James (Sákéj) Youngblood Henderson
international human rights lawyer
James (Sakej) Youngblood Henderson (born December 20, 1944) is an American human rights lawyer, advocate, and educator.
Background
James Youngblood Henderson was born on December 20, 1944, in Ardmore, Oklahoma. He has stated that he has Chickasaw ancestry through his paternal grandfather, and he also stated that he has Cheyenne ancestry. He experienced poverty while growing up, which prompted him to make ending poverty for all Indigenous peoples a life goal.
Education
As an undergraduate student, he served as the vice-president of the American National Indian Youth Council, which prompted him to look at the Civil Rights Movement as a model for a potential Indigenous rights movement. He attended Harvard Law School, where in 1974 he became one of the first Native Americans to be awarded the Juris Doctor.
He married Mi'kmaq educator Marie Battiste and is the father of Canadian MP Jaime Battiste.
Work
In his first year out of Harvard Law School, Henderson completed his first major case, in which he reestablished for his father's clan several legal rights. Since then, Henderson has worked to protect Indigenous heritage and culture through legal means, working with the Canadian government, the Mi'kmaq Nation, the United Nations, and other First Nation governments. Additionally, he has taught law at Stanford University, Berkeley, Harvard University, and other North American law schools throughout his career.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19874071. VIAF identifies the subject as 91686266. The Library of Congress control number is n80059426. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944 and 1974.
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This entry incorporates text from “James (Sákéj) Youngblood Henderson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.