Cheyenne River Lakota “warrior lawyer” Nicole Ducheneaux, journeys to the Spirit World

OMAHA, NE—Indian Country has lost one of its most promising legal minds and litigators, Nikkie Ducheneaux, 44, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, who passed away on July 14 from an undisclosed cause.

Ducheneaux’s last case, as litigation partner for the Big Fire Law & Policy Group out of Omaha, Nebraska, was representing Ray Taken Alive in his dispute over the alleged misappropriation of the Lakota language. One of the greatest basketball players in South Dakota history, Taken Alive had opposed the private profits made by the non-Indian Lakota Language Consortium. On her Facebook page, Ducheneaux wrote: “Ray exposed the non-Indian cultural appropriators who are asserting private property rights over our sacred Lakota language. To shut him up, they’re trying to take his teacher’s license. Tomorrow in Pierre, we are standing up for Ray’s right to teach and standing up for the cultural heritage our ancestors fought and died for.”

Ducheneaux was the daughter of Franklin Ducheneaux, who was one of the first Lakota attorneys, who worked with Dr. Jim Wilson, Oglala Lakota, who manned the Indian desk at the Office of Economic Opportunity during the Johnson Administration. Later Ducheneaux served as Director of the Congressional Relations Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and for 17 years he served as counsel for the House Committee on Indian Affairs, playing a role on every piece of legislation impacting tribes during that time.

Nikki’s uncle, Wayne Ducheneaux Sr., was a former president of the National Congress of American Indians and two-time chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

Nikki Ducheneaux started her career as a public defender in Montana.

Ducheneaux joined Fredericks, Peebles & Morgan as an associate in 2012. She became a litigation partner in 2015. In 2016, Ducheneaux was recognized as one of the 40-Under-40 honorees by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development.

Ducheneaux was one of the founding equity partners of Big Fire Law and Policy Group, made head litigator in 2019, and was described as having developed “a reputation for tenacious and impassioned lobbying.”

“As a founding equity partner, Nikki was constantly focused on the best interests of the Firm,” Big Fire wrote on social media. “But beyond her work, she was also a devoted and loving mother who always made time for her children, to support them in their activities, and passions.”

Big Fire also spoke about how she had mentored young lawyers, describing her as “kind, compassionate, and always available to assist family or friends in times of need.”

Her cousin, Wayne Ducheneaux, Jr., last saw her at a University of South Dakota ceremony honoring her father as being the first graduate (1965) of the USD law school.

“The last thing we talked about,” he told the Bismarck Tribune, “was our families and our kids and her new baby girl being so close in age to my baby girl and our hope that they grow up together having the same kind of bond and connection she and I have. The loss of Nikki leaves a huge hole in our heart as a family, our tiospaye, our tribe and Indian Country. We lost the epitome of the term ‘warrior lawyer’ and she will be greatly missed by all.”

Social media offered a platform for those who had been impacted by the life of Nikki Ducheneaux.

“I met Nikki when I was 16,” wrote Bridget Breihan, a therapist living in Charlottesville, Virginia, “struggling and disconnected from my own strength and light. Nikki shared hers with me. She did it without expectation or superiority. She did it without me even knowing she was doing it, lending without highlighting what was lacking, sometimes gently and other times fiercely. I’m grateful for it all.”

Mary Farrah, who once cut Ducheneaux’s hair, chimed in: “I gave her, her first punk rock haircut by shaving the back of her head, which she wanted, but then she cried after the hair was gone. I didn’t realize the significance then,” Farrah said. “Then she became the closest thing to a super hero I’ve ever known. Taking on unstoppable forces and fighting on behalf of the people.”

Kate Novotny, the wife of a Big Fire collegaue wrote: “Nikki, my heart is so sad for you and your family today, and will be, for a long time. I have always been enchanted by you … your smile, your laugh, your red lipstick, your pantsuits, your fierce advocacy for your people, your stories, your whimsical joy of being alive.”

Finally, actor and activist Dallas Goldtooth, wrote: “My heart is heavy. One of the truest warriors of our modern time died a few days ago suddenly and unexpectedly. Nikki Ducheneaux was one of the best Native lawyers in the country and I was proud to call her a comrade and friend.”

Here are a list of Ducheneaux’s major cases:

United States Supreme Court:

Dakota Access, LLC v. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe et al.,(representing Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in Supreme Court decision denying oil company’s petition for certiorari to challenge tribes’ victory in D.C. Circuit in which court ruled that United States decision to site oil pipeline under Lake Oahe was illegal because arbitrary and capricious).

Patchak v. Zinke, (affirming trust land acquisition for the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians under the Indian Reorganization Act).

 

U.S. Courts of Appeals:

Noem v. Haaland, (representing Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in dismissal of South Dakota’s untimely appeal of lower court decision prohibiting Governor Noem from exploding fireworks in the sacred Black Hills).

Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation et al. v. Mnuchin et al. (representing Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in decision in which court held that Alaska Native Corporations are not “Indian Tribes” under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act such that they were not entitled to Coronavirus relief funds set aside for tribes).

 

State Court:

People v. Miami Nation Enterprises, 223 Cal. App. 4th 21, 166 Cal. Rptr. 3d 800 (Cal. App. 2014) (holding that tribal sovereign immunity protected tribal entity from state regulation of short-term internet lending).

 

Many legal-trained Natives do not step into the firing line and become litigators. The Big Fire website wrote: “Ms. Ducheneaux practices primarily in the area of litigation.” Litigation requires a specific skill, a warrior persona, but also the ability to charm judge and jury, talents not every lawyer possesses, but every successful litigator must. More than anything else, Indian Country will feel the loss of a great litigator.

(Contact James Giago Davies at skindiesel@msn.com)

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