NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
MOOT COURT COMPETITION
and
NALSA INDIAN LAW/SOUTH DAKOTA LAW REVIEW SYMPOSIUM
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF LAW
Vermillion, South Dakota
February 18-20, 2010
Sponsorship Opportunity
On February 18-20, the University of South Dakota School of Law will host the nation’s pre-eminent Indian Law event. It will include the National Native American Law Students Association (NALSA) Moot Court Competition, the foremost annual Indian law academic competition. The competition will be conducted in conjunction with a scholarly symposium co-sponsored by the South Dakota Law Review and the USD NALSA chapter and with the biennial Dillon Lecture on Indian law. The symposium represents the first time the annual Law Review Symposium has been combined with the NALSA Indian Law Symposium. The latter has been held biennially for more than two decades, making it the longest-running Indian law symposium in the nation. The Dillon Lecture is one of the Law School’s three major scholarly lectures; it is held biennially in conjunction with the Indian Law Symposium and features a major national speaker on Indian law.
Student teams from across the country will compete in the National NALSA Moot Court Competition. Teams from 55 schools have already registered, including teams from the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of California-Berkeley, University of Colorado, Columbia University, Gonzaga University, University of Hawaii, University of Iowa, Kansas University, Lewis & Clark University, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, University of New Mexico, University of North Dakota, University of Oklahoma, Stanford University, University of Tulsa, UCLA, University of Wisconsin, and William Mitchell College of Law. Many schools are sending multiple teams; for example, Columbia has registered six teams. The current registration represents a 25% increase over the number of teams that participated in last year’s competition in Boulder, Colorado.
The appellate problem for the competition has been drafted by USD Professor Frank Pommersheim, an internationally recognized Indian law expert who sits on several tribal supreme courts. It will involve issues of free exercise of religion in Indian Country. Judges for the Moot Court Competition will include members of the tribal, federal, and state judiciary and lawyers with expertise in Indian law.
The Dillon Lecture will be presented by Professor Matthew Fletcher (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians), Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center of the Michigan State University College of Law. Professor Fletcher is a co-author of the leading national casebook on federal Indian law and a judge and consultant to tribal supreme courts.
The NALSA Indian Law/South Dakota Law Review Symposium will recognize the 20th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Employment Division v. Smith. The Smith case involved the use of peyote by members of the Native American Church and has become one of the Supreme Court’s most important interpretations of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In addition to Professor Fletcher, panelists will include Professor Marci Hamilton, Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University; Professor Mark Kende, James Madison Chair in Constitutional Law and Director, Constitutional Law Center, Drake University Law School; and Professor Christopher Lund, Mississippi College School of Law.
The overall coordinator of the National NALSA Moot Court Competition is Lonnie Wright (Rosebud Sioux Tribe), a second-year law student. Lonnie is the president of the USD NALSA chapter and a member of the National NALSA board of directors.
The Moot Court Competition website, signage, and participant materials will feature original artwork by Donald Montileaux, an award-winning Oglala Lakota artist. In 1995, one of his works of art orbited the earth 262 times in the payload of the Space Shuttle Endeavor.
The Friday night dinner for the Moot Court Competition competitors and judges will feature hoop dancing by famed performer Jackie Bird (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) and members of her family. She has performed around the world and was once honored by a Montana Crow tribal member after a performance with the gift of a Crow name that is translated as “One Who Makes the People Smile.”
Sponsorship donations will be used for the expenses of the National NALSA Moot Court Competition and NALSA Indian Law/South Dakota Law Review Symposium, including the original Donald Montileaux artwork and permission to use it for the Moot Court Competition materials; a graduate assistantship for Lonnie Wright as coordinator; additional staff support; honoraria for the Dillon Lecturer and Symposium panelists; travel expenses for Symposium speakers and Moot Court judges; meals for judges and competitors, including the Jackie Bird family program for the Friday night dinner and a Saturday night awards banquet; awards and prizes; and miscellaneous supplies and facilities cleaning costs. Any donations in excess of the expenses will be added to the NALSA scholarship endowment, which provides scholarship assistance to tribally enrolled students who attend the University of South Dakota School of Law.
Sponsorships will be reported in the following categories: Prime Sponsor, $25,000; Major Sponsor, $20,000-24,999; Sponsor, $15,000-19,999; Benefactor, $10,000-14,999; Supporter, $5,000-9,999; Friend, $1,000-4,999. Sponsors may combine their donations, at their discretion, in order to be reported in a particular sponsorship category. Different type sizes will be used to distinguish the sponsors at the different levels in the programs and signs. Announcements mentioning the sponsors will also indicate the levels of sponsorship.
Sponsors will be recognized in the programs for the Dillon Lecture, the NALSA Indian Law/South Dakota Law Review Symposium, and the National NALSA Moot Court Competition. Sponsors will also be recognized on the websites of the School of Law (www.usd.edu/law) and the National NALSA Moot Court Competition (www.usdnalsa.org/). During the events, there will also be prominent signage and announcements recognizing the sponsors.
Barry R. Vickrey
Dean & Professor
January 12, 2010
Turtle Talk 