The University of South Dakota

Patrice H. Kunesh was appointed Director of the Institute of American Indian Studies in January 2008. Professor Kunesh, of Standing Rock Sioux Hunkpapa Lakota descent, joined the faculty of the USD School of Law in 2005, with teaching responsibilities in the areas of Indian law, Children & the Law, Legislation, Property and Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Upon receiving her juris doctorate from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1989, Professor Kunesh began began working at the native American Rights Fund (NARF) in Boulder, Colorado, as Skadden Public Interest Fellow and then as a staff attorney representing American Indian tribes in actions to protect tribal water, resources and cultural rights and matters affecting their sovereignty, and drafted tribal laws and constitutions.

In 1994, Professor Kunesh became in-house counsel to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe in southeastern Connecticut, where she assisted the Tribe in developing its code of tribal laws and judicial system, and extensively participated in litigation, financing, commercial transactions, and tax matters, and state and federal legislative initiatives. Professor Kunesh has widely lectured and published in the areas of Indian child welfare and tribal and federal Indian law. Her recent work includes:

• "Borders Beyond Borders - Protecting Essential Tribal Relations Off Reservation Under the Indian Child Welfare Act", New England Law Review (2007);
• "Banishment as Cultural Justice in Contemporary Tribal Legal Systems", New Mexico Law Review (2007); and
• "A Call for an Assessment of the Welfare of Indian Children in South Dakota", South Dakota Law Review (2007). 

She currently is working on a book chapter entitled "Maps as Legal Documents in Indian Affairs" as part of project of the Smithsonian Institute on the Cartography of Indian Affairs.

View Professor Kunesh's full profile from the USD School of Law.