MEET ELDRED

Eldred D. Lesansee

PUeblo of jemez, Zuni

Columbia Law School, Class of 2025

Eldred (he/him) is passionate about the universal protection of Native American communities and their cultural heritage.  Born and raised in the Pueblo nations of Jemez and Zuni in New Mexico, Eldred has worked to develop and implement policies to safeguard Native American cultural heritage.  After witnessing the auction sale of sacred Hopi and Pueblo cultural items in Paris, France, Eldred earned a Fulbright scholarship to France to study and research how to halt these sales.  Since then, Eldred has gained professional experiences at the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department, the United Nations, UNESCO’s World Heritage Center, the U.S. Embassy in France, and the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

In April 2023, Eldred was elected as President of the National Native American Law Students Association.  In this position and with support of the Executive Board, Eldred has aimed to educate others about Federal Indian Law’s significance to American jurisprudence as well as bolster the Indigenous law student population across the country.  Led by his values of community, service, and inclusion, Eldred has worked to build community and center 2SLGBTQ+ and Black/Afro-Indigenous community members within the Association.  On April 5, 2024, Eldred was re-elected to serve as the 55th President of the Association. Previously, Eldred served as Area 6 Representative in his first year of law school.

Eldred is currently pursuing a Juris Doctor with a certificate in Global Business Law and Governance at Columbia Law School. His dream is to bring all that he has learned back to his Tribal nations and become an international legal advocate for Indigenous peoples globally. Eldred holds a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University and a M.I.D. from the Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs.