USD aims to draw more Native Americans to law school

A year from now, Clifton Skye expects to be completing a law school exam and deciding where he wants to go.

The 50-year-old Standing Rock native was working on a graduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he learned about a program that helps Native Americans who are interested in becoming attorneys.

“It was exactly what I was looking for,” Skye said. “This law school program is something that will help Native Americans not just in South Dakota but across the country.”

Skye took part in a workshop at Michigan State University, but another is happening this weekend at the University of South Dakota. The school joined the Pipeline to Law Initiative to encourage Native Americans in the state to take up the profession.

The workshops offer tips for taking the bar, provides funding for law school, and walks participants through what it takes to make it through the first year. Exam fees are also waived, Skye said.

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“This gives a resource and gives mentorship to people considering law school or those who never considered that as an option because they didn’t have a role model,” said Nicholas McInerney, director of admissions at the school of law.

Graduating from college is a statistical anomaly for Native American, said Mato Standing High, director of Indian education for the state, which make the task for graduating with a post-secondary degree even tougher.

“It’s really something that we need to take note of and acknowledge the statistical difficulty in achieving something like that,” Standing High said.

Native Americans make up 1.6 percent of the U.S. population but only 0.3 percent of U.S. attorneys.

Standing High, who is licensed to practice in Colorado and South Dakota, came to this realization and is working to come up with ways to help Native American youth perform as well as their counterparts.

Programs like the Pipeline to Law Initiative could provide some the footing for the next generation to feel more confident about becoming attorneys.

“It’s provides incentive and opportunity for younger generations when they can have role models that have achieved,” Standing High said.

Eric Schulte, a Sioux Falls attorney and former president of the state bar association, said the program could have a significant impact on South Dakota.

He said despite Native Americans making up about 9 percent of the state’s population, less than one percent of state bar membership is Native American. It’s a problem the state bar has been trying to address.

“In my view, it’s really important for Native Americans to have a voice in legal issues,” Schulte said. “In my view the best way to accomplish that is to have more Native American lawyers.”

Seth Pearman graduated from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 2012 and works for the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe as its attorney.

Pearman, president of the state Indian Country Bar Association, said he’s gone to reservations across to the state to talk to high school students about the profession. He shares with them his story and how he’s been in their shoes.

Pearman attended high school on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation, in central South Dakota northwest of Pierre.

“To have a mentor when these students are considering going into law school," Pearman said. "It’s a benefit that can’t be measured."

Challenges many Native American youth face include a lack of opportunities to get in the field, Pearman said. He thinks having more Native Americans practice in South Dakota, and the nation, would be widely beneficial.

“Having an attorney who is Native American and who grew up in that environment can provide a different perspective that could be useful to clients,” Pearman said.