Fellowship Sends SaeRom Konecky to Alaska for Summer

Promoting the Rights of Native Alaskans

SaeRom Konecky

Alaska beckoned and SaeRom Konecky answered the call.

Konecky, a 2011 Patton Boggs Fellow, spent her summer in Anchorage completing an externship with the First Alaskans Institute that has major implications for the indigenous people of Alaska; her research could help pave the way  for a rewrite of Alaska’s constitution.

“The Alaska constitution doesn’t formally recognize tribal sovereignty,” explains the 2L from Kalispel, Montana. “The Institute is going to ask people what they think a racially equitable state constitution should look like.”

Alaska’s constitution provides for a constitutional convention every 10 years. Following a 10-year period during which no convention is held, voters can call for one. There hasn’t been a convention since 1956, before Alaska gained statehood.

The First Alaskans Institute grew out of the fight to win land rights for the state’s native people. Now it’s using a Kellogg Foundation grant to study racial diversity in the state.

If the institute finds popular support for a convention in which sovereignty would be addressed, it will prepare a ballot referendum for submission to voters.

“My job was to give them as much background as I could about state constitutions,” Konecky says. “We relied heavily on Hawaii’s constitution because it recognizes indigenous people.”

Despite having had no background in Indian Law, the externship “has been perfect for me,” she says. “I love doing this sort of policy work; it’s a really different experience from the usual 1L summer internship.”

Gonzaga’s Legal Research and Writing program helped prepare for the heavy lifting, she said, and it was an email alert from Gonzaga Law’s Center for Professional Development (CPD) that brought her the opportunity.

“(CPD) can find anything and they made it easy for me,” Konecky said. “I applied in February and began work in June.”

Konecky’s position was funded by the Patton Boggs Foundation under its Public Policy Fellowship program.

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