This fall, Colorado Law alumna Christina Stanton ’15 joins the faculty as an associate clinical professor and director of the American Indian Law Clinic. Stanton previously served as an adjunct professor at the law school, interim director of the American Indian Law Clinic, and director of operations at First Peoples Worldwide, an organization housed in the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Colorado. There, she led targeted international strategy on behalf of Indigenous partners in parallel with market-based corporate advocacy and directed the student research program, which seeks to develop early career professionals and Native leaders in the field.
She earned a JD with an American Indian Law certificate from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University.
Q: Thanks so much for speaking with us, Prof. Stanton!
You’re quite welcome!
Q: After the last two years of hybrid and remote learning due to the pandemic, what are you most looking forward to about the fall semester?
I think like many of my colleagues, I'm looking forward to continuing to teach and connect with students—and everyone at Colorado Law, for that matter—in person. For the clinic specifically, a return to in-person can mean the opportunity to meet with clients face to face. I am always so grateful for the ability to connect with clients and partners around the world via Zoom, but there is something special about the return to sharing space. There is so much that is said beyond the confines of the Zoom squares, and I'm excited to navigate that again.
Q: What originally got you interested in American Indian law?
In college, I was a creative writing student and was fortunate to attend the school where Louise Erdrich received her MFA. Love Medicine was so inspiring to me as a writer, but it also unlocked something else. The Round House was published right before I began law school. Its depiction of the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women, as well as the jurisdictional maze that allows these crimes to occur without real recourse, drove me to Colorado Law's American Indian Law Program. Faculty like Kristen Carpenter, Charles Wilkinson, and Carla Fredericks allowed me to grapple with the legal complexities of this history, as well as the very real challenges of the present moment. They allowed me the space to consider where I fit into this work as a law student. A year later, the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2013 was passed and I observed in real time how Indigenous leaders, Native lawyers, and allies were pivotal to the success and how they worked to continue this momentum.
Q: How fascinating. Can you expand on that?
Of course. This moment was activating for me, as these were the same years that my own LGBQTIA community was fighting for marriage equality. I worked in Washington, D.C., that same summer and waited in line overnight to be in the Supreme Court to hear the decisions about the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 cases. These two threads of my experience may seem disparate, but to me, have always pointed me towards this path. I know that my rights as a queer person, the rights of my trans and non-binary siblings, the rights of all LGTBQIA2S people, are interconnected with the rights of everyone who have been historically marginalized and subjected to systems that were not built to serve us.
At the 1985 United Nations Decade for Women Conference, Lilla Watson delivered this quote on behalf of an Aboriginal rights group based in Australia: "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." It is this sentiment that once sparked my interest in this field of law, but it is also the sentiment that has kept me doing this work and inspires me to continue critiquing how I can be a better advocate and ally. Working to support Indigenous peoples is a privilege and I am so grateful to step into this work and strive to uphold the sovereignty and self-determination of Native nations.
Q: What has it been like teaching at your alma mater? Have you observed changes in the law school since your days as a student? What has remained the same?
It has been wonderful to come back and teach at Colorado Law and contribute to the American Indian Law Program. The best part about being a student at Colorado Law was studying alongside others that were committed to service and thinking about how they could use their law degree as a tool to better the world. It is incredibly energizing to be back in the halls with another generation of students who are asking the same questions with a new set of facts. Colorado Law continues to attract these students and it is an honor to teach them, knowing that one day soon I will be working alongside them.
Q: Has anything surprised you?
There are so many new spaces around the law school—the Solidarity Suite, the new journal offices, the garden level conference room—that I have been discovering, and so jealous that I didn't get to use as a student! But I was happy to see that Charles Wilkinson's espresso machine was still alive and well in the (now renamed) Foolish Craig's cafe.
Q: Can you share a bit about what you’re working on now?
Right now, as I wrap up at First Peoples Worldwide (First Peoples) and join Colorado Law full-time, I am working to transition the international advocacy strategy and program that I've built into a project for the students. Recent responses from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)'s early warning and urgent action procedure have been exclusively focused on human rights allegations from Indigenous peoples. These inquiries identify rights violations attendant to trans-national business development, climate change mitigation and adaptation measures that exclude Indigenous peoples, and the violence and harassment that Indigenous human rights defenders are subjected to.
Q: Your work is quite interdisciplinary, with crossover into climate change and natural resources, energy, and the environment. Can you expand on that?
As the world continues to chase green energy to mitigate the effects of climate change, these specific rights violations will continue at increased levels because there will be increased mineral extraction on Indigenous lands. This means there will be even more violations of Indigenous rights, including the right to free, prior, and informed consent. My work at First Peoples has been to support a global campaign to ensure that Indigenous rights are considered and prioritized in the growing demand for minerals that are often found on their lands. And there are so many examples of this in our own backyard—Thacker Pass, the Back Forty Mine, the Big Sandy River Valley. Each of these projects directly impacts Indigenous peoples.
How would the conversation about green energy change if consumers understood the impacts to Indigenous peoples at the start of the supply chain for their electric vehicles? How could U.S. policy better uphold Indigenous human rights and treaty rights? How could transnational companies integrate a rights-based framework in their internal policies? I am interested in the ways that recent responses from the United Nations, through CERD, for example, can support advocacy efforts drive better consideration of Indigenous rights into domestic law and routine business practice, especially as we turn to greener policies and practices.