Stacy L. Leeds
Professor of Law and Director, Tribal Law and Government Center Subjects: Indian Law, Natural Resource Law, Oil and Gas, Property
Phone: 785-864-9271 E-mail:sleeds@ku.edu
Profile
Stacy Leeds currently serves as professor of law and director of the Tribal Law and Government Center at the University of Kansas School of Law. She joined the KU Law faculty in 2003 after serving as assistant professor of law and director of the Northern Plains Indian Law Center at the University of North Dakota School of Law. Her law teaching career began at the University of Wisconsin School of Law, where she served as a William H. Hastie Fellow. She received law degrees from University of Wisconsin (LL.M.) and the University of Tulsa (J.D.) and her undergraduate degree (B.A) from Washington University in St. Louis.
In 2008, Leeds was awarded the prestigious Fletcher Fellowship to support her work on tribal sovereignty and citizenship issues. As a Fletcher Fellow, Leeds was named a nonresident fellow of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University during the 2008-2009 academic year. In 2006, Leeds was the recipient of the AALS Clyde Ferguson Award for Excellence in Teaching, Service & Scholarship, a national award to honor outstanding law professors. She has also received KU’s Immel Award for Teaching Excellence and been recognized as the Alumni of the Year from the National Native American Law Students Association.
At the university level, Leeds was named a 2006-2007 Senior Administrative Fellow and has served as interim director of Global Indigenous Nations Studies in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, where she continues as affiliated faculty.
Leeds is a nationally recognized leader among tribal judges. She is the former chair of the ABA Judicial Division's Tribal Courts Council. She currently serves on the board of directors for the National American Indian Court Judges’ Association and on the Tribal Advisory Board for the National Judicial College. She is a former justice on the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, the only woman and youngest person ever to serve in that capacity. She currently serves as chief judge of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation District Court, chief justice of the Supreme Court for the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma and chief justice of the Kaw Nation Supreme Court. She has served as a judge and consultant for several other tribal governments.
She is a highly regarded speaker and routinely presents at national conferences on a variety of legal issues affecting American Indian people, tribal governments, property law and natural resources. She maintains two Web sites: www.stacyleeds.com (personal blog) and www.tsalagithinktank.com (a community blog of Cherokee scholars). Leeds is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
Representative Publications
"Defeat or Mixed Blessing: Tribal Sovereignty and the State of Sequoyah," 43 Tulsa L. Rev. 101 (2007); contributing author to Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts and Sovereignty (Fixico ed. 2007); "Moving Toward Exclusive Tribal Autonomy Over Lands and Natural Resources," 45 Nat. Resources J. (2006); "By Eminent Domain or Some Other Name: A Tribal Perspective on Taking Land," 41 Tulsa L. Rev. 51 (2005); contributing author to Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law (Newton 3rd ed. 2005); "Borrowing from Blackacre: Expanding Tribal Land Base and Economies Through the Creation of Future Interests," 80 N.D.L. Rev. 827 (2004); contributing author to A Political History of Native Americans (Grinde ed. 2003); "The More Things Stay the Same: Waiting on Indian Law's Brown v. Board of Education," 38 Tulsa L. Rev. 73 (2002); "The Burning of Blackacre: A Step Toward Reclaiming Tribal Property Law," 10 Kansas J. L. & Pub. Pol. 491 (2001); "Cross-Jurisdictional Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments: A Tribal Court Perspective," 76 North Dakota L. Rev. 311 (2000).
Research Interests
Property law systems, federal Indian law, tribal law, and legal history.
Education
LL.M., University of Wisconsin, 2000; J.D., University of Tulsa, 1997, Executive Article Editor, Energy Law Journal; B.A., Washington University in St. Louis, 1994.
Admitted
Oklahoma 1997, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Cherokee Nation.
Career History
Clerk, Native American Rights Fund; Clerk, Chief Judge Patrick Moore, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Visiting Professor, University of Tulsa; Visiting Professor, Pre-Law Summer Institute, University of New Mexico; Justice, Cherokee Nation Supreme Court; Chief Justice, Supreme Court for the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma; Justice, Court of Appeals for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa; Associate Justice, Kaw Nation Supreme Court; Chief Judge Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation District Court; Special District Court Judge, Muscogee (Creek) Nation; Assistant Professor, North Dakota School of Law, 2001-2003; Visiting Professor, Kansas, Fall 2002; Associate Professor, Kansas 2003-2006, Professor of Law, 2006-present.
