Angelique EagleWoman | |
---|---|
Born | December 1, 1969 |
Nationality | Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate |
Other names | Wambdi Awanwicake WasteWin |
Education | Stanford University (BA) University of North Dakota (JD) University of Tulsa (LLM) |
Occupation | Legal scholar |
Known for | First Aboriginal person appointed as a dean of a Canadian law school. |
Angelique EagleWoman (Dakota : Wambdi Awanwicake WasteWin; born 1969) [1] is a Dakota law professor and scholar of Indigenous law. She is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation. EagleWoman was the Dean of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada from 2016 until she stepped down in June 2018, alleging issues of systemic racism leading to constructive dismissal.
She holds a law professor position and is the Co-Director of the Indian Law Program at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. [2]
Angelique EagleWoman was born in Topeka, Kansas. During her childhood years in Kansas, she was raised mostly in a single-parent household by her mother; her family, including a brother, faced poverty conditions. When she was 8 years old, she watched her aunt and uncle on television after they won a lawsuit against the Shawnee County Sheriff's department for brutally beating her uncle, an African-American, when he went to pay a speeding ticket. [3]
As a teenager, she moved with her father and brother to her home reservation, the Lake Traverse Reservation of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate. Her grandmother, Ramona (DeCoteau) Washington and her father, Stephen L. Jackson Sr., both attended mandatory government boarding schools in South Dakota. When she was 15 years old, she received her woman's name in the Dakota language of Wambdi Awanwicake Was'teWinyan in a family ceremony on her reservation. [4]
As a young woman, she was mentored by Roger Jourdain, former Chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, and a strong sovereignty advocate for Indigenous nations.
Before being appointed Dean at Lakehead University, EagleWoman taught at the University of Idaho College of Law, established the Native American Law Emphasis Program, held a position in the law faculty at Hamline University School of Law teaching Native American Law and Contracts, and a visiting position at the University of Kansas School of Law and in the master's degree program, Indigenous Nation Studies. Her classes focus on tribal economic development, legal code development, litigation, contract law, and international Indigenous law. [5]
During the 2017-2018 academic year, EagleWoman taught all of the first-year students in two sections of the mandatory Indigenous Legal Traditions fall course and taught the entire second-year class of students in the mandatory Aboriginal Legal Issues course to ensure that the courses were taught by an Indigenous legal academic.
Several times, EagleWoman has served on the board for the National Native American Bar Association. Additionally, she holds memberships with the District of Columbia, Oklahoma, and South Dakota Bar Associations. Of particular note is her time serving as General Counsel to the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate, working as an associate attorney with Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse and Endreson in Washington D.C., and her work as a Tribal Public Defender for the Kaw Nation and the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. [5]
On January 12, 2016, the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University announced that EagleWoman would be the new Dean of Law. [6] [7] Her tenure, which began in May 2016, made her the first Indigenous law dean in Canada. [8] Her appointment was welcomed by the Indigenous legal community, including the Indigenous Bar Association. In June 2018, EagleWoman stepped down from her position citing systemic racism in the university and the law school. [7] [9]
She currently is a visiting law professor at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, MN where she teaches in the Indian Law Program and courses in contract law and civil dispute resolution. [2]
EagleWoman has her BA in Political Science from Stanford University, her JD from the University of North Dakota School of Law with distinction, her LLM from the University of Tulsa College of Law, with honours, studying American Indian and Indigenous Law. [10]
During the spring of 2008, EagleWoman received the Kansas University Center for Indigenous Nation's Crystal Eagle Award. This award was for recognition of her leadership and dedication in helping members and students in Indigenous communities. Other awards include:
The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples. Collectively, they are the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, or "Seven Council Fires". The term "Sioux", an exonym from a French transcription of the Ojibwe term Nadowessi, can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects.
