Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

Locklear, an attorney specializing in federal Indian law, received her J.D. from Duke University in 1976. She worked as a staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund from 1976-1987. She was the first Indian woman to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court (1983, Solem v. Bartlett, regarding whether the State of South Dakota had jurisdiction over a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe's on-reservation conduct). She won the case and argued a second one, Oneida Indian Nation v. County of Oneida, in 1985. She has written journal articles and book chapters regarding federal Indian law.