2025 NNABA Annual Meeting

The National Native American Bar Association (NNABA) will host its annual meeting on Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at the Okana Resort in Oklahoma City, OK.  The meeting agenda, sponsor packets, and site to buy a ticket to the dinner can be accessed using the buttons below.

Event FAQs: 

• Will NNABA be at FedBar in April? As always, many NNABA members will be at the FedBar Indian Law Conference, but NNABA will not be hosting any formal programing at FedBar.

• Will NNABA be charging for the annual meeting?  The Justice is Medicine Awards dinner will be ticketed, and there are sponsorships available. The day program will not require payment but we will be posting a registration link to assist us in space planning and catering for breakfast and lunch. 

• Why is NNABA not at FedBar?  NNABA is piloting an approach taken by many of its peer national affinity bars, and exploring the concept of a moving annual meeting that rotates between areas where NNABA has a state or regional affiliate. NNABA is grateful to be welcomed to Oklahoma in 2025, and to host the NNABA annual meeting adjacent to the Sovereignty Symposium, an annual event in Oklahoma.  In future years, NNABA expects to host in different cities where there are similarly a strong local Native bar association community. 

• What is the dress code? Business casual, business smart, business formal, and rez chic are all common apparel choices for the NNABA meeting and dinner. 

• Is NNABA seeking sponsorships for the meeting?  Yes,  NNABA depends on sponsorships to diffuse the cost of the meeting and ensure it is accessible to as many members and students as possible.  Please contact NNABA to discuss sponsorship options and for a sponsorship packet. Sponsors receive tickets to the Justice is Medicine award dinner. 

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If you would like to sponsor the meeting or suggest an agenda item, please contact President-Elect Matt Archer-Beck at [email protected]
We look forward to seeing you in Oklahoma!

NNABA 52^nd Anniversary Justice is Medicine Sponsorships

The NNABA Board developed this year’s sponsorship framework using words and concepts from our native languages that are meaningful to our communities and relate to NNABA’s values and mission. For questions or to commit to a sponsorship, please contact NNABA at [email protected].

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Nibwaakaawin (Ojibwe): wisdom and intelligence

Nibwaakaawin sponsors support NNABA’s work to develop and share legal and cultural knowledge and experience within the native legal community and the legal profession. These efforts enable the development of wisdom and judgment critically needed to advance justice for native communities and native success in the legal profession. Gift: $10,000.

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ᎦᏚᎩ (Gadugi, Cherokee): to work together

ᎦᏚᎩ sponsors value and support NNABA’s work creating space and community for native attorneys and allies. Within this special community, we can share, nurture productive relationships, and work together for native justice and native excellence in the legal profession. Gift: $5,000.

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Onipaʻa (‘Olelo Hawai’i): steadfast

Onipaʻa sponsors celebrate NNABA’s steadfast commitment to advancing native people in the legal profession and justice for native communities. Onipaʻa sponsors are also onipaʻa—steadfast in their support for NNABA and our national community of native lawyers. Gift: $2,500.

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Kijire Nagu (Winnebago/Ho-Chunk): to help on life’s journey

Kijire Nagu sponsors deeply value the relationships NNABA enables native attorneys to create and nurture across the profession so that we can be helpers to each other and our communities. Gift: $1,000.

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Herome (Muscogee/Creek): generous, kind, or giving

Herome sponsors honor indigenous people’s traditional gifting ways as fundamental to our culture and one way that we take care of each other. They inspire generosity in all our efforts. Gift: $500.

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Justice is Medicine Dinner including Awardees and Keynote Speaker Jo Harjo

Description: We will present our Advocacy Warrior, Community Keeper, and Guardian of Justice Awards. There will also be a special presentation by celebrated author and former Poet Laureate of the United States Joy Harjo.

