Charles Abourezk, Esq.
CHARLES (CHARLIE) ABOUREZK is a Member Partner in the Abourezk Law Firm in Rapid City, South Dakota, primarily representing Indian tribes, tribal organizations and Native American clients. He is licensed to practice in South Dakota, U.S. District Court for South Dakota and North Dakota, Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. Supreme Court, Rosebud Sioux Tribal Court and Oglala Sioux Tribal Court and currently serves as Justice of the Supreme Court of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.
Charlie is an Adjunct Faculty Member at Black Hills State University (Sociology and American Indian Studies), South Dakota State University (Ph.D. Program) and Oglala Lakota College (Graduate Program in Lakota Leadership) and also serves as a consultant to mental health, treatment and school facilities in group psychology, group dynamics and conflict resolution.
Also a filmmaker, he was the writer, producer and director of It Can Happen To Anyone, a short minute documentary on AIDS on Indian Reservations and is the co-writer, co-director and co-producer of A Tattoo on My Heart: The Warriors of Wounded Knee 1973, a feature length documentary broadcast numerous times on the PBS. His films in progress include Red State Blues, a feature length documentary narrated by Peter Coyote, on the careers of two liberal politicians (George McGovern and James Abourezk) in conservative South Dakota; Quiet Desperation: A Remembrance of Floyd Red Crow Westerman; and The Intellect of J.L. Moreno (the founder of Psychodrama, Sociometry and the concept of group therapy).
Charlie is a Member of South Dakota Bar Association, Sicangu Oyate Bar Association, American Bar Association, Association of American Justice (AAJ), South Dakota Trial Lawyers Association and he serves on the South Dakota Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights (Region 8, Denver, CO). He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Mass Communications and a J.D. from the University of South Dakota (Vermillion, SD) and is a Master’s Candidate in Counseling at South Dakota State University. He is a graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyoming, for which he has also served as a Member of the Board and on the Faculty. He has completed many hours of training in Psychodrama and Sociometry at The National Psychodrama Training Center.
