With 574 tribes, countless treaties and evolving court decisions, Native American law can be a complex maze. Brigham Young University law professor Michalyn Steele has spent her career helping navigate that maze in defense of Native rights and sovereignty.

Steele’s expertise has led to her appointment as executive editor of the 2024 edition of Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law. More than just a book, Cohen’s Handbook is considered the “bible” of Native law and serves as the official reference for courts and practitioners. While the handbook is typically updated every 10 years to reflect new cases and statutes, the latest edition marks the most extensive revision yet.

“We wanted to make this version more accessible to practitioners and people who want to understand Indian law,” Steele said. “The Supreme Court has also been very active in the field of federal Indian law, so we had lot of very important cases that needed to be incorporated.”

One such case is Haaland v. Brackeen, which upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act and affirmed tribal authority in child welfare matters. Other recent cases endorsed existing treaties or reshaped federal involvement in matters like healthcare, criminal jurisdiction, taxation and water rights.

Steele has also been writing and speaking about the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which requires the return of Native American remains and cultural items to tribes and protects burial sites from disturbance. However, inconsistent enforcement of this law has left around 40% of reported ancestral remains and cultural objects still in storage at federally funded museums and institutions.

“Here we are, 35 years later, and there are still far too many ancestors in boxes,” Steele said. “We as descendants must fulfill our obligations to those ancestors and see them properly buried.”

Steele has written law review articles on the subject of cultural sovereignty, including in the Harvard Law Review, and recently spoke about NAGPRA at the Fordham Law Symposium. Her expertise and contributions led to an appointment as the Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School during its 2025 winter term.

Steele’s contributions to Cohen’s Handbook will help lawyers, judges and lawmakers take further action to protect tribal rights. In 2023, the Supreme Court drew on the handbook in its majority opinion for Arizona v. Navajo Nation, a case which dealt with water rights. Additionally, lower courts have already begun to cite the newest edition in their rulings.

For Steele, her work in Native law is more than just a career. She treasures her dual heritage as a member of the Seneca Nation of Indians and as a descendant of early Latter-day Saint pioneers.

“God has used culture and peoples as instruments in His work,” Steele said. “We all have things to learn from one another — from the diversity of God’s children. I believe that Native culture contains precious truths that are beneficial for us all.”