Anderson to head Native American Law Center

By Steven Goldsmith
News & Information

Robert Anderson

Robert Anderson, the new director of the UW’s Native American Law Center, was welcomed to Seattle this week by Mayor Paul Schell.

Anderson, a former special counsel to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, was recruited by the University as a leading authority on tribal water and natural resource rights in the West.

“We believe that Robert Anderson is the most promising young authority on Indian law in the nation today,” said UW Law School Dean Roland Hjorth, “and that he will develop our Native American Law Center into the finest such center in the United States.”

The center already enjoys a strong reputation arising from the work of the late Professor Ralph Johnson, a pioneer in the field who educated generations of lawyers, whose writing was cited more than 300 times by the U.S. Supreme Court, and whose research was instrumental in tribal efforts to secure fishing rights.

Anderson said he hopes to carry on Johnson’s tradition of scholarship and service.

“Directing the center provides an exciting opportunity to serve tribal governments on issues involving rights and natural resources in the Northwest and Alaska,” said Anderson, who is a law professor as well as center director.

A member of the Bois Forte Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Anderson was for 12 years a senior staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colo., where he litigated major cases involving Native American sovereignty and hunting and fishing rights. He was one of two attorneys who opened the Fund’s Alaska office in 1984.

From 1995 to 2000, he served as a Babbitt appointee. He was the Interior Department’s associate solicitor for Indian affairs, and most recently served as counselor to the secretary, providing legal and policy advice on a wide variety of issues.

Schell hosted the City Hall reception welcoming Anderson on Tuesday.

“Bob’s work is well-known throughout the West, including Puget Sound,” Schell said. “In my work with Bob, I’ve found he discerns the interests that can lead to lasting solutions to natural resource issues. I am excited that he is joining the University, and we look forward to his leadership at the Native American Law Center to help form stronger relations with tribes.”

The Native American Law Center is a comprehensive resource center for Indian law specialists, students, tribal organizations and local, state and federal governments. It provides information and guidance to parties involved in Native American legal and natural resource issues.

The center conducts an annual Northwest Indian Law Symposium, and is exploring such current issues as the rights of Indian tribes in federal hydropower relicensing, trial subsistence rights in Alaska and providing training and research assistance for the Northwest Intertribal Court System and individual tribes.