By Micah Friez
Published 10:31 am on May 16, 2025
When Robert “Bob” Anderson reached the Commencement stage last week — honored as Bemidji State University’s 42nd Distinguished Minnesotan — it was a full-circle moment of sorts.
Because, for all that he had accomplished professionally (and the list is long), the 1980 alumnus had never attended a BSU graduation ceremony.
“I just had my diploma mailed to me. I didn’t participate in my own graduation ceremony,” said Anderson, who finished his degree after the winter quarter and didn’t make it back for the springtime program. “But this is my first graduation. And I’m very excited about it.”
Anderson addressed the Class of 2025 during a pair of May 9 Commencement ceremonies, encouraging them to appreciate their own journeys — even if that doesn’t include hitchhiking along Highway 2 like it did for Anderson back in the day.
“The fact that I had gotten a high-quality education here at Bemidji State stuck with me through all of my nights in law school,” the Ely native said in his speech. “Through my early career as a lawyer, when I was writing briefs late into the night, when I was in meetings on Indian issues and I was the only Native in the room and my voice felt very lonely.
“But that belief in my education and the fact that I had done the work here to lay a strong foundation stayed with me in boardrooms, classrooms and later when I was asked to help shape national policy at the Department of the Interior.”
First presented by Bemidji State University in 1981, the Distinguished Minnesotan Award acknowledges the contributions of current or former residents of the state who have performed exemplary service to the people of Minnesota or the United States. The Distinguished Minnesotan traditionally delivers BSU’s Commencement address.
A full career spanning the country
As a fledgling lawyer just out of law school, Anderson was working for a nonprofit law firm in Colorado called the Native American Rights Fund. When they opened up an Alaska office, Anderson made the move, and his experiences in the Last Frontier have shaped his career trajectory since.
In 1985, an Alaska Native advocate named Katie John took up a case against the Alaska State Board of Fisheries, arguing that she and her people had a right to subsistence fishing, just as her ancestors had.
Anderson’s office was there to fight on John’s behalf, and they ultimately succeeded. “The Katie John Case” is known statewide and was a landmark victory for Native Alaskans because it changed how fisheries were managed, especially as they related to local tribes.
The Katie John Case has faced multiple appeals since — even occasionally crossing paths with Anderson — but the ruling has been upheld. Anderson credits that case for the decades of success that have followed him.
“That case has been my life’s work,” he said. “That’s the case that really made my name for me. It resulted in me getting, I think, every job I've had since then because of that work I did.”
Anderson’s resume also includes professor emeritus status at the University of Washington School of Law, where he taught courses in American Indian law, public lands, water and property. He also served for more than a decade as the Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and he will return to Harvard in January 2026.
But most significantly, Anderson was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as Solicitor of the Department of the Interior in 2021, a position he held until January 2025. In that Senate-confirmed role, Anderson served as the department’s chief legal officer and oversaw a team of more than 450 lawyers.
“I thought that it would be great to have me, a tribal member from Minnesota, be the head lawyer for the Secretary of the Interior,” Anderson said. “I got nominated by President Biden, and it was four years of the greatest job I’ve had in my life.”
‘The foundation for everything’
Anderson’s love for the classroom comes from his quarter century of teaching at Washington and Harvard. He even appreciates reconnecting with former law students, saying that sometimes they’re working for him, beside him or even against him.
And all that opportunity, he said, started on the shores of Lake Bemidji.
“It was just such an impactful event in my life to come here to college,” Anderson said. “Bemidji State is especially important to me and really the foundation for everything. Every success that I’ve had is rooted in what I learned here, both substantively and just in how to work hard.”
As a member of the Bois Forte Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Anderson particularly appreciates BSU’s investment in and opportunities for American Indian students. He also lauded the cost-efficient, high-quality education that graduates walk away with.
But on that Commencement stage — a platform he had never experienced before — he saw much of himself in the grads looking back at him. Because even if they don’t realize it yet, the potential that was always inside of Anderson is inside of them, too.
“It really means a lot to me to come back here and to be honored, because I didn’t really think of myself as much of anything when I was at BSU except going through the process,” Anderson said. “I learned a lot and I liked my classes and my professors, but to come back and get this honor is really huge. I’m so proud of BSU and the students that are here.”
