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Our Story
Austin, Crepelle & Ernest Sickey’s School for Wards and Domestic Dependent Nations (“The ACES School”) is a 100% Native-owned, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was founded by Joseph Austin (Navajo Nation), Adam Crepelle (United Houma), and Ernest Sickey (Coushatta), all of whom have lived and worked on reservations.
A wise man named Raymond Austin, Justice Emeritus of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, once said, “When Native people start thinking like Native people again, all our problems will be solved.” We believe and know the same to be true. With language comes culture, and with culture comes a new way of thinking, the Native way of thinking. That’s what we need to prosper and rebuild as Native Nations.
Of course, the Native way of thinking is only one side of the coin. The other side is navigating the modern advancements of nationhood: economic development; legislative reform; governance structure; court reform etc.
The ACES School is everything you expected but never got from a conference, workshop, presentation, or event. We are dramatic; we give tough love; we say the things you think; we call it what it is; but most importantly, we know our stuff better than anyone! So come out and join us at one of our events! We hope to see you there, and when we do, we hope you’ll become a student of the ACES School!
Meet The Founders of ACES
Mr. Austin is a member of the Navajo Nation. He has a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in business administration and management from the University of Arizona, Eller College of Management. He received a law degree (J.D.) and a certificate in Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy from the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law. He also received a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in International Economic Law & Policy from the same institution.
Prior to founding and establishing OSA, Mr. Austin practiced, and continues to practice, law as a solo practitioner. Currently, he manages his own law practice, the Law Office of Joseph Austin. In prior years, he served as a prosecutor for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and worked as a law clerk for the Law Offices of Thomas Higgins PLLC and Barnhouse, Keegan, Solimon & West LLP. He is licensed to practice in state and various tribal courts; his areas of practice are in federal Indian law and tribal law. Mr. Austin specializes in nation building, customary law, business, economic development, and international trade. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) and continuing the work he did in the Master of Laws program—the engagement of international trade among Native Nations. Mr. Austin’s passion for helping Native Nations achieve self-determination and uprooting the systematic abuses perpetuated by federal Indian law has earned him the moniker, the Wolf of Indian Country.
Joseph Austin
Founder and CEO
Mr. Crepelle is an enrolled citizen of the United Houma Nation and has served on the tribe’s election committee, diabetes coalition, and tribal security and community services committee. He is a former vice president of the California Indian Law Association and is a co-founder of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana. He has authored several articles on topics including tribal federal recognition, violence against American Indian women, and American Indian economic development. Adam is also an award winning film producer. His film, Indian Santa, screened at numerous venues including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. He is currently a professor of law at Southern University Law Center and also serves as a justice for the Pascua Yaqui Court of Appeals
Adam Crepelle
Founder
As a leader of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana for nearly three decades and tribal chairman from 1973 to 1985, Ernest Sickey is a trailblazer in the evolution of Indian affairs in the southeastern United States. He is best known for leading his own tribal community from legal obscurity to becoming the first tribe recognized by the state of Louisiana in 1972. Sickey also played an instrumental role in securing government-to-government status for the Coushatta tribe, laying the foundation for multiple economic ventures that have since placed the Coushatta among Louisiana’s top employers.
Sickey continues to serve as an advisor to the Coushatta Tribal Council and to other tribal governments in addressing economic and social development. Sickey lobbied the Louisiana legislature to create an Office of Indian Affairs, for which he served as its first executive director, and was among the founders of the Louisiana Inter-Tribal Council and Institute for Indian Development.
Ernest Sickey
Founder and Chairman of the Board
President and CEO of The Akana Group, Inc., a Native American-owned business focused on building strategic partnerships with the federal government and Native Nations. Akana supplies equipment to over 300 Native Nations and is the only Native-owned company to partner with John Deere. Recently, Mr. Johnson and his team incorporated Akana in Australia and negotiated joint venture agreements with Australia and indigenous Australian companies for the sale of equipment, becoming the first Native-owned company to ever do so. Mr. Johnson has a long history of dealing with global logistics, trade compliance, and government contracting. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in business administration, a Masters Degree in International Economics, a Masters of Business Administration, a Juris Doctor, and a Master of Legal Studies.
Chad Johnson
Chairman
An attorney at Sacks Tierney P.A. where she practices in Indian and tribal law, advising, counseling, and representing tribal governments, district governments, tribal enterprises, and companies operating on native lands in various areas of the law including employment law. Katya also practices in the firm’s employment law department, advising, counseling, and defending employers in various employment law matters such as employment discrimination, harassment, retaliation, leaves of absence, wage and hour compliance, and restrictive covenants. Katya graduated from Boston College and the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where she earned a Certificate in Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy. She is licensed to practice law in Arizona, and she is admitted to practice in the Tohono O’odham Court, the Gila River Indian Community Court, the Pueblo of Laguna Court, and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Court. Katya has been selected as a Super Lawyers Rising Star in Labor & Employment Litigation from 2019 to the present and in Best: Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America for Labor and Employment Law – Management, and Native American Law in 2024. From 2023-2024, she served as the Secretary of the Indian Law Section of the State Bar of Arizona and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Community Legal Services.
Kataya Norris
Board Member
is from Farmington, New Mexico and is a citizen of the Navajo Nation. She is a conceptual artist and an attorney specializing in Indigenous law and telecommunications law. In a previous career she was a tennis professional at the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in New Braunfels, Texas and in Zhongshan, China. She holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona, College of Law. She spent a year of law school working on tribal issues in Washington D.C., and has assisted in building multiple community networks in Indigenous communities. Darrah has extensively researched and written about the concept of spectrum sovereignty, the idea that Native Nations have exclusive rights to the electromagnetic spectrum on and over their lands. Darrah spent her summer after law school hiking the Colorado Trail to raise awareness about the digital divide and Indigenous issues. She has worked with numerous non-profit organizations over the years. In her spare time she can be found playing tennis, making art, or playing in the mountains.
Darrah Blackwater
Board Member
