Rain Archambeau-Marshall, is Ihanktonwan (Yankton Sioux), Choctaw, Cherokee, Penobscot, Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux, and French. She graduated from Cal Poly Humboldt in 2000 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Natural Resources Planning with Native American Perspectives on the Environment and a minor in American Indian Education. She was a member of the Indian Teacher Education and Personnel Program (ITEPP) and the Indian Natural Resources Science and Engineering Program (INRSEP). Rain received her Juris Doctorate from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 2003, with an emphasis in Federal Indian Law, Natural Resources Law, and Environmental Law.

Rain was selected by the American Civil Liberties Union as an Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellow in 2004 teaching “Know Your Right’s Workshops” on Indian reservations and urban centers in North and South Dakota. While with the ACLU, Rain assisted with an education discrimination lawsuit for Rosebud Sioux children. Rain also assisted her tribe in a lawsuit against the county to protect the Reservation boundary from diminishment.  Rain enjoys spending time with her two daughters and father and attending ceremonies in her homelands in South Dakota.

For the Yurok Tribe’s legal department, Rain assisted in land acquisition. She also worked as a Public Defender for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Rain has taught Native American Studies, Critical, Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Ethnic Studies, English, Business, and Law courses at Sinte Gleska University, Ihanktonwan Community College, College of the Redwoods, and currently at Cal Poly Humboldt.

Rain’s area of research is in Lakota plant knowledge and Lakota women in traditional Lakota society.

She has taught various Native American Studies courses at Humboldt including: Environmental Justice, Tribal Justice Systems, Native American Perspectives in Natural Resources, Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, Native American Literature and Oral Tradition, Federal Indian Law and Introduction to Native American Studies. Rain is also currently teaching in the Critical, Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department including Ethnic Studies.

In the Fall of 2016, Rain was able to inform her NAS 306 class about events while live at Standing Rock NO DAPL with the water protectors. Rain has two daughters and enjoys Mother Earth, cooking organic food, and art projects. She travels often to her homelands in South Dakota for ceremonies and to be with family.

Publications:

• Legal Case Note, Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. McDivitt, Hog Farm Corporation in Indian Country Lacks Standing in Federal Court to Challenge BIA Action Voiding Land Lease. http://nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/bibarticles/arc...
• http://nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/bibarticles/arc...
• Roast Magazine August 2006, 2nd place Poetry winner Demi Tasse Poetry Contest, Poem titled Black Medicine Pejuta Sapa.
• Article, Federal Sentencing Guidelines and Indian Country for the Native American National Law Student Association E-Newsletter August 2001.

Recent Projects:

• An illustrated Children’s Lakota Book about Plant Knowledge.

Other work: Encouraging NAS students interested in the law school process.