Phone: (206) 616-3482
Email: mtmills@uw.edu
B.A. 1999, Lewis & Clark College J.D. 2003, University of Colorado
American Indian Law — Environmental Law — Natural Resources Law — Tribal Law — Water Law
See the full list under the Publications tab below.
Monte Mills joined the UW faculty in 2022 as Charles I. Stone Professor of Law and the Director of the Native American Law Center (NALC). He teaches American Indian Law, Property, and other classes focused on Native American and natural resources related topics.
Monte's research and writing focuses on the intersection of Federal Indian Law, Tribal sovereignty, and natural resources as well as race and racism in the law and legal education. He served as an Executive Editor on the 2024 edition of Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law and serves as a co-author on two textbooks: American Indian Law, Cases and Commentary (along with Robert T. Anderson, Sarah A. Krakoff, and Kevin K. Washburn) and Native American Natural Resources Law (with Michael Blumm and Elizabeth Kronk Warner). Monte also co-authored A Third Way: Decolonizing the Laws of Indigenous Cultural Protection, which was published by Cambridge University Press in July 2020. Monte's legal scholarship and other written work has also appeared in the Natural Resources Law Journal, the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, Environmental Law, High Country News, the American Indian Law Journal, the Public Land and Resources Law Review, and The Conversation, among other forums.
Prior to joining the faculty at UW, Monte was a member of the faculty at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana. Before that, Monte was the Director of the Legal Department for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in Colorado, an in-house counsel department that he helped organize and implement in 2005 following completion of a unique two-year in-house attorney training program. As Director of the Tribe's Legal Department, Monte represented and counseled the Tribe on a broad array of issues, including litigation in tribal, state, and federal courts, legislative matters before the Colorado General Assembly and the United States Congress, and internal tribal matters such as contracting, code-drafting, and gaming issues.
"What does it really mean to share stewardship of public lands with tribal nations? In this episode, legal scholar Monte Mills … and public lands policy expert Martin Nie … unpack the complex, often misunderstood world of tribal co-management."
"The educational components of the program were developed by the National Judicial College (NJC) in consultation with tribal representatives, state government officials, judicial branch leaders and attorneys specializing in water law. Overseeing the educational program have been NJC Associate Director Alf W. Brandt and University of Washington Professor of Law Monte Mills, director of the Native American Law Center."
Monte Mills, director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law, told the Wausau Pilot and Review that federal policy is more supportive of tribal self-determination and sovereignty in recent years. Today, negotiations for leases and rights-of-way through tribal lands require consultation with tribes involved.
North Dakota sued the Interior Department at least five times under Gov. Doug Burgum. Now he’s set to run the agency. Monte Mills, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the UW, is quoted.
As Burgum takes the reins at the Interior Department, Monte Mills, director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law, said he is watching how Burgum will work with tribes that favor conservation over natural resource extraction. It remains to be seen if keeping the federal government’s commitments to Indian Country is a priority for Burgum, Mills said, or whether tribal issues are “only really taken up where they align with other priorities of the administration.”
“There's a famous – or infamous – quote from President Teddy Roosevelt… he called the Dawes Act ‘a mighty pulverizing [engine] to break up the tribal mass’. And he was referring to the tribal land base,” said Monte Mills, a professor and director of the Native American Law center at the University of Washington School of Law. “The result of that was that after allotments were made, there was surplus land on many reservations that could be open to non-Indian homesteaders,” he added.
The rule offers further pathways for tribes to proactively protect certain public lands. Monte Mills, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the UW, is quoted.
In recent years, the federal government has tried to work more closely with tribal nations on land management, and a new online collection of such agreements seeks to facilitate that collaboration. An online collection of cooperative agreements that is hosted at the UW and Monte Mills, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the UW, are mentioned.
Ten states own 1.6 million acres of land within 83 tribal nations’ reservations. How did they get there? Monte Mills, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the UW, is quoted.
Tribal governments have used the Endangered Species Act to litigate on behalf of imperiled, culturally important species like salmon and grizzly bears, but the law does not acknowledge tribal sovereignty and hunting rights. Monte Mills, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the UW, is quoted.
“It does seem that not just the facts, but also just the whole situation make this pretty unique,” said Monte Mills, Charles I. Stone Professor of Law and director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington.
