NARF Staff Attorney Mark Carter has a wide-ranging legal career based on his desire to empower and uplift tribal communities and uphold the sovereign rights that tribes have possessed since time immemorial. His work has focused on a variety of federal Indian Law and civil rights issues including jurisdictional authority, child welfare, environmental protection, education, and equal protection claims.

At NARF, Mark is working on cases that address issues like asserting tribal sovereign authority to provide for the health and welfare of citizens, defending sacred places from a private developer’s resource extraction, holding a state accountable for its failure to uphold its state constitutional duty to teach children about Native American history and culture.

Prior to joining the NARF team, Mark already had garnered broad experience in tribal and federal Indian Law. Already, he had served as the Wilma Mankiller Legal Fellow at the National Congress of American Indians, the Attorney Advisor at the U.S. Department of Justice (Office of Tribal Justice), the Assistant General Counsel at the Gila River Indian Community, and as a Senior Staff Attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union focusing on Indigenous justice issues.

Tribal Affiliation

• Citizen Potawatomi Nation

Education

• Cornell Law School, J.D.
• Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indians and Alaska Natives
  • Best Student Award
• Texas Tech, B.A. Philosophy

Admissions to Practice

• US District Court for the District of Colorado
• New York

Download a high resolution headshot of Mark Carter here.