Joey Thomas
Joey Thomas aka Joseph Flies-Away, has served as chief judge of the Karuk tribal court in Northern California, judge pro tem of the Fort Mojave tribal court in Arizona and California, visiting judge for the Gila River Indians in Arizona and associate judge of the Hualapai nation and has consulted for Alaska’s Chugachmiut, Yukon/Kuskokwim, Chefornak and Napaskiak tribes.[1]
Legal activism
Flies-Away had finished only one year of law school when the elders of his tribe appointed him chief tribal judge in 1996. He served for two years, then studied at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard for a master of public administration degree and earned his JD at Arizona State University.
When Flies-Away studied federal Indian law at Arizona State, it was a yearlong course, scrutinizing statutes and cases. It’s challenging to cover the subject’s vast landscape in one semester, because federal Indian law interacts with that of hundreds of sovereign tribes and, since the transfer of jurisdiction that began in the early 1950s, the laws of many states. So Flies-Away aims to provide a comprehensive survey of contemporary issues: economic development, health care, tribal jurisdiction, sovereignty and gambling, among others.
“We discuss methods of getting at these problems through the federal government, and through litigation,” says third-year law student Colin Sampson, past president of the Native American Law Students Association and a member of the North Carolina Lumbee tribe. “And the judge is tackling these issues every day. He has tons of anecdotes.”[2]
"What bad checks has Stanford given students of color?"
"What bad checks has Stanford University given to its students of color?"
"What We are Fighting For What We are Working Toward?"
- Fidelia Butt, chairperson of Asian American Student Association
- Rudy Fuentes, former ASSU COP, co-coordinator of El Centro Chicano
- Millie Gong, member of Asian American Student Association
- Jon Inda, ASSU senator, member of MeCha
- Justin Jones, member of Stanford American Indian Association
- Amanda Kemp, former chairperson of Black Student Union
- Bill King, chairperson of Black Student Union, Project Democracy
- Tracey LeBeau, member of Stanford American Indian Association
- Stacey Leyton, chairperson of Peoples Platform, member of SUDE
- William McCabe, president of American Indian Science & Engineering Society
- John Meigs, intern for Black Student Union
- Maria Meier, former coordinator of El Centro Chicano
- Jerilyn Mendoza. Latino rep for University Committee on Minority Affairs
- Li Miao, co-chairperson of Educational & Cultural Committee of Asian American Student Association
- Joey Thomas, Stanford American Indian Association representative
- Vivian Wu, member of Asian American Student Association
Otero Lounge, Tues. Jan. 26, 6:15 a one-hour panel discussion in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.[3]