First Member Of
Aquinnah Wampanoag To Attend Harvard Law Driven By Sense Of Community
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Samantha Maltais will
be the first member of the Wampanoag Tribe to enroll at Harvard
Law School. JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF
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Samantha Maltais mother likes to tell the story of how her
then 7-year-old grew angry over a violent
raid on a smoke shop that led to the arrests of members of the
Narragansett Indian Tribe. Dont these people know we
have rights? the child had asked.
Maltais doesnt remember asking that, but the story reflects
her understanding, even at a young age, of how the law impacts day-to-day
lives of Native people. She grew up on Marthas Vineyard listening
to tribal council meetings for the Aquinnah Wampanoag and to consultations
with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Her mother, Cheryl Andrews-Maltais,
is chairwoman of the tribe.
This fall, Samantha Maltais will become the first member of the
Aquinnah Wampanoag to enroll in Harvard Law School. She won
a full scholarship from the American Indian College Fund.
For Native people, for tribal citizens, our very existence
is really directly impacted by federal Indian law and policy,
said Maltais, 24. Were inherently political people.
A 2015
National Native American Bar Association study estimated that
there were about 2,640 Native attorneys nationwide about
0.3 percent of all attorneys, though Indigenous people account for
about 1.6 percent of the US population and about 65,356 have graduate
or professional degrees.
While the overall numbers of Native Americans may be smaller
than other racial/ethnic groups, the extent of their underrepresentation
in the legal profession is stark beyond measure, members of
the National Native American Bar Association wrote at the time.
Looking back at history, Maltais said she was often struck by how
often the fate of tribal members in legal matters was left to outsiders
who had to argue their cases in court.
Having Native voices be part of the legal profession is only
the first step in that healing process, she said.
Harvard College was founded in part on a mission to educate the
English and Indian youth of this country, according to its
1659 charter. The first Native American graduate of Harvard College,
Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck,
was Wampanoag he died a few months after his graduation in
1665. Still, no members of the Wampanoag tribe have graduated from
Harvard Law School.
Up until late in the 20th Century, many tribes had to get
the approval of the federal government to hire their own attorneys,
said Heather Whiteman Runs Him, a professor of practice at the University
of Arizonas College of Law and director of the schools
Tribal Justice Clinic. The fact that today, finally, we can
look at going to law school that indigenous youths have a
path within their educational goals that includes reasonably and
expectedly going to law school is not something weve
had for a long time. This is new.
Whiteman Runs Him, a citizen of the Crow/Apsáalooke Nation
and herself a 2002 Harvard Law School graduate, said she especially
wanted to celebrate a member of a Massachusetts tribe being admitted.
Coming to understand as Native people what our relationship
is with the law is a lifelong journey, and maybe something that
non-Native people dont have to grapple with as we do,
Whiteman Runs Him said.
Working to advocate for Indian communities is a calling,
I think, for many indigenous youth. Especially today as we see the
nature of the disputes and conflicts regarding tribal sovereignty
and our ability to protect our water, our land, our resources
expands and becomes more and more alarming and immediate,
she added.
When Whiteman Runs Him was at Harvard, she said, she found a small
community of other Native students in the law school and in other
graduate programs. Those friendships were vital to her, she said.
It takes a community, Whiteman Runs Him said. Youre
never going to be an isolated person doing these things, its
always about your community, about your people, about their sovereignty,
about heir place in their framework going forward.
Maltais studied government and Native American studies at Dartmouth
College and, after graduating in 2018, joined the Peace Corps to
work in the Kingdom of Tonga, an indigenous nation in the South
Pacific Islands. Since July, she has worked as a consultant for
Survival International, a United Kingdom-based organization advocating
for indigenous people worldwide.
She applied to law school, she said, knowing that the degree would
be another tool she could use to advocate for her community, to
both respect and honor the work of the people who came before her
and, she hopes, build a better world for generations after her.
When she told her family, they told her how excited they were and
emphasized that they were not at all surprised: That her admission
was a recognition of the hard work she has done so far, and that
she belongs at a place like Harvard.
Anything that I really hold near and dear to my heart, it
usually stems from a childhood teaching that was from either my
parents or my grandparents, Malatis said.
But I think one that sticks out specifically in the legal
profession is recognizing all the sacrifices that people have made
before you and also recognizing that everything that you
do impacts future generations to come.
Gal Tziperman Lotan can be reached at gal.lotan@globe.comor
at 617-929-2043.
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