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. She currently serves as a Justice of the Shawnee Tribe Supreme Court and co-lead of
, 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.
"Aspirations": The United States and Indigenous Peoples' Human Rights, 36 Harvard Human Rights Journal 41 (2023).
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Visions for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032, 34 Colorado Environmental Law Journal 931 (2023).
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A Human Rights Approach to Cultural Property: Repatriating the Yaqui Maaso Kova, 41 Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal 159 (2022).
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Living the Sacred: Indigenous Peoples and Religious Freedom, 134 Harvard Law Rev. 2103 (book review) (2021).
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Indigenous Peoples and Diplomacy on the World Stage, American Journal of International Law (AJIL) Unbound 118 (with A. Tsykarev) (2021).
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Decolonizing Indigenous Migration, 109 California Law Review 63-139 (with A. Riley) (2021).
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(Indigenous) Language as a Human Right, 24 UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs 49 (with A. Tsykarev) (2020).
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Privatizing the Reservation?, 71 Stanford Law Review 791 (with A. Riley) (2019).
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Owning Red: A Theory of Indian (Cultural) Appropriation,, 94 Texas Law Rev. 859 (with A. Riley) (2016).
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Indigenous Peoples and the Jurisgenerative Moment in Indigenous Human Rights, 102 California Law Review 173 (with A. Riley) (2014).
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Lawyering for Groups: The Case of American Indian Tribal Attorneys, 81 Fordham Law Review 3085 (with E. Wald) (2013).
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Limiting Principles and Empowering Practices in American Indian Religious Freedoms, 45 Connecticut Law Review 387 (2012).
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Clarifying Cultural Property, 17 International Journal of Cultural Property 581 (with S. Katyal and A. Riley) (2010).
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In Defense of Property, 118 Yale Law Journal 1022 (with S. Katyal & A. Riley) (2009).
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Interpretive Sovereignty, 33 American Indian Law Review 111 (2009).
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Real Property and Peoplehood, 27 Stanford Environmental Law Journal 313 (2008).
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The Interests of "Peoples" in the Cooperative Management of Sacred Sites, 42 Tulsa Law Review 37 (2006).
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Contextualizing the Losses of Allotment Though Literature, 82 North Dakota Law Review 605 (2006).
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Old Ground and New Directions at Sacred Sites on the Western Landscape, 83 Denver University Law Review 981 (2006).
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A Property Rights Approach to Sacred Sites: Asserting a Place for Indians as Non-Owners, 52 UCLA Law Review 1061 (2005).
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Considering Individual Religious Freedoms under Tribal Constitutional Law, 14 Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy 561 (2005).
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In the Absence of Title: Responding to Federal Ownership in Sacred Sites Cases, 37 New England Law Review 619 (2003).
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Beyond the Ethnic Umbrella and the Buffalo: Some Thoughts on American Indian Tribes and Gaming,, 5 Gaming Law Review 311 (with R. Halbritter) (2001).
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Interpreting Indian Country in State of Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie, 35 Tulsa Law Journal 73 (1999).
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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).
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Human Rights to Culture, Family, and Self-Determination: The Case of Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (with L. Graham) (forthcoming).
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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).
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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).
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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).
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'Green transition', mining & Indigenous Rights | Radio National | Tuesday, May 16, 2023 |
Native American Cases to Watch in 2023 | Law360 | Monday, January 2, 2023 |
Tribal Sovereignty | Diverse Issues in Higher Education | Monday, November 7, 2022 |
CU Law's American Indian Law Program: On the Front Lines of the Indigenous Sovereignty Movement | The 1891 | Friday, October 14, 2022 |
A Chance Encounter Helps Return Sacred Artifacts to an Indigenous Group, | New York Times | Saturday, June 18, 2022 |
The United States lags behind' on the Rights of its Indigenous Peoples, Natives say | Native News Online | Sunday, May 8, 2022 |
Indigenous Peoples Fight for Land at Global Summit | Here & Now | Thursday, April 28, 2022 |
UN forum set to focus on economic rights of Indigenous peoples | Marketplace | Monday, April 25, 2022 |
"Indigenous Rights, Human Rights: It's Time For the Declaration" | Mvskoke Media | Monday, March 21, 2022 |
At U.N.'s COP26 climate summit, Indigenous voices are calling for more than lip service | NBC News | Saturday, October 30, 2021 |
The Fight For Indigenous Religious Freedom | The 1A | Monday, October 25, 2021 |
'Self-Determination and Resilience': Insights on Human Rights in Practice | University of Colorado Law School | Monday, June 28, 2021 |
Canada After Kamloops: What now for indigenous rights? | The Foreign Desk | Saturday, June 5, 2021 |
Kristen Carpenter Named to Shawnee Tribe's Inaugural Supreme Court | University of Colorado Law School | Friday, January 15, 2021 |
UBC ushers in historic Indigenous Strategic Plan with virtual celebration | The Ubyssey | Wednesday, September 16, 2020 |
Outside/In: How DAPL is Connected to a Long History of Native American Treaty Violations | New Hampshire Public Radio | Saturday, July 11, 2020 |
High Court No Longer A No-Go As Tribal Reservation OK'd | Law360 | Thursday, July 9, 2020 |
Shawnee Tribe Appoints First Justices to its new Supreme Court | Native News Online | Friday, January 10, 2020 |
WA's top lawyer took a rare step to affirm tribal sovereignty - here's why that's a big deal | Crosscut | Wednesday, June 5, 2019 |
Carpenter Speaks at U.N. General Assembly's Global Kickoff of 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages | University of Colorado Law School | Thursday, February 14, 2019 |
Carpenter Serves as Panelist at National Congress of American Indians Annual Convention | University of Colorado Law School | Wednesday, November 7, 2018 |
Professor Carpenter Meets with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet | University of Colorado Law School | Monday, December 18, 2017 |
Professor Carpenter appointed to United Nations Position | University of Colorado Law School | Friday, March 24, 2017 |
Feds Withheld Key Documents from Standing Rock Sioux | High Country News | Wednesday, December 14, 2016 |
Pipeline Decision Marks Victory in Tribal Effort to Protect Sacred Sites | Minnesota Public Radio | Wednesday, December 7, 2016 |
A Question of Cultural Heritage | PBS American Experience | Tuesday, November 22, 2016 |
A Tension as Old as the Country | Harvard Gazette | Friday, October 21, 2016 |
Contextualizing the Harms Caused by Appropriation of Indians' Intangible Property, | Jotwell | Tuesday, April 5, 2016 |
Most Cited Property Law Professors, 2011-2015 | PropertyProf Blog | Wednesday, December 9, 2015 |
Guest Commentary: Why use "r--skin" word at all? | The Denver Post | Friday, November 13, 2015 |
Land use law-related articles posted on SSRN in September | Law Professor Blogs Network | Thursday, October 1, 2015 |
Kristen Carpenter and Lorie Graham on Human Rights and Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl | Turtle Talk | Thursday, February 27, 2014 |
Law and Disorder on the Reservation | Harvard Gazette | Thursday, November 15, 2012 |
Navajo Nation Sues Urban Outfitters for Alleged Trademark Discrimination | CNN.com | Friday, March 2, 2012 |
Professor Carpenter publishes book on Civil Rights in Indian Country | University of Colorado Law School | Monday, February 6, 2012 |