Ms. Nazune Menka is the inaugural Executive Director for the Center for Indigenous Law & Justice (CILJ) at Berkeley Law. CILJ’s mission is to foster teaching, research, and community with the aim of supporting the sovereignty of, and securing justice for, local, state, national, and international Indigenous Peoples and Native Nations. CILJ houses three areas—an Academic Program, a Community-Building Program, and a Tribal Engagement Program.
The Academic Program centers Indigenous Peoples Law by developing curricula and hosting speaker series. The Community-Building Program focuses on supporting students, staff, and faculty at UC Berkeley who are interested in the work of CILJ. The Tribal Engagement Program focuses on building relationships with Native Nations and community organizations through collaborative research and other engagement opportunities.
Ms. Menka joined Berkeley Law in September 2020 as the Tribal Cultural Resources Project Policy Fellow and then served in the Environmental Law Clinic as a Supervising Attorney for the 2022-2023 academic year. Ms. Menka teaches “Indigenous Peoples, Law, and the United States” (a.k.a. federal Indian law) and teaches a new undergraduate Legal Studies course “Decolonizing UC Berkeley” (LS 172AC in Spring 2023) which she created in 2021.
Born and raised in Alaska, Ms. Menka is Koyukon Athabaskan and Lumbee. She holds a J.D. from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers School of Law with a Certificate in Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy and serves as Of Counsel at Rosette, LLP a national law firm serving Indian Country. Ms. Menka has an M.S. in Soil, Water, and Environmental Science from the University of Arizona where she researched the health impacts of arsenic and lead from abandoned mining sites utilizing aqueous bench chemistry and X-ray Fluorescence methodologies. She has worked on policy issues at both the Alaska and Hawaii state legislatures and has completed various intern and management programs including at the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. Her areas of expertise and interest include Indigenous human rights, Indigenous ways of knowing, Tribal sovereignty, constitutional law, and environmental law and policy.
Ms. Menka has served as Treasurer for the California Indian Law Association, Water Protector Legal Collective, and the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science. She is a member of the State Bar of Michigan.
Education
J.D., University of Arizona, James E. Rogers School of Law
M.S., University of Arizona, Soil, Water, & Environmental Science
Nazune Menka is not teaching any Law courses in Spring 2024.
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title |  Teaching Evaluations | Spring 2023 | 295.5E sec. 001 | Environmental Law Clinic | 295.5F sec. 001 | Advanced Environmental Law Clinic |
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