Professor Emeritus Robert Anderson, Water Hero 2020

Professor Emeritus Robert Anderson served for decades as a law professor and Director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington. He is also an Oneida Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and visiting Professor of Law at the University of Colorado School of Law in Boulder. Bob’s work primarily exists at the intersection of water, natural resource, property, and American Indian law.

Bob’s impressive career began as a Staff Attorney for the Boulder-based Native American Rights Fund (NARF) where he litigated major cases involving Native American sovereignty and natural resources. He was then one of the two attorneys who founded NARF’s Alaska office in 1984. From 1995-2001, he served as a political appointee in the Clinton Administration under Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, providing legal and policy advice on a wide variety of Indian law and natural resource issues. Bob was the co-chair of the Obama transition team for the Department of the Interior in 2008, and one of five members of the National Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform. He is a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe.

In honor of his recent retirement from the UW Law School, we wanted to celebrate his impressive body of work dedicated to natural resource issues, mentorship as an educator, and advocacy for Native American law students.