Colin Kavanaugh
The Michigan law school community
Student Activities
UM NALSA Indian Law Week — April 1-6, 2015
Here (PDF):
32nd Annual Michigan State University Powwow: April 18, 2015
Here is the flyer:
Wisconsin Law School ILSA: 29th Annual Coming Together of Peoples Conference Agenda — This Weekend!
Here (PDF):
National NALSA Announces 2015 Moot Court Winners (UPDATED with pics)
Here:
On March 6th and 7th of 2015 the National Native American Law Students Association (“NNALSA”) held its Annual Moot Court Competition. The competition was hosted by the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. This year’s competition was the biggest ever! 70 teams participated, and over 100 attorneys from Arizona to Washington D.C. served as brief and oral judges. All of the judges volunteered their own time and many paid their own travel expenses. The James E. Rogers College of Law’s NALSA chapter would like to thank all of the volunteers who helped plan and host this memorable competition.
This year’s winners include:
1st Place Best Overall Advocate: Team 181 of William Mitchell, Joshua Peterson and Scott Jurchisin
2nd Place Best Overall Advocate: Team 54 of University of Kansas, Corey Adams and Maureen Orth
3rd Place Best Overall Advocate: Team 92 of Seattle University, Drew Pollom and Jocelyn McCurtain
1st Place Best Brief: Team 181 of William Mitchell, Joshua Peterson and Scott Jurchisin
2nd Place Best Brief: Team 28 of Columbia, Jacob Wolf and Andrew Sangster
3rd Place Best Brief: Team 126 of Michigan State, Stephen Raslich and Amy Foerster
1st Place Best Spoken Advocate: Team 120 of Univ. of Hawaii, Jordan Inafuki
2nd Place Best Spoken Advocate: Team 73 of Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas, Kostan R. Lathouris
3rd Place Best Spoken Advocate: Team 120 of Univ. of Hawaii, Dylan Taschner
This was the second year that William Mitchell took “Best Brief” and “Best Overall Advocate.” Sarah Deer, who received one of the McArthur Genius awards this year, helped coach William Mitchell’s winning team. Colette Routel of William Mitchell helped coach the winning team as well.
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s competition!
Sincerely,
NNALSA
UPDATE with Pics:
2015 Wisconsin ILSA Coming Together of Peoples Conference Agenda — March 20-21, 2015
Here (PDF):
Congrats to Steve and Amy!
Best brief, third place
Congrats to Team Anishinaabe at the NNALSA Moot Court!
Cornell NALSA to Host Tribal Economic Development Summit This Saturday (To be Live Streamed)
Here:
Here is the agenda (PDF):
Here is the live stream link for the morning panel sessions:
http://law.webcast.video.cornell.edu/Mediasite/Play/4c30d7814aec4710a6f84e9dc33dfc851d
And here is the link for the Keynote address:
http://law.webcast.video.cornell.edu/Mediasite/Play/e5f613f211524a7abaaa8401574bca081d
University of South Dakota NALSA Extends Support to the Lakota 57
The University of South Dakota School of Law Native American Law Student Association 
(NALSA) organized a Peace Gathering in honor of the 57 children from American Horse School on the Pine Ridge Reservation. These students, age 9 to 13, were attending a Rapid City Rush hockey game in recognition of their school accomplishments. Unfortunately, these students had beer poured on them and were subject to racial epithets. The alleged perpetrator was charged with a low level misdemeanor of disorderly conduct.
The gathering brought together almost 30 law students and faculty members into the courtroom. The Law School community was invited to write personal letters of encouragement and support to send to the students. NALSA’s goal is to send a strong message to the children so that they know we support them in their efforts to continue to strive and to grow from this negative and ugly experience.
Tysolake House, second year law student and Vice-President of NALSA, shared his thoughts on the incident. For Tysolake, this incident hit very close to home. He mentioned the obstacles he had to overcome dealing with racially charged issues as a child. He also expressed his sympathies for the children as he envisioned this situation potentially happening to his own children, who are the same age.
USD Law Professor Frank Pommersheim shared a few thoughts about how to move forward from this horrible incident. His remarks focused on the need for ‘solidarity,’ particularly from NALSA and the legal community, to show support for these young native students. These students need to know that there are many people of good will who want them to succeed.
Gene Thin Elk, Director of the Native American Cultural Center, also attended the Peace Gathering in support of the children from American Horse School. Gene expressed his support by sharing a few words about overcoming adversity and by singing a Lakota Song.
At the conclusion of this gathering everyone gathered to take a group picture. Everyone in attendance firmly stood behind the banner that exclaimed the words, “They are our children too.”
-Kyle Chase
USD NALSA President
Turtle Talk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.