Sisseton is a city in Roberts County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,479 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Roberts County. Sisseton is the home to a number of tourist attractions, including the Nicollet Tower, and is near the "Song to the Great Spirit" building on the Sisseton Wahpeton College campus. The city is named for the Sisseton division of the Native American Sioux. It also serves as an important part of the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation.
Floyd Westerman was a Sisseton Dakota musician, political activist, and actor. After establishing a career as a country music singer, later in his life he became an actor, usually depicting Native American elders in American films and television. He is also credited as Floyd Red Crow Westerman. As a political activist, he spoke and marched for Native American causes.
The Mdewakanton or Mdewakantonwan are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti (Santee) Dakota (Sioux). Their historic home is Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota. Together with the Wahpekute, they form the so-called Upper Council of the Dakota or Santee Sioux. Today their descendants are members of federally recognized tribes in Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska of the United States, and First Nations in Manitoba, Canada.
Agency Village is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in Roberts County, South Dakota, United States. It is the headquarters of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and home to Sisseton Wahpeton College. Since 2020, the CDP includes the community known as Goodwill. The population of the CDP was 776 at the 2020 census.
The Rosebud Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in South Dakota, United States. It is the home of the federally recognized Rosebud Sioux Tribe, who are Sicangu, a band of Lakota people. The Lakota name Sicangu Oyate translates as the "Burnt Thigh Nation", also known by the French term, the Brulé Sioux.
Sisseton Wahpeton College (SWC) is a Public tribal land-grant community college of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate on the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota. It was established in 1979 and serves the Dakota people. SWC has an average enrollment of about 250 students, of whom more than 80% are tribal members. It has both vocational and academic programs, and arrangements with four-year colleges so that students can transfer for continued studies.
The Spirit Lake Tribe is a federally recognized tribe based on the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation located in east-central North Dakota on the southern shores of Devils Lake. It is made up of people of the Pabaksa (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna), Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ) and Wahpeton (Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ) bands of the Dakota tribe. Established in 1867 in a treaty between Sisseton-Wahpeton Bands and the United States government, the reservation, at 47°54′38″N98°53′01″W, consists of 1,283.777 square kilometres (495.669 sq mi) of land area, primarily in Benson and Eddy counties. Smaller areas extend into Ramsey, Wells and Nelson counties.
The Lake Traverse Indian Reservation is the homeland of the federally recognized Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, a branch of the Santee Dakota group of Native Americans. Most of the reservation covers parts of five counties in northeastern South Dakota, while smaller parts are in two counties in southeastern North Dakota, United States.
The Dakota are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into the Eastern Dakota and the Western Dakota.
The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, formerly Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe/Dakota Nation, is a federally recognized tribe comprising two bands and two subdivisions of the Isanti or Santee Dakota people. They are on the Lake Traverse Reservation in northeast South Dakota.
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe are a federally recognized tribe of Santee Dakota people. Their reservation is the Flandreau Indian Reservation. The tribe are members of the Mdewakantonwan people, one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti (Santee) Dakota originally from central Minnesota.
Agency Township is a township in Roberts County, South Dakota, United States. The township is part of the Lake Traverse Reservation, which is home to the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Indian tribe. The tribe's headquarters at Agency Village are in the township, as is Sisseton Wahpeton College.
The Bora Laskin Faculty of Law is the professional school of law of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Creighton Leland Robertson was ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota from 1994 to 2009.
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Kim TallBear is a Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate professor at the University of Alberta, specializing in racial politics in science. Holding the first ever Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Environment, TallBear has published on DNA testing, race science and Indigenous identities, as well as on polyamory as a decolonization practice.
Tamara St. John is an American politician and a Republican member of the South Dakota House of Representatives representing District 1 since January 8, 2019. With her election, St. John became the first and only Native American Republican woman to ever serve in the South Dakota House of Representatives.
Mona Smith is a Native American artist, storyteller and documentary producer.
Circle of Nations Wahpeton Indian School, formerly Wahpeton Indian School, is a tribally-controlled grade 4-8 school in Wahpeton, North Dakota.