Kristina Pope, a second-year student at University of Wisconsin Law School, received honorable mention in the Chief Justice John B. Doolin Sovereignty Symposium 2025 writing competition for her paper “Evaluating TLOA and VAWA: The Impact of Federal Law on the Violence Against Native Women Epidemic.”

The paper discusses how complex jurisdictional challenges take sovereignty away from Native American tribes.

“Most tribes cannot reap the full benefits of the Tribal Law and Order Act (TLOA) and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) because they do not have enough funding and resources, aren’t told all the requirements and how to meet them or choose not to implement laws that require tribes to make tradeoffs in their communities and change their culturally significant justice systems,” explained Pope.

Pope first learned of the competition from Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center Director Professor Amanda White Eagle. She was motivated to write the paper based on the historical and ongoing issue of violence against Native women and the challenges in applying laws to protect them.

“I wanted to do the issue justice, and I thought that even the potential to help more people understand how the federal government is neglecting and, in some cases, contributing to the imperilment of Native women, or the potential for Native communities to have a comprehensive picture of these laws and how to implement them, would help the cause,” she said.

Pope said it feels good to know that the committee thought her paper was “good enough to be included in their publication.”

“I’m honored to have been able to evaluate and offer recommendations on such an important issue that is affecting tribes all across the country,” she said.

Following her recognition, Pope was invited to a conference to be held this June in Oklahoma City. Her paper will be published in this year’s Sovereignty Symposium journal.

Submitted by Barolo Gargiulo,Leo on May 21, 2025

This article appears in the categories: Students