2025 MNABA Fall Feast, Honors & Scholarships

Chi-miigwech to everyone who joined us for our 2025 Fall Feast! It was a wonderful evening of community, celebration, and connection, and we are grateful to all who made it such a meaningful gathering.

Huge thanks goes out to everyone who organized, attended, volunteered, supported, and helped behind the scenes!

Thank you to Native Harvest Catering for providing a healthy, delicious meal for the feast.

Thank you for supporting MNABA, and for continuing to uplift Native lawyers and law students in Minnesota.

2025 MNABA Honorees

We were honored to recognize three remarkable leaders whose work continues to shape the legal landscape for Native people:

Judge Lenor Scheffler Blaeser
(Lower Sioux Indian Community)

Mary Al Balber
(Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe)

Hon. Terry Mason Moore
(Osage Nation)
(not pictured)

2025–2026 MNABA Scholarship Recipients

This year MNABA awarded scholarships to nine outstanding Native law students to support their law school education.

Corrina Kingbird (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe)
Christopher Parisien (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians)
Tashina Emery (Keweenaw Bay Indian Community)
Case Guinn (Cherokee Nation / Delaware Tribe)
Ashley LaFriniere (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians)
Rachel Evangelisto (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe)
Kylan Hill (Red Lake Nation)
Leo John Bird (Tlingit & Haida; descendant of the Blackfeet Nation) (not pictured)
Adrianna Rivera (Native Hawaiian) (not pictured)

Also selected for this year’s Jodi Drews Scholar: Ashley LaFriniere, recognized for her strength, leadership, and embodiment of the values Jodi exemplified.