Indian Law Program
Indian Law Faculty
John LaVelle, Santee Sioux Nation
Unlike any other area of American law, the field of federal Indian law is permeated by assertions of power emanating from all three classes of domestic sovereigns — the tribes, the United States, and the states. This unique feature endows Indian law with enormous doctrinal depth and substantive complexity, and makes the study of Indian law an important primer in fundamental principles of American constitutionalism. I strive to help students understand the fundamental principles, historical development, and prevailing doctrines of the field and explore the deeper moral and ethical issues that underlie modern Indian law and policy. My objective is to help students learn to apply the often contradictory legal rules to Indian law issues and to help prepare students for participating in the development of Indian law in their professional work.
