic violence crimes on their reservations. Before relocating to Washington D.C., Carrie served as a prosecutor at the Hopi Tribe and the Pueblo of Laguna. Carrie also worked as a public defender and prosecutor for the State of New Mexico. She is passionate about defending the rights of Native women and children who are victims of crime.

Professor Sherri Nicole Thomas serves as the Assistant Director of the Law Library for the University of New Mexico School of Law (UNMSOL). As Assistant Director, Sherri coordinates collection management and leads the Library Systems Group. She teaches required Legal Research courses and frequently leads legal writing and research workshops and courses focused on specific legal topics. She provides presentations on diversity issues and other substantive areas of law, including Federal Indian, Tribal and Copyright Law. Additionally, she regularly teaches in the American Indian Law Center’s Pre-Law Summer Institute (PLSI), aimed at preparing American Indian students for their law school experience.

She has previously served as the Associate Dean of Institutional Culture and Equity at UNMSOL. Through that role she has also served on the New Mexico Supreme Court Equity and Justice  Commission, as well at the University of New Mexico’s Liaisons in Equity and Advocacy for Diversity (LEAD) Council.

In 2019, the Society of American Archivists honored her contributions to the Indigenous Digital Archive Treaties Explorer by awarding the project the C.F.W. Coker Award for innovative development in archival description or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce effective finding aids.

Sherri is Black and an enrolled member at Taos Pueblo. She grew up on the Dine (Navajo) Reservation. Before graduating from the UNMSOL in 2005 with an Indian Law certificate, Sherri worked as the Information Manager for Environmental Risk Analysis, Inc., a bio-litigation consulting firm, in San Mateo, CA, and as a Database Specialist/Cataloger for Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, PC, based in Palo Alto, CA.

Samantha T. Wauls (Lakota/Lower Brule Sioux Tribe) currently serves on the National Native American Bar Association’s Intellectual and Cultural Property Committee. Ms. Wauls recently completed a yearlong Entertainment Law  & Policy Fellowship, where she worked at the Motion Picture Association and NBCUniversal. As a Law Fellow, she worked on a variety of copyright and trademark issues and performed extensive legal research on anticounterfeiting and anti piracy strategies to address large-scale copyright and trademark infringement. Prior to law school, Samantha was a consultant for the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department to help implement the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women’s (MMIW) Task Force Act. She also worked as a Project Manager for the National Center for Victims of Crime, where she managed a DOJ-funded project to build a web-based resource tool to connect American Indians and Alaska Native survivors of crime and abuse to culturally responsive services. She was also a teacher for her tribal community for two years.

Samantha received her Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies from California State University, Northridge in 2011 and earned her Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico School of Law in the fall of 2022. In law school, Samantha was active in the Native American Law Student Association and President of the Intellectual Property Society. She is also a 2019 alumna of the American Indian Law Center’s Pre-Law Summer Institute (PLSI).

Tierra Marks is a member of the Navajo Nation and is a first-generation law graduate and lawyer. Tierra spent her early years on the Navajo Nation before she moved to a small town in southern Arizona, and then to the Big Island of Hawai’i where she attended a remote Hawaiian culturally driven charter school.

Tierra’s work at the firm ranges from complex litigation and discovery to employment, contract, and construction disputes, bid protests, land disputes, taxation matters, natural resources and environmental regulation, and sovereign immunity and tribal jurisdiction. Tierra litigates at trial and appellate levels in tribal, state and federal courts, and administrative hearings. Tierra has successfully resolved disputes on behalf of her clients with federal and state agencies, assisted with winning a large aboriginal Indian land claim against the United States, successfully filed bid protests under the Navajo Nation Business Opportunity Act and handled claims before the Office of Navajo Labor Relations and the Navajo Nation Labor Commission. Tierra is committed to advocating on behalf of her clients concerning affirmation of tribal rights and status as to protection of tribal lands and sovereignty.

