James Washinawatok II

James Washinawatok II received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and a masters in law and policy from the University of Arizona College of Law’s Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program. During law school, he interned with the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena, MT and with the Ho-Chunk Nation Legislature.

After law school, he was a legal fellow with the National Congress of American Indians and a part-time clerk with Hobbs Straus Dean & Walker. He relocated to the Southwest and joined the Nordhaus Law Firm in Albuquerque, NM. In 2007, he joined the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s in-house attorney training program in coordination with Maynes Bradford Shipps & Sheftel, LLP. After completing the training program in 2010, James has been a tribal attorney with the Southern Ute Legal Department for 13 years.

In 2015, he was appointed to the Tribal In-House Council Association’s board and serves as Treasurer.

Mr. Washinawatok is enrolled Menominee with Akwesasne Mohawk ancestry and grew up in Keshena on the Menominee Reservation. He is married to Brenna Clani-Washinawatok, and they have a son and a daughter and live in Farmington, New Mexico.