This past Summer 2016, ELP Research Associate Olan Leimomi (“Lei”) Morgan clerked for the Native American Rights Fund (“NARF”) in Boulder, Colorado.  Lei was chosen with three other law students from around the country to work on issues affecting Native Americans.  Some of the areas that Lei worked on were determining equitable remedies for a trespassing claim caused by inundation on reservation lands, peacemaking protocols of the Sichangu and Haudenosaunee people, voting rights, and religious freedom.  Besides immensely enjoying her work, Lei treasures the friendships she made with fellow law clerks and NARF staff members, and the guidance she received from NARF attorneys.  According to Lei, “There is no place like NARF…I felt so blessed to learn first-hand about what self-determination really entails and looks like in the United States.”  Lei would especially like to mahalo NARF Executive Director John Echohawk, Senior Attorney Don Wharton, Law Clerk Advisor and Staff Attorney Matt Campbell, and NARF staff Kalee Salazar and Scott Jacket for making her experience extra amazing.

For a tidbit of Lei’s work while at NARF, please visit NARF’s Indigenous Peacemaking Initiative post, There Is Hope: Time to Follow an Indigenous Model for Peace in America, to see a piece by Lei on Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Peacemaking Protocol.