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James Bryant '10

James Sears Bryant of Enid, Oklahoma, was a history major with an impressive academic record. James wants to dedicate his life to working as a lawyer on behalf of Indian tribes in the United States, helping to solve the contemporary problems they face and to protect tribal sovereignty.

His numerous activities to date in exploring Indian issues and history – both on intellectual and activist levels – led him to the non-profit Native American Rights Fund (NARF), which he sees as the custodian of tribal sovereignty. The economic downturn has reduced the organization's federal funding, requiring programs to be cut back and a hiring freeze implemented. Most affected by this is their National Indian Law Library – an invaluable collection of treaties, statutes, tribal codes, judicial opinions and other documents, housed in NARF's office in Boulder, Colorado, and constituting the only public library in the U.S. that provides free research and information services relating to Indian law. This central clearinghouse for Indian legal materials is in crisis – its budget severely cut and permanent staff reduced to a single individual. As a result, the Library has had to suspend a vital project – the digitization of its many documents, in order to secure and preserve what forms the essence of tribal sovereignty for hundreds of tribes, and to make these documents publicly available through web-based software.

James served as the supervisor of the circulation desk of Firestone Library, and he feels this experience in organizing large collections of documents and making available new texts will be of great use to him in his project. He says: "I feel deeply that a wide-scale, unprecedented project of universally digitizing tribal codes and constitutions would show dramatic and measurable impact on the welfare of Indian people and tribal organizations. I could do a great service to an organization that performs vital work to a population who brilliantly maintains its own sovereignty and tradition while moving forward with economic and societal development.”

The value of James' project is attested to by NARF (he "would be a tremendous asset to our organization"). He receives rave references from one of his Princeton professors ("James is smart, engaged and passionate about his interests in Native American legal issues…. This is a young man with a commitment to community service who is really going places."); from his supervisor at the Pace Center ("…a student possessed of an incisive understanding of complex social issues, a mature sensitivity to community norms, and an earnest devotion to social change."); from his summer internship supervisor at the Tennessee Justice Center ("…a devoted worker who skillfully completed projects with dedication, compassion, and intelligence…. His traits of genuineness, generosity, empathy, and his strong moral compass were evident in his work here."); and a Lakota Indian colleague ("…with James' determination I see him as being a great help to Native Americans in the future.").

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