W. Tanner Allread, a legal historian whose research spans federal Indian law, tribal law, Indigenous legal history, and constitutional law, was named an assistant professor of law at Harvard Law School, effective July 1.
Previously the Richard M. Milanovich Fellow in Law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, Allread focuses his scholarship on nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Native American governance, tribal constitutions, and federal recognition of Indigenous sovereignty.
Allread, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, has focused his current projects on early nineteenth-century Native American history, with a specific interest in the creation of the first tribal constitutions and the sovereignty arguments deployed during the era of southern Indian Removal. One of his notable projects examines the 1826 constitution of the Choctaw Nation, which he argues was the first written tribal constitution in the United States. He explores how Choctaw leaders adapted constitutional ideas to assert sovereignty and resist federal pressure during the Removal era, framing this as part of a broader tradition of “Indigenous constitutionalism.”
“We are fortunate and excited to have the benefit of Tanner’s deep expertise and experience in federal Indian law, tribal law, and related topics,” said John C.P. Goldberg, the Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. “His award-winning historical work offers important new insights not only in these fields, but in American history and constitutional law more generally.”
“I am extremely honored and excited to join the Harvard Law faculty and its world-class legal history and public law communities,” said Allread. “Native nations have always had a significant if complicated relationship to the American legal system, and with the opportunities provided by HLS, I hope to continue shedding light on Native peoples’ own law as well as their contributions to U.S. law through my teaching and scholarship. I also look forward to working with the growing Indigenous studies community across the university.”
His publications have appeared or are forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, Columbia Law Review, and the Journal of the Early Republic. His work has received several recognitions, including the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation’s Legal History Article of the Year Prize for his article “The Specter of Indian Removal: The Persistence of State Supremacy Arguments in Federal Indian Law,” 123 COLUM. L. REV. 1533 (2023). He also received the American Society for Legal History’s Kathryn T. Preyer Award.
Before joining UCLA in 2024, Allread clerked for Judge M. Margaret McKeown on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He also provided legal assistance in Indian Country, previously working for Oklahoma Indian Legal Services, the law firm of Kanji & Katzen, and the Yurok Tribe’s Office of the Tribal Attorney.
Allread earned a B.A. with distinction in history from Yale University in 2016, a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2022, and a Ph.D. in history in 2025, also from Stanford. While at Stanford, he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review, the president of the Native American Law Students Association, and the recipient of the Stanford Legal History Paper Prize.
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