BYU law professor advances Native rights with new edition of Cohen’s handbook

Michalyn Steele, a professor of law at Brigham Young University and member of the Seneca Nation of Indians, served as executive editor of the 2024 edition of “Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law,” according to the university’s website. The handbook, widely regarded as the “bible” on Native American law for courts and practitioners, underwent its most extensive revision to date, incorporating recent Supreme Court decisions including Haaland v. Brackeen, which upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Steele’s scholarship on cultural sovereignty has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, and she was the Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School during its 2025 winter term.