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Practitioner Award, Litigation Section, American Association of Law Schools

Indian Child Welfare Act Champion Award, Pascua Yaqui Tribe

Outstanding Service Award, National American Indian Court Judges Association

Tecumseh Peace Keeping Award, Michigan Indian Law Section, Michigan State Bar

M. Shanara Gilbert Human Rights Award “Organization” Category for the Indigenous Law and Policy Center, Society of American Law Teachers

The Road to Brackeen: Defending ICWA 2013-2023

The Indian Child Welfare Act during the Brackeen years

After Brackeen: Funding Tribal Systems

Intimate Choice and Autonomy: Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl

American Indian Children and the Law: Cases and Materials

Kathryn (Kate) E. Fort is the Director of Clinics at Michigan State University College of Law and runs the Indian Law Clinic, where she teaches the Clinic class and other classes in federal Indian law. In 2015, she started the Indian Child Welfare Act Appellate Project, which represents tribes in complex ICWA litigation across the country. She is the author of American Indian Children and the Law, published by Carolina Academic Press. Prof. Fort has researched and written extensively on the Indian Child Welfare Act. Her publications include articles in the Harvard Public Health Review, George Mason Law Review, Family Law Quarterly, Saint Louis University Law Journal, American Indian Law Review as well as chapters in Critical Race Judgements  (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and Child Welfare Law and Practice  (National Assoc. of Counsel for Children, 2023), both with Matthew L.M. Fletcher. She co-edited Facing the Future: The Indian Child Welfare Act at 30 (Michigan State University Press 2009) and she is a contributing editor to the Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law. She is an original contributor to the Indian law blog, Turtle Talk. Prof. Fort has provided direct representation to tribes in the Washington, Colorado, and Michigan Supreme Courts, the Ohio, Illinois, and Tennessee Court of Appeals, the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Ninth U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, as well as the United States Supreme Court. More recently she obtained significant funding to start the Tribal Appellate Clerk Project which, as part of the Indian Law Clinic, allows law students to assist tribal appellate courts by providing research and memos on appellate tribal cases.

Prof. Fort graduated magna cum laude in from Michigan State University College of Law with the Certificate in Indigenous Law and is licensed to practice law in Michigan. She received her B.A. in History with honors from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.

Federal Indian Law

Michigan State University Profile 

Wikipedia Profile

MSU’s Indian Law Clinic receives funding to continue its mission of supporting Native families, tribes

Ask the Expert: Supreme Court decision on Indian Child Welfare Act

Supreme Court Backs Indian Child Welfare Act, as a Justice Cites Boarding School Legacy

Interrogating Haaland v. Brackeen

After Brackeen: Outcomes and Implications of the Supreme Court’s Decision Upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act

What Is the Indian Child Welfare Act and the Supreme Court Case?

Director of Clinics and Director of the Indian Law Clinic

Defending the Indian Child Welfare Act with Professor Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Clinic Director Kathryn E. Fort, and Professor Wenona T. Singel

Defending the Indian Child Welfare Act

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