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The Justice is Medicine Awards are divided into three categories:

• The Guardian of Justice Award recognizes those in the judiciary who have shown exemplary leadership, integrity, commitment to public services, and access to justice for Native Americans and all who are served by their court.
• The Advocacy Warrior Award celebrates legal practitioners who have demonstrated exceptional excellence in legal practice advocating for Native American justice, rights, and tribal sovereignty.
• The Community Keeper Award honors individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to promoting Native American equity, inclusion, and belonging within the legal profession.

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NNABA honors the legacy and contributions of Native American legal professionals who inspire and lead by example. We celebrate their achievements and express our deepest gratitude for their dedication to justice and the well-being of Native communities.

Kirke Kickingbird, a member of the Kiowa Tribe and Kiowa Gourd Clan, has devoted his professional career to helping Indian people get interpretations of the law that will benefit their personal interests as well as the interests of tribal governments. His expertise has enabled him to work effectively in legal, political, academic, and business arenas in order to ensure that the Indian viewpoint is taken seriously. In his work, Kirke has provided training and technical assistance to more than 150 tribal governments within the United States and Canada, and has worked with the United States government and world experts on international treaty issues affecting indigenous people.

Kirke is currently of counsel at Hobbs Straus Dean & Walker, where he works on gaming issues for Oklahoma tribes and tribal government reform. From 1988-2000, Kirke directed the Native American Legal Resource Center at Oklahoma City University School of Law, where he served on the faculty. He served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and as Chairman of the Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission from 1992-1995. He also led the legal and court management review of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Tribal Court System from 1992-1993. In March 1995, he was appointed Special Counsel on Indian Affairs to the Governor of Oklahoma, Frank Keating, a post held for five years. He was appointed by Oklahoma Chief Justice Opala to serve on the Oklahoma Supreme Court Committee to Recommend Standards for Granting Full Faith and Credit to the Judicial Proceedings of Indian Tribes, Nations and Bands (1992-1994).

Kirke has written extensively on matters related to Indian law and tribal governance, including the books One Hundred Million Acres and Indians and the U.S. Constitution: A Forgotten Legacy. Kirke devotes his spare time to helping Indian youth by serving on the board of directors at both the Oaks Indian Mission, and Nation Building for Native Youth.

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Rodina Cave Parnall (Quechua) is the Executive Director of the American Indian Law Center, Inc. Before serving in her current role, she was the Director of the Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indians and Alaska Natives. 

Rodina served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior. Before that, she practiced law in New Mexico and Arizona representing Indian tribes and tribal entities in legal and administrative proceedings and on several large breach-of-trust cases in federal courts. In addition to her Indian law practice, she is experienced in complex litigation and appeals in federal and state courts.

Rodina has been an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law and an Associate Judge on the Southwest Intertribal Court of Appeals (SWITCA). In 2014, she received the New Mexico State Bar Indian Law Section Outstanding Achievement Award. She graduated from Arizona State University College of Law in 2001 with a Certificate in Indian Law and the Outstanding Law Graduate Award for 2001. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Rodina clerked for the Honorable William C. Canby, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

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The Honorable Sarah I. Wheelock is a judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals. She previously worked as legal counsel for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Prior Lake, as an Adjunct Professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, as an Appellate Judge for the White Earth Band of Chippewa Court of Appeals, and in private practice with law firms. Her experience includes litigation in tribal, federal, and state courts, as well as economic development and finance work. Judge Wheelock is a member of the Meskwaki Nation (federally recognized as the Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa) and is the first Indigenous person to sit on the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Judge Wheelock is a member and past Vice President of the Minnesota Native American Bar Association, member of the National Native American Bar Association, and member of the Federal Bar Association. She previously served as a member of the Minnesota Commission on Judicial Selection. Her community involvement includes serving as the Vice Chair and Director of the board for the Division of Indian Work, as an Assistant Director of Twin Cities Native Lacrosse, and as the past-Chair of the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee for the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District. Judge Wheelock earned her B.A. with honors and distinction and J.D. with distinction from the University of Iowa.