Tolu's Navajo Nation

       The Alternative Spring break trip has been awesome, from the very first day up until today, Its been one interesting new thought or the other. I decided to take this trip because it would be a great insight into the lives and history of the Navajo People. Before going on this trip I had no idea what the Nation consisted of and its jurisdictions.

       However, by the very first day, I got a brief history and current event break down from a fellow student (who is awesome ) and I felt I was really prepared for my work week. On my first day I worked for the DOJ litigation department and I worked on researching the relevant law and case law on appeals on trust lands. I was very delighted that I finished the research that day and was able to provide my boss with the right information.

          The next day I went to work for the Chief Prosecutor. She is an incredible person and her love for her job makes my path as a lawyer so much clearer. I went to court with her that day and got to experience first hand Navajo nation laws, rules of evidence and criminal law calculations. It was mostly all I could talk about for the next day. On Wednesday, I started work on my project. The Navajo nation and the FBI share jurisdiction on certain offenses. Due to the lack of funds and the general investigative power of the FBI, most, serious violent offenses are sent to the FBI.

         Formerly they never sent a notification to the Navajo Nation if they made the decision to not prosecute. However a new policy made that possible, the problem being the letter of notification of denial to prosecute were sent after the statute of limitation under Navajo law had expired. MY job was to look through all the letter and create a spread sheet from which a statistical analysis to be derived to cure the problem.

The Cherry on this already beautiful cake is that I got to fly on a private jet with my Boss to attend a case that was on remand from the Supreme Court at Tuba city and the interactions in that meeting gave me a view into the complexities between the Nation and the United States.

I would not have traded this experience for anything else.

Tolu Odukoya