Kristen A. Carpenter
 |
Director of the American Indian Law Program
401 UCB
2450 Kittredge Loop Drive
Wolf Law Building
Boulder, CO 80309-0401
Office: 468
Phone: (303) 492-6526
E-mail: kristen.carpenter@colorado.edu
| Educational Background: | |||
| J.D. | Harvard Law School | 1998 | cum laude |
| B.A. | Dartmouth College | 1994 | cum laude |
Kristen Carpenter is the Council Tree Professor of Law and Director of the American Indian Law Program at the University of Colorado Law School. Professor Carpenter was appointed to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as its member from North America from 2017-2021, and served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 2023-2025. Professor Carpenter is a Justice of the Shawnee Tribe Supreme Court and Co-Director of The Implementation Project, with colleagues at the Native American Rights Fund. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School.
At Colorado Law, Professor Carpenter teaches and writes in the areas of Property, Cultural Property, American Indian Law, Human Rights, and Indigenous Peoples in International Law. She has published several books and legal treatises on these topics, and her articles appear in leading law reviews. Professor Carpenter has been awarded the Provost's Award for Faculty Achievement and the Outstanding New Faculty Award. She has served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Associate Dean for Research. She was a founding member of the campus-wide Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at CU-Boulder. In 2016 she was the Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.
Before entering academia, Carpenter clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit and was an attorney at Hill & Barlow, P.C., in Boston. She gained experience in Indian law as a clerk for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and at the law firms of Fredericks, Pelcyger, Hester & White and Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Miller & Munson. Professor Carpenter is an elected member of the American Law Institute and served for many years on the Federal Bar Association's Indian Law Section Board.
Published Books
| CASES AND MATERIALS ON FEDERAL INDIAN LAW, (with D. Getches, C. Wilkinson, R. Williams, and M. Fletcher) (West Academic Publishing 7th ed.) (2017). |
| COHEN'S HANDBOOK OF FEDERAL INDIAN LAW, (N. Newton et al., eds.) (LEXIS supps. 2015 and 2017). |
| THE INDIAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACT AT FORTY, (with M. Fletcher and A. Riley, co-eds.) (UCLA American Indian Studies Center Publications) (2012). |
Articles
Book Chapters
| Religious Freedoms, Sacred Sites, and Human Rights in the United States, in COMPARATIVE APPROACHES TO IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (B. Gunn et. al., eds.) (2020). |
| Human Rights to Culture, Family, and Self-Determination: The Case of Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (with L. Graham) (forthcoming). |
| Individual Religious Freedoms in Tribal Constitutional Law, in THE INDIAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACT AT FORTY, (K. Carpenter, M. Fletcher, and A. Riley, eds.) (UCLA American Indian Studies Center Publications) (2012). |
| Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association: Challenging the Narrative of Conquest, in Indian Law Stories (C. Goldberg, K.Washburn, and P. Frickey, eds.,) (Foundation Press) (with A. Bowers) (2011). |
| Repairing Reparations in the American Indian Nation Context, in REPARATIONS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES (F. Lenzerini, ed.) (Oxford University Press) (with S. Krakoff) (2008). |
Other Publications
| World leaves United States behind on commitment to Indigenous Peoples' language rights, The Hill, Dec. 26, 2021. |
| Indian Status is Not Racial: Understanding ICWA as a Matter of Law and Practice, Cato Unbound, Aug. 9, 2016. |
| One River, Two Canoes: Peace and Respect in Indian Child Welfare, Cato Unbound, Aug. 31, 2016. |
| Standing Tall: The Sioux's battle against a Dakota Pipeline is a galvanizing social justice movement for Native Americans, Slate.com Sept. 23, 2016 (with A. Riley). |
Book Reviews
| Book Review of Defying the Odds: The Tule River Tribe's Struggle for Sovereignty in Three Centuries by Gelya Frank and Carole Goldberg, 35 American Indian Quarterly 260 (2011). |
| Recovering Homelands, Governance, and Lifeways: Book Review of Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations by Charles Wilkinson, 31 Tulsa Law Review 79 (2005). |
Presentations and Speeches
| Indigenous Rights, Human Rights: It's Time for the Declaration 14th Annual William C. Canby Lecture, 14th Annual William C. Canby Lecture, Arizona State College of Law, March 21, 2022. |
| Race and Religion: Indigenous Peoples in the United States, Race and the Law Lecture Series, February 18, 2021. |
| Human Rights and Museums, Global Provenance, Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève, January 21, 2021. |
| Indigenous Peoples and the Jurisgenerative Moment in Human Rights, 41st Austin Scott Lecture, University of Colorado Law School, October 8, 2015. |
Selected Press, Media & Publicity
Courses:
| Fall 2025 | Cultural Property Law | LAWS 6602-801 |
| Fall 2025 | American Indian Law I | LAWS 7725-801 |
| Fall 2024 | Indigenous Peoples In International Law | LAWS 7715-801 |
| Fall 2024 | American Indian Law I | LAWS 7725-801 |
| Spring 2024 | Seminar: Advanced Topics in American Indian Law | LAWS 8725-801 |
| Fall 2023 | Indigenous Peoples In International Law | LAWS 7715-801 |
| Fall 2023 | American Indian Law I | LAWS 7725-801 |
| Fall 2022 | American Indian Law I | LAWS 7725-801 |
| Fall 2022 | Seminar: Advanced Topics in American Indian Law | LAWS 8725-801 |
| Fall 2021 | Indigenous Peoples In International Law | LAWS 7715-801 |
| Fall 2021 | Seminar: Advanced Topics in American Indian Law | LAWS 8725-801 |
| Spring 2021 | Property | LAWS 5624-801 |
| Fall 2020 | Cultural Property Law | LAWS 6602-801 |
| Fall 2019 | Indigenous Peoples In International Law | LAWS 7715-801 |
| Spring 2019 | Cultural Property Law | LAWS 6602-801 |
| Fall 2018 | LILAC Symposium Course: Leadership in Law and Community | LAWS 6808-801 |
| Fall 2018 | Indigenous Peoples In International Law | LAWS 7715-801 |
| Fall 2018 | Indigenous Peoples In International Law | LAWS 7715-902 |
| Spring 2018 | Seminar: International Human Rights | LAWS 8440-801 |
| Fall 2017 | Cultural Property Law | LAWS 6602-801 |
| Spring 2017 | Property | LAWS 5624-801 |
| Spring 2017 | Indigenous Peoples In International Law | LAWS 7715-001 |
| Fall 2015 | Indigenous Peoples In International Law | LAWS 7715-001 |
| Fall 2014 | Cultural Property Law | LAWS 6602-001 |
| Spring 2014 | Property | LAWS 5624-801 |
| Spring 2014 | Seminar: Advanced Topics in American Indian Law | LAWS 8725-001 |
| Spring 2013 | Property | LAWS 5624-803 |
| Spring 2013 | Seminar: Advanced Topics in American Indian Law | LAWS 8725-001 |
Our Vision
With our roots in Colorado and a global outlook, we are ...
a supportive and diverse educational and scholarly community in a place that inspires vigorous pursuit of ideas, critical analysis, contemplation, and civic engagement to advance knowledge about the law in an open, just society.
Our Mission
To be an outstanding public law school that: provides students with a state-of-the-art legal education and prepares them to serve wisely and with professionalism; advances the development of knowledge through scholarship, testing of new ideas, and challenges to the status quo; and serves as a vehicle and catalyst for meaningful public service, all of which deliver high value to our students and have positive impacts?both locally and globally?on the legal profession and society.