Tierra holds a JD Degree and a Certificate in Indian Law from the University of New Mexico School of Law and a BA in Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. While in law school, she was Co-Managing Editor of the Tribal Law Journal, and a recipient of the New Mexico State Bar Health Law Scholarship and the Mary Beth and W. Richard West Jr. Award which recognizes excellence in Indian Law. Since graduating from law school, Tierra has served as an adjunct professor for the Tribal Law Journal and taught the Tribal Law Journal Seminar at the University of New Mexico School of Law, has presented on discovery and evidentiary issues in litigation against state and federal governments and comparative legal and cultural matters, and also serves on the Indian Law Section of the State Bar of New Mexico and other boards. Tierra is an alumna of the American Indian Law Center Pre-Law Summer Institute and Navajo Preparatory School. And, in 2021, Tierra won 3rd place in the Indian Law Section’s 1st Annual Photo.

Contest. Lenny Powell is a Staff Attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of the Native American Rights Fund. He previously worked in the Appellate and Supreme Court and Native American Law practices of a major international law firm. Lenny advocates for tribal interests before state and federal courts throughout the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also an adjunct professor of federal Indian law at New York University School of Law.

At the Supreme Court, Lenny has helped win six cases on the merits and successfully opposed dozens of petitions for certiorari. His notable Supreme Court victories include Haaland v. Brackeen, which upheld the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act. They also include McGirt v. Oklahoma, which recognized the continued existence of the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation. The New York Times has called McGirt “potentially one of the most consequential legal victories for Native Americans in decades.”

Before law school, Lenny was an elected leader of his federally recognized tribe—the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians. Lenny is recognized as a thought leader and regularly presents on Indian law issues. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Washington Post.

Lenny graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He clerked for Judge Allison H. Eid of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. 

Heidi Todacheeneis a citizen of Navajo Nation whoserves as Senior Advisor to the Secretary and the Executive Director of the Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee (STAC) at the U.S. Department of the Interior. Previously,Heidi served as Legislative Counsel for Congresswoman Deb Haaland and Director of the Congressional Native American Caucus in the United States Congress. Previously, Heidi worked on intergovernmental affairs, economic development, and public safety issues on behalf of her Nation, served at the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department, and as a civil litigation attorneyin Albuquerque. Heidi is the first in her family to attend law school and graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law. She is licensed in New Mexico, Washington D.C., and the U.S. District Court for New Mexico.

Christina West has over two decades of legal experience in private practice. As a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and in honor of all that her ancestors endured and fought for, Christina values providing quality services to tribes, tribal members, tribal entities and other clients in a wide range of matters. This experience includes tribal governance, complex litigation, employment issues, aboriginal title claims, commercial litigation, contract negotiations, and development projects. Before joining the firm, Christina was on the board of directors and a shareholder at a large firm in Albuquerque.

Throughout her career, Christina has litigated for her clients at trial and appellate levels in tribal, state and federal courts, arbitrations and administrative hearings. Recently, Christina was honored to successfully argue on behalf of a Pueblo before the 10th Circuit, winning an aboriginal land claim against the United States. Christina regularly handles complex litigation matters, leading litigation teams, managing extensive e-discovery and support software and working with expert witnesses. She successfully defended an individual landowner in an oil and gas litigation in state court, securing millions in assets. Her transactional experience includes construction projects, employment matters and commercial transactions. She has assisted a tribal enterprise in obtaining land, negotiating and financing construction contracts, and building a beautiful new facility.

Christina has long been dedicated to community involvement. Christina has served as Chair of the Indian Law Section of the New Mexico Bar Association and Board President, Vice-President and Secretary for the Domestic Violence Resource Center. She has served on many other boards, including the New Mexico Women’s Bar Association and Opera Southwest. She is also an Associate Member of the Tribal In-House Counsel Association.

Christina holds a BA, cum laude, from the University of Tulsa. She holds a JD from the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of law, with a certificate in Federal Indian Law and distinctions for pro bono services. She is currently licensed in the Navajo Nation; New Mexico State Court; the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Christina is honored to have her work recognized by several prestigious awards. She is an AV rated lawyer and is also ranked in Chambers and Partners in Native American Law. She has also been recognized as Top 250 Female Litigators in America from Benchmark Litigation and was awarded the New Mexico State Bar Indian Law Section 2019 Attorney Achievement Award.

While striving for a balanced life, Christina enjoys spending time with her husband and two children. She also likes riding her horses, playing acoustic guitar, hiking and traveling.

Alexander Mallory (Hakikóx Walu Piga—“makes his way”) (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska) is an Associate at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.  Before this, Alexander clerked for the Honorable Diane J. Humetewa at the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and for the Honorable Daniel H. Weiss at the U.S. Immigration Court through the Department of Justice Honors Program.  He also clerked for the Honorable Paul Nihoul at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.  He is a 2016 PLSI alumnus.

Matthew L.M. Fletcher, ’97, is the Harry Burns Hutchins Collegiate Professor of Law at Michigan Law. He teaches and writes in the areas of federal Indian law, American Indian tribal law, Anishinaabe legal and political philosophy, constitutional law, federal courts, and legal ethics. He also sits as the chief justice of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.

Fletcher also sits as an appellate judge for the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, the Colorado River Indian Tribes, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska, and the Tulalip Tribes. He is a member of the Grand Traverse Band.

He previously taught at the Michigan State University College of Law (2006 to 2022) and the University of North Dakota School of Law (2004 to 2006). He has been a visiting professor at the law schools at the University of Arizona; the University of California, Hastings; the University of Michigan; the University of Montana; and Stanford University. He is a frequent instructor at the Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indian students. 

He was lead reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law of American Indians, completed in 2022. He has published articles in the California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, and many others. His hornbook, Federal Indian Law (West Academic Publishing), was published in 2016 and his concise hornbook, Principles of Federal Indian Law (West Academic Publishing), in 2017. Fletcher co-authored the sixth and seventh editions of Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law (West Publishing, 2011 and 2017) and both editions of American Indian Tribal Law (Aspen, 2011 and 2020), the only casebook for law students on tribal law. He also authored Ghost Road: Anishinaabe Responses to Indian-Hating (Fulcrum Publishing, 2020); The Return of the Eagle: The Legal History of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (Michigan State University Press, 2012); and American Indian Education: Counternarratives in Racism, Struggle, and the Law (Routledge, 2008). He co-edited The Indian Civil Rights Act at Forty with Kristen A. Carpenter and Angela R. Riley (UCLA American Indian Studies Press, 2012) and Facing the Future: The Indian Child Welfare Act at 30 with Wenona T. Singel and Kathryn E. Fort (Michigan State University Press, 2009). The United States Supreme Court has cited Fletcher’s scholarship and advocacy several times. Finally, Fletcher is the primary editor and author of the leading law blog on American Indian law and policy, Turtle Talk, turtletalk.wordpress.com.

Fletcher worked as a staff attorney for four Indian Tribes: the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the Suquamish Tribe, and the Grand Traverse Band. He previously sat on the judiciaries of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians; he also served as a consultant to the Seneca Nation of Indians Court of Appeals. 

He is married to Wenona Singel, a member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and they have two sons, Owen and Emmett.

Roshanna K. Toya is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Isleta where she was born, raised, and resides today. Roshanna earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of New Mexico. After graduating law school Roshanna went on to clerk for the New Mexico Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court, District of New Mexico, where she was able to work closely with judges to research, analyze and write legal memoranda regarding all areas of civil and criminal law. Roshanna’s clerkships were formative experiences in her legal career and created a solid foundation for her current diverse practice.

Roshanna practices law in New Mexico and Arizona with the regional law firm, Rothstein Donatelli, in the areas of criminal defense, in the Firm’s civil practice on behalf of plaintiffs, and in Indian law to include representing tribes in ICWA cases. Roshanna has been recognized as Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America for her expertise in criminal defense and Native American Law.

Roshanna has served her Pueblo as an associate justice for the Pueblo of Isleta Appellate Court since 2013. She now serves the Pueblo as the Chief Justice of the Appellate Court. There she presides over cases related to probate, domestic relations, criminal law, employment law, and any other types of disputes that are appealed from the Pueblo’s Tribal Court. 

Prior to pursuing a career in law, Roshanna practiced as a licensed master social worker, focused on providing direct clinical services to American Indian youth incarcerated in state prisons, and assisting families of court-involved youth to secure community based behavioral health services. Roshanna has also been active for many years in making funding recommendations on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice for grants related to tribal court systems, tribal social services, community-oriented policing programs, and more.

Roshanna serves as a member of the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners and as a member of the PLSI’s Judicial Clerkship Committee.