In a historic policy shift, long-ousted tribes are collaborating, cooperating and co-managing parks. Monte Mills, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the UW, is quoted.
Monte Mills, director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law and a former professor at the University of Montana law school, said that if tribes are lending through online services, courts have generally found that they are not subject to states’ usury laws and are able to utilize the lending companies to bring in more revenue and employment for tribal members.
Monte Mills, director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law who formerly taught at the University of Montana’s law school, said lawsuits playing out in court may have serious implications for tribal sovereignty. And he said the tribal lending landscape is “tricky.”
KALW Podcast "Your Call" discusses the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision against the Navajo Nation in a major water rights case. Professor Monte Mills is a guest.
Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes speaks with Monte Mills, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law and director of the school's Native American Law Center. He co-authored an amicus brief in the case on behalf of a number of tribal nations in this case.
The issue of off-reservation hunting rights is a thorny one for tribal citizens in Wyoming, largely due to the state’s ongoing attempts to have a say in the treaty-protected rights of Indigenous hunters. Monte Mills, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the UW, is quoted.
The Colorado River is a vital but threatened water supply — and the communities in Arizona, California, Nevada and beyond that depend on it face the prospect of having to resort to greater efforts to secure water. Monte Mills, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the UW, is interviewed.
Monte Mills, professor of law at the University of Washington and director of the UW’s Native American Law Center, co-authored an amicus brief on behalf of 37 tribal nations, the Affiliated Tribes of the Northwest, the San Luis Rey Indian Water Authority and the National Congress of American Indians.
The amicus brief was filed by Professor Whiteman Runs Him; Professor Monte Mills, Native American Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law; Professor Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely, University of Idaho College of Law; and John Echohawk, Steven C. Moore, David L. Gover, Ada Montague Stepleton, Joe Tenorio, Morgan E. Saunders, Wesley James Furlong, and Sydney Tarzwell at the Native American Rights Fund.
Until now, Monte Mills had never seen a state try to promulgate rules that stem directly from Herrera v. Wyoming, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that recognized a Crow tribal member’s right to hunt unoccupied, off-reservation land ceded by a 1868 treaty. On Thursday, Mills, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the UW, reviewed a draft of House Bill 83 – Tribal agreements to hunt and fish, which attempts to translate the high court’s decision into state law.
“From the tribal perspective, this is laying the groundwork for some meaningful negotiation and dialogue and agreement,” Mills told WyoFile. “Under Herrera, the rights are there under federal law — there isn’t a requirement for a state [hunting or fishing] license — so the implementation and cooperation around how that works is really important. That’s where these agreements are really important.”
Professor Monte Mills is quoted in response to a Supreme Court decision.
“This adds another layer of complexity to those already complex jurisdictional questions and prosecutions, and really has the potential to further disconnect the exercise of criminal justice from the people in the community and the government in the community that is closest to the effects of those criminal actions,” says Monte Mills, the Charles I. Stone Professor of Law and director of the University of Washington School of Law’s Native American Law Center.
Experts suggest needed upgrades in the face of modern crises. UW Law Professor Monte Mills contributes.
Monte Mills, director of the Native American Law Center and a professor at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, said tribes have historically been left out of decision-making around managing public lands and natural resources.
Native tribes are pushing for their voices, and traditional knowledge, to be part of decisions over their ancestral homelands. Professor Monte Mills, Director fo the Native American Law Center, is quoted.
For the first time in history, the National Native American Law Association (National NALSA) has recognized NALSA at UW as Chapter of the Year.
The UW was an early leader in education and expertise in Native American law, and the Native American Law Center continues that work.
Faculty organized an expert panel to discuss topics focused on federalism, health care, international implications and tribal and natural resources.
As the 50th anniversary of the Boldt Decision approaches, we review the legacy of pioneering UW Law professor Ralph Johnson and his impact on the most complex case in Native American law history.
UW Law will host the 36th annual Indian Law Symposium on Sept. 7 & 8, 2023, in person at William H. Gates Hall and available on Zoom.
An in-person film screening of “Stewart Udall and The Politics of Beauty” will be held April 7, followed by a distinguished panel discussion including director John de Graaf, Senator Mark Udall and UW Law faculty.
The Discovery Podcast, in conversation with UW Law professor Monte Mills on the amicus brief supporting tribal reserved water rights in the U.S. Supreme Court case Arizona v. Navajo Nation.
