This Monday, Joseph Morsette, a 2009 graduate of the UND School of Law, was sworn in as the chief judge of the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe.

Before being sworn in, Morsette was director of the Native Americans Into Law program. As director, his job was to encourage Native American students to attend the UND School of Law.

Morsette served in the Air Force and North Dakota National Guard before finishing his law degree at UND. He is a member of the  Chippewa-Cree tribe in Mont., where he also served as a tribal judge.

“We have two, maybe three, students at the law school now from Spirit Lake, so this is really going to build a stronger network, having me there and having strong ties to UND,” Morsette said in a UND press release. “We are making that bridge stronger.”