Frank Pommersheim
The Indian Law Section is pleased to announce that the 2022 Lawrence R. Baca Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient is Frank Pommersheim.
Frank Pommersheim has worked in the field of Indian law for more than 40 years as an Indian law practitioner, scholar, educator, and judge. In 2019, Frank officially retired from teaching at the University of South Dakota School of Law, where he spent almost 35 years shaping their Indian law program and teaching over 1,000 students. He joined the University in 1984, after living and working on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation for 10 years. He has written extensively on Indian law, including Braid of Feathers: American Indian Law and Contemporary Tribal Life (1995) and Broken Landscape: Indians, Indian Tribes and the Constitution (2012).
His care, commitment, and dedication to the development of passionate Indian and Tribal Law practitioners is evident in his continuous mentoring and serving as an advisor to the Native American Law Student Association at USD Law for more than 25 years. Frank took special interest in organizing an annual trip for law students to the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, to witness tribal court proceedings and meet with tribal leadership, court staff, and community members. He has mentored new law teachers, lawyers, and deans about teaching, Indian Law, justice, jurisprudence, and life, serving as counselor and friend to many, and extending his influence over three generations of students and two generations of teachers.
In addition to serving as a Professor, Frank has served with distinction as a tribal court judge for 30 years, including as Justice of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Court of Appeals; the Rosebud Sioux Supreme Court; the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribal Court of Appeals; the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Supreme Court; and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Court of Appeals. He has authored over 130 tribal court opinions, providing critical guidance to Indian and Tribal Law practitioners, including the first tribal court opinion quoted by the United States Supreme Court.
Over the years, Frank has been recognized with many awards from the state, tribal, and even international community, but his most cherished are honor quilts received on behalf of various tribal nations for his work in and for tribal communities. He has received the University of South Dakota Belbas-Larson Award for Excellence in Teaching, the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center Reconciliation Award, and the John Wesley Jackson Award as the Outstanding Professor of Law. Recognizing his contributions to the field and future of Indian Law, in 2018, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Council declared March 9, 2018 “Justice Frank Pommersheim Day!” Frank’s impactful contributions to the Indian and Tribal Law community will certainly be felt for many more generations to come.
Indian Law Section Chair Ann Tweedy remarked that “It is an unexpected delight that the Committee for the Lawrence R. Baca Lifetime Achievement Award has selected my dear and eminently qualified colleague Frank Pommersheim to receive this year’s award. Professor Pommersheim’s forty plus year career serving as an attorney, Sinte Gleska University faculty member, and judge in Indian Country and his writings and work as a law professor at University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law are nothing short of legendary. It is a joy to see him recognized for his invaluable contributions in the fields of Tribal Law and Federal Indian Law.”