Associate Judge Meredith Drent is a citizen of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma and a descendant of the Indigenous Chamorro (Chamoru) people of Guam. She obtained her B.A. from the University of California, Irvine and her J.D. with a certificate in Federal Indian Law from the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Judge Drent has dedicated her legal education and twenty-year career to community-based services in tribal communities as expressions and exercises of tribal sovereignty. Her primary experience as a practitioner was in dependency and community program development, including health care, social services, education, and tribal court development, evaluation, administration and operation. Prior to obtaining her legal education, she served as a court clerk for the Osage Nation Tribal Court, which fueled her interest in tribal justice and tribal court administration and operation. In 2006, while in private practice, she was appointed as an Associate Justice for the Osage Nation Supreme Court. In 2012, she was appointed Chief Justice of the Osage Nation Supreme Court. She also serves as an appellate judge for the Northern California Tribal Court Coalition. In May 2021, the Tulalip Tribes Board of Directors appointed Judge Drent to the Tulalip Tribal Court as part-time Associate Judge, and she transitioned to a full-time Associate Judge in November 2021. She is on the Board of Directors for the Northwest Tribal Court Judges Association and the National American Indian Court Judge’s Association. Judge Drent is dedicated to the practice, protection, and enforcement of tribal self-governance and self-determination through an engagement with community values.

Josett Monette is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. She currently serves as the Cabinet Secretary for the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department (IAD). As Cabinet Secretary Designate, Josett oversees IAD’s programs, including tribal environmental, tribal consultation, and MMIP initiatives. Prior to joining IAD, Josett was the New Mexico Legal Aid Native American Program Director. The Native American Program serves indigent clients living on or near the Pueblos and provides legal services, mostly in tribal courts, in many areas of law including jurisdictional issues, violations of due process, custody, divorce, child support, defending against debt collections, probate matters, tribal criminal defense, ICWA, tribal housing matters, tribal employment matters, and representing respondent parents in Child in Need of Care matters. Josett is an Adjunct Professor for the University of New Mexico School of Law National Native American Law Student Association (“NALSA”) Moot Court Team. She recently served as a Commissioner for the Pueblo of Tesuque Gaming Commission. Previously, she worked as a Staff Attorney at NMLA Native American Program, an Associate General Counsel for the Pueblo of Isleta, and as an Associate Attorney with Barnhouse, Keegan, Solimon, & West, LLP, an Indian Law Firm in Albuquerque which provides representation to tribes and tribal businesses throughout the country. Josett served on the Board of Directors for the New Mexico State Bar Indian Law Section for seven years and sits as an Attorney Bar Exam Coach. She has assisted with planning several CLE Conferences, most recently including helping to plan the Federal Bar Indian Law Conference. She holds a JD, with a certificate in Indian Law from UNM School of Law, a M.Ed. in Educational Leadership, B.S.Ed. in Secondary Education – Social Sciences, and B.A. in (American) Indian Studies from the University of North Dakota. Prior to her legal career, Josett was an educator and worked in education mostly on her home reservation in the Turtle Mountain Community. She has three amazing children that she raised as a single mother, and she loves to do Zumba.

Matthew Campbell joined the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) as a staff attorney in March 2013 and became the Deputy Director in 2022. Prior to joining NARF, Matthew was an attorney with Cuddy & McCarthy, LLP, in New Mexico, and clerked for the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, with now-retired Judge Patrick Irvine in 2008.

Matthew received his J.D. from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in 2008 and his B.A. from Fort Lewis College. He is an enrolled member of the Native Village of Gambell on Saint Lawrence Island in Alaska.

Aaron Sims, a member of the Pueblo of Acoma, is a partner at the Chestnut Law Offices, P.A. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Aaron joined the Chestnut Law Offices in 2014 after receiving a J.D. with an Indian Law Certificate from the University of New Mexico – School of Law. He attended the American Indian Law Center (AILC)’s Pre-Law Summer Institute (PLSI) in 2011. Prior to attending law school, Aaron graduated from Dartmouth College in 2009 with a B.A. in Government and Native American Studies. Currently, he serves as a member of AILC’s Board of Directors for and the Chamiza Foundation.

Aaron’s practice focuses primarily on general counsel representation for Pueblo tribal governments and organizations. He has worked on a wide range of Indian legal issues including intergovernmental relations, environmental issues, tribal economic development, and water rights. Aaron has worked extensively on and is especially interested in the protection of Pueblo cultural resources, including the preservation of sacred sites and the repatriation of sacred items.