Rebecca Tsosie

Rebecca Tsosie is a distinguished legal scholar in the field of Law, renowned for her expertise in Federal Indian Law and indigenous peoples’ rights. Of Yaqui descent, she received her B.A. in American Indian Studies cum laude from UCLA in 1987 and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law in 1990, followed by a President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCLA in 1993. Tsosie’s extensive career at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law began as a Visiting Professor (1993-1994), progressed to Associate Professor (1994-1998), Professor of Law (1998-2016), and Regents’ Professor (2013-2016). She directed the Indian Legal Program as Executive Director from 1996 to 2011, served as Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar (2005-2013), and held the Lincoln Professorship in Native American Law and Ethics (2002-2005). In administrative capacities at ASU, she was Vice Provost for Inclusion and Community Engagement (2015-2016), Associate Vice Provost for Academic Excellence and Inclusion (2014-2015), Senior Sustainability Scientist (2011-2014), and Distinguished Sustainability Scientist (2014-present) at the Global Institute of Sustainability. She also clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Vice Chief Justice Stanley G. Feldman (1990-1991) and practiced as an associate attorney.

Since 2016, Tsosie has served as Regents’ Professor and, since 2022, Morris K. Udall Professor of Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where she co-chairs the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program. Her research interests encompass tribal sovereignty, self-determination, cultural rights, environmental justice, climate change, epistemic injustice, and indigenous data sovereignty. Key publications include co-authorship of the casebook American Indian Law: Native Nations and the Federal System (8th ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2025; 7th ed., 2015), “Tribal Data Governance and Informational Privacy: Constructing ‘Indigenous Data Sovereignty’” (Montana Law Review, 2019), and “Justice as Healing: Native Nations and Reconciliation” (Arizona State Law Journal, 2022), alongside numerous book chapters on cultural sustainability and reconciliation. Honors include the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education Individual Leadership Award (2014), election to the American Law Institute (2007), American Bar Association Spirit of Excellence Award (2002), and Native American Bar Association of Arizona Lifetime Achievement Award (2024). Tsosie serves as Associate Justice on the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Supreme Court (2008-present) and formerly on the San Carlos Apache Court of Appeals (2007-2024).

Professional Email: rebeccatsosie@arizona.edu