Just like the Michigan government, the 12 federally recognized American Indian tribes in Michigan must tax their citizens, provide services and educate their children.
But according to the 1990 U.S. Census data report, the demographic has some of the lowest incomes, highest infant mortality rates, and lowest life expectancies of any ethnic group.
"We've worked hard to get ourselves out of this," said Frank Ettawageshik, tribal chairman of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians of Harbor Springs. "The Indian people have been on the losing end of many issues regarding social justice.
Ettawageshik said the tribe needs the legal work as they try to improve their quality of life. He says the tribe needs help drafting legislation and working on the legal issues that arise from various economic development centers.
"True wealth is safe and secure homes, a strong culture, good health and the ability to pass on to the coming generation," he said.
When law classes started Monday, the MSU College of Law began its new American Indian Law Program with the intent to prepare more students to work with and for the tribes and their autonomous legal systems. But to many law students, the concept of separate governments within the same state is a new one.
Program director and Professor Donald Laverdure said when he teaches, he often has to start with the basics of American Indian culture. Laverdure is a citizen of the American Indian Crow Nation.
"The hardest thing, to be honest, most students don't even know that there are separate sovereign governments," he said. "In a sense we're trying to make up for lost time. In high school and college you learn American history and political science.
"There's never a tribal government 101 part of the course."
In Michigan, there are 58,479 people of American Indian and Alaskan Native decent, about 0.6 percent of the population, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.
It was the stories, memoirs and nonfiction books that drew law junior Kate Fort into American Indian culture when she was a child. Fort does not come from an American Indian background.
When Fort enrolled in two beginning American Indian law classes at the MSU College of Law, she found herself intrigued by entirely different legal systems in her own backyard.
"It's just fascinating," Fort said. "How do you mesh the two systems in a way that provides the autonomy for the tribes but acknowledges this is the world we live in?
"It's a constant conflict."
Fort is now part of the American Indian Law Program, which has four classes and a clinic workshop. The program is the only one of its type in Michigan and one of the most comprehensive in the Midwest.
Fort said she hopes to eventually work with tribal constitutions and the best ways to govern the citizens.
"What makes a good constitution? What makes a bad one?" she said. "How do you bring the modern and the tradition together?"
Lawyers who graduate from the program might be able to represent a tribe in interactions with other tribes or the federal government.
And the need for more lawyers is there, said Jeff Davis, assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan. In this position, Davis acts as the liaison between the federal government and 11 of Michigan's tribes, works with them to improve their infrastructures and negotiates treaty issues.
"We have 12 federally recognized tribes and they extend a lot farther than most people realize," said Davis, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. "We need a lot of education there. They are such complex areas of the law."
Davis said he always has difficulties recommending lawyers for individuals looking for someone with American Indian law expertise.
"There are just a very limited number of attorneys that I can refer them to at this point in time," he said.
But Davis said he expected MSU's program to alleviate some of this problem and have a wider effect on the state by dispelling myths about tribes.
Though he had no experience with American Indians at first, third-year law student Matt Lesky moved to Harbor Springs for the summer and took a job with Ettawageshik's Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.
"It's one of the few areas of law you get to have a lot of experiences doing things that have a lot of varieties to them," he said. "I might be representing the tribe. On any given day there could be different issues."
Lesky said he loves the work and also has learned a lot about the American Indian culture.
"In order to be effective as a lawyer for a tribal government you need to understand the people here and where they're coming from," he said. "It's no different if I went to a small town and started practicing law.
"You get to know what the social expectations for the community are."
Ettawageshik said he is pleased to hear more aspiring lawyers will be studying American Indian law.
"We have the same needs as everybody else for attorneys," he said. "We're talking about the improvement in the quality of life."
