The NASNTI REACHE Program at East Central University announced Chickasaw Citizen Delanie Seals, a senior Legal Studies major, has been accepted into the prestigious Udall Native American Congressional Internship program.
Seals is from Ada, Oklahoma and is a member of the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Sac and Fox Nations. She has been involved in advocacy of various issues since she was in high school, including fighting to end discriminatory dress codes and advocating for more just police policies. Seals currently is an intern for the Oklahoma Indian Legal Services, president of the ECU Student Government Association and a member of the ECU Native American Student Association. Seals’ accolades at ECU include the 2022 Spirit of MLK Award and the 2020 Shirley Mixon Trailblazer award.
Seals has also devoted her time to a research project demonstrating the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court case McGirt v. Oklahoma on both tribal nations and the State of Oklahoma and is writing a thesis about tribal criminal jurisdictional matters for the ECU Honors Program. She plans to go to law school after getting her undergraduate degree, and work for a political and legal advocacy organization after.
“Being able to participate in the Udall Internship will give me the chance to learn about the federal legislative process,” Seals said, “to build connections with political and legal professionals, to learn more about tribal sovereignty, and to understand the relationship between the federal government and tribal nations.”
The Native American Congressional Internship Program provides Native American and Alaska Native students with the opportunity to gain practical experience with the federal legislative process. This allows the students to understand first-hand the government-to-government relationship between tribes and the federal government.
As a Udall Intern, Seals will work with experts in her field, gaining invaluable experience and skills to help her achieve her career goals, including practicing law for a political and advocacy organization such as NCAI, OK Policy, Together Oklahoma, NARF, Innocence Project, ACLU, or NAACP.
“I am interested in working as a prosecutor for one of my tribal nations as well,” Seals said.