Attorney Profiles

Mr. Buffalo joined the Firm in 1991, bringing extensive experience representing Indian tribal governments and non-tribal entities doing business with tribal governments throughout the United States. He is an enrolled member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

Before entering private practice, Henry served as in-house tribal counsel for the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and later for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Henry founded and served as the first Executive Director of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, a body composed of Indian tribes and bands with reserved rights to hunt, fish, and gather in territories ceded by treaty to the United States in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Eastern Michigan.

During his tenure with the Fond du Lac Band, Henry had primary legal responsibility for obtaining federal approval of the only Indian-gaming operation located in a metropolitan area, away from a reservation, before the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Mr. Buffalo served as the lead attorney responsible for the first tribal governmental revenue bond issue, secured by gaming revenues, issued under the Tribal Government Tax Status Act. As counsel to the Fond du Lac Band, Henry served as lead counsel to the National Indian Gaming Association from its inception through the passage and adoption of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

Mr. Buffalo has extensive litigation experience on behalf of tribal clients. Some representative cases include Fond du Lac Band of Chippewa Indians v. Carlson, 63 F. 3d 253 (8th Cir. 1995) (affirming the rights of the Fond du Lac Band to hunt fish and gather free from State regulation on lands ceded by the Band to the United States in the Treaty of 1854); EECO v. Fond du Lac Heavy Equipment, 986 F. 2d 246 (8th Cir. 1993) (the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. 629 et. seq. is inapplicable to tribal employer); and Bruce H. Lien Company v. Three Affiliated Tribes, 93 F. 3d 1412 (8th Cir. 1995).  The IGRA does not overcome the doctrine of comity, and mandatory reference to tribal courts.

Henry speaks regularly at lawyers' seminars and gaming trade conferences on the subjects of gaming development, Federal law, and tribal sovereignty. From 1988 to the present, he has served as a Judge on the Tribal Court of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community in Minnesota.