boxcheckers

Gordon Hylton on Law School Boxcheckers

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Marquette law faculty blog:

Between 1990 and 2000, slightly more than 2,600 self-identified Native Americans graduated from ABA-accredited law schools. As a consequence, one might have expected the number of Native-American lawyers in the United States would have increased by about 2000 or so by the end of that decade. (The increase would be less than 2,600, since some of the Native Americans practicing in 1990 would have died or left the profession.) Shockingly, according to the United States Census, the actual increase in the number of Indian and Native-Alaskan lawyers in the United States was only 228, from 1502 to 1730.

ABA Diversity Conference — Indian Country Testimony re: Criminal Justice, Boxcheckers, etc.

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the ABA:

On February 12, 2009, at the request of American Bar Association President, H. Thomas Wells, Jr., Mary L. Smith will testify at the “State of Diversity in the Legal Profession” hearing at the ABA Mid-Year Meeting in Boston, MA.  Ms. Smith will discuss issues of concern to women and Native Americans in the legal profession, particularly, the crisis situation of public safety issues in Indian Country and also the “box checking” issue on law school applications.

Ms. Smith is the National Native American Bar Association’s delegate to the ABA House of Delegates and is the first tribally-enrolled Commissioner and Chair of the Women of Color Committee for the ABA’s Commission on Women in the Profession.  (As many of you already know she is also one of our council members and very active in the work of the committees).

Here is her prepared testimony — diversity_hearing_testimony1

Article on Academic Frauds

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Ethnic Fraud?
Tribal scholars say some faculty are falsely claiming American Indian heritage to boost their job prospects.

By Mary Annette Pember

From Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

For American Indian scholars, securing a job in higher education can sometimes be as simple as checking a box. Most of the country’s colleges and universities do not require proof of tribal enrollment from faculty or staff who identify themselves as American Indians. Students looking to receive financial aid, however, must submit proof that they are members of federally recognized tribes. The question of American Indian identity can be an incendiary one.

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