Robert Odawi Porter
Professor of Law
Dean's Research Scholar of Indigenous Nations Law
Director, Center for Indigenous Law, Governance & Citizenship
College of Law
Syracuse University
Biography:
Robert Odawi Porter is a citizen (Heron Clan) of the Seneca Nation of Indians and was raised on its Allegany Territory in upstate New York. He is the son of Lana Redeye and the grandson of Leonard Redeye and the late Eleanor Bowen Redeye.
After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and economics, Professor Porter attended Harvard Law School where he received his Juris Doctorate degree in 1989. Upon graduation from law school, he joined the firm of Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin in Washington, D.C. and practiced in the area of business law and government relations.
In 1991, Professor Porter was appointed as the first Attorney General of the Seneca Nation. In this position, he developed an in-house legal department to administer the Nation’s legal affairs and eventually was authorized to oversee the Nation’s law enforcement agencies. He successfully pursued amendments to the Nation’s constitution to strengthen its judiciary, authored a variety of comprehensive Seneca laws, represented the Nation in its own courts, and successfully negotiated various conflicts with New York State and its governmental subdivisions. During this time, he was also served as Adjunct Professor at the University of Buffalo School of Law and Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law.
In 1995, Professor Porter left his position with the Seneca Nation to become an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kansas and Adjunct Professor at Haskell Indian Nations University. At KU, he founded the Tribal Law and Government Center for the joint purpose of preparing a new generation of advocates, particularly Indigenous peoples, for careers representing the legal interests of Indigenous nations and establishing a forum for research and scholarship relating to Indigenous nation law and governance. He received tenure and was promoted to full professor in 2000. In 2002, he left Kansas to join the faculty at the University of Iowa. He has served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri since 1997 and is a consulting expert or counsel to several Indian nations and Indian organizations.
Professor Porter is married to Odie Brant Porter, also a citizen of the Seneca Nation, and has four children, Rachel, Benjamin, Olivia, and Elliot.