Keith Harper

Keith Michael Harper (born 1965) is an American attorney and diplomat who was the first Native American to ever receive the rank of a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Early life and education Although a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma,

Harper attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated in 1990 with a B.A. in sociology and psychology. There he served as an editor on the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics. He was admitted to the New York bar the following year. He considered it a formative experience with Pierce becoming one of his role models.

With the new firm, Harper continued his work as a lead attorney on Cobell, and by the 2010s the lawyers on that case had earned over $85 million in attorneys' fees. Harper was also accused by some other Native American lawyers of using physical intimidation tactics in several cases in the mid-late 2000s during disagreements over Cobell matters.

Harper has also served on the bench: as a justice of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe's Appellate Court from 2001 to 2007, and following that as a justice of the Supreme Court of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians from 2007 to 2008. He personally helped host a conference and two major fundraisers for the campaign. Haaland ran in New Mexico's first congressional district and won, becoming one of the two first Native American woman elected to Congress, alongside Sharice Davids.

U.S. Ambassador Harper was nominated by President Obama for the position of United States Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council on June 10, 2013. Senator John McCain of Arizona, who led the arguments against Harper,

Eventually, Harper was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 3, 2014, nearly a year after his nomination, in a party-line 52–42 vote with Democrats supporting and Republicans opposed.

Harper was sworn into his position by June 5, 2014, and immediately flew to Geneva for a Human Rights Council meeting.

Harper's tenure in the position ended with the change of administrations in Washington in January 2017. in Washington, D.C., on Native American affairs and international matters.

Awards and honors The National Law Journal selected Harper as one of 50 "Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America" in May 2008. He is listed in the 2013 and the four years immediately preceding editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business. Harper was recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for Native American Law in 2013 and the five years immediately preceding. He is listed as a 2010, 2012 and 2013 Washington, D.C., "Super Lawyer" in Native American Law by Super Lawyers magazine. Diversity & The Bar magazine selected Harper as one of 14 minority "Rainmakers". In 2001, he was selected as a Leadership Conference on Civil Rights delegate to the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.

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