Law schools: Number of Native American students increasing
By M. Scott Carter
[DECEMBER 1, 2011 - TULSA, Okla.] - In Oklahoma, it’s not just the law that’s gone tribal.
Officials at each of the state’s three law schools said the number of Native American students has increased and those numbers continue to climb.
Similar to the increase in tribal litigation, Oklahoma is creating more Native American attorneys. In fact, statistics from each of the state’s law schools underscore the rise in enrollments by Native American students.
Native American enrollment at the University of Tulsa’s law school was up significantly for 2010 at 28, from 12 students in 2009. In 2009 at the University of Oklahoma, almost 8 percent of the law school’s graduating class of 163 was Native American. At Oklahoma City University, more than 3 percent of the law school’s 159 graduates were American Indian or Alaska Native.
“Nationally, it looks like law school applications from Native Americans has been down, but that’s not so much the case in our neck of the woods,” said April Fox, who handles admissions for TU’s law school.
And while 28 students may not look like many in a class of more than 100, consider the fact that in 2005, TU had only seven Native American law students in classes.
The trend started, TU officials say, more than 30 years ago.
“In the 1970s and 1980s, you get this re-emergence of tribal governments,” said Judith Royster, co-director of TU’s Native American Law Center. “And you see the tribes push for better education. In turn, more Native American students began going to law school.”
For attorneys such as Phillips Murrah’s G. Calvin Sharpe, tribal heritage played a huge role in his life and his career.
“I am a Seminole,” Sharpe said. “And I’m very proud to be a Seminole. And yes, I practiced business law for a while to feed my family, but I moved to focus on my heritage and concentrate in areas that were essentially Native American.”
The result has been a renewal of Sharpe’s tribal relationships and the opportunity to practice law in an area that benefits his tribe.
“It makes me very proud to see where we’ve come,” he said.
At the University of Oklahoma, law professor Lindsay Robertson, faculty director for the American Indian Law and Policy Center, said word-of-mouth has also steered more Native American students into law school.
“Say, for example, we have a Chickasaw student come and they will go back and work for the Chickasaw Nation and they will have young friends and they tell them, ‘You should go to law school,’” he said. “Now our enrollment fluctuates between 8 and 10 percent of our student body who are enrolled tribal members. It’s that word-of-mouth.”
Even with the increase in the number of tribal attorneys, Sharpe and others believe Native Americans still face a stigma because of their race.
“There is still a large disconnect between Native Americans and non-Native Americans,” Sharpe said. “It’s just the dynamics of Native American culture.”
But even with that issue on the horizon, future generations of Native American attorneys will find opportunity in the law, especially in areas related to tribal business, government, life and culture.
“This is something that will continue to get bigger,” Sharpe said. “It’s not going to go away.”