Syracuse University’s College of Law announces first American Indian Scholar

Syracuse University’s College of Law announces first American Indian ScholarJune 24, 2004Amy Schmitzaemehrin@syr.edu

Syracuse University’s College of Law has awarded its first American Indian Scholarship to Megan Green of Portland, Ore. The award includes a full-tuition scholarship for the College of Law’s juris doctor program for a period of up to three years.

“I am extremely pleased that the inaugural holder of the American Indian Scholarship at the College of Law is Megan Green,” says Robert Odawi Porter, director of the Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship at SU. “She demonstrates great potential as a lawyer and a scholar of the law relating to the Indigenous nations.”

Green is a Stanford University graduate and a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe from Belcourt, N.D. She has worked on the reinstallation of the

Hall of the Americas (Native Arts) at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y., and has interned at the Museum of Modern Art.

The scholarship was open to all American Indian applicants who were accepted at SU’s College of Law. Notice of the scholarship was sent to the approximately

400 American Indians who took the LSAT in the last year. Accepted students were then asked to complete an additional scholarship questionnaire exploring the depth of their commitment to Indigenous legal issues.

Located in the historic territory of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, Syracuse is uniquely situated as a place to study and research Indian law and policy. It is in close proximity to nearly all of the Haudenosaunee territories that surround Lake Ontario. Moreover, the Indian law issues prevalent in New York State – taxation, gaming and land claims-are some of the most pressing issues facing Indian nations today.

The Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship at SU is the only one of its kind at any law school in the eastern United States. It strives to recognize the differences in dealing with Indian law issues in New York and other more heavily populated places. The new Center will be proactive in researching, teaching and contributing to the dialogue associated with Indian affairs regionally, nationally and internationally.