Margaret Treuer

Margaret "Peggy" Seelye Treuer (November 19, 1943 – March 18, 2020) was an American Ojibwe judge and lawyer. She was Minnesota's first female Native American lawyer, working as a federal magistrate and tribal court judge for the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, the Red Lake Nation, and the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. A member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, she volunteered with the Native American Rights Fund and worked for the reestablishment of the Menominee Indian Reservation. She earned degrees from the law school of the Catholic University of America and St. Luke's School of Nursing. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Women Judges.

Early life and education Margaret Seelye was born on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in Cass Lake, Minnesota, on November 19, 1943, one of five children of Luella and Eugene Seelye. She was a member of the Turtle Clan of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Her Ojibwe names were Giiwedinookwe (North Wind Woman) and Aazhideyaashiikwe (Crossing Flight Woman). Her family was poor, living on a subsistence diet in a one-room cabin next to Lake Winnibigoshish in Bena. When she was 12 years old, she recalled having her wild rice harvest stolen by the sheriff, who confiscated it with the excuse that she had been ricing illegally. In 1961 she graduated from Cass Lake High School. She evaluated tribal courts for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and was a tribal advocate for the Housing Assistance Council's low-income program. and a contract tribal judge for the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa in the 1980s. She served as a judge for the Red Lake Nation in the 1990s and for the Leech Lake Reservation beginning in 1998.

Treuer received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Women Judges in 2012.