Answering the Call

Helping others is baked into Gabrielle Cirelli’s DNA. Her great-great-grandfather once led her tribe, the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, California. Her parents relentlessly instilled the value of giving back. She has volunteered at food banks and soup kitchens since middle school, and holds multiple leadership roles in Berkeley Law’s public interest arena.

A Berkeley Law 3L, Cirelli has also moved her tribe forward since 2020 through a uniquely rewarding endeavor: helping to rewrite its constitution. She is the youngest of the tribe’s five Constitutional Review Committee members, and the only law student.

“Throughout my childhood, my family would often visit our ancestral homeland of Upper Lake to attend tribal meetings, community events, and family gatherings,” she says. “I was always inspired hearing about how our tribe achieved federal recognition, growth, and prosperity, and how my family’s continued involvement helped the tribe reach new heights.”

After graduating from UCLA and returning to the Bay Area, Cirelli wanted to volunteer for her tribe — but didn’t know how best to do it.

“I was interested in the legal field but didn’t think I could help in that capacity,” she says. “But after speaking with family members and one of the tribe’s attorneys, I decided to join the Constitutional Review Committee.”

Cirelli, who co-chairs Berkeley’s Native American Law Students Association chapter, notes the importance of updating constitutional clauses to align with societal advancements and the tribe’s growth. Her committee solicits feedback from tribal members, consults with attorneys, drafts revisions, explains proposed changes in presentations, meetings, emails, and letters, and reviews other recently updated tribal constitutions to see what different tribes have done.

“The most pressing issue now is vacancy language,” Cirelli says. “Our constitution lists a very short and outdated process for when an Executive Council member can no longer serve the tribe and must step down before their term ends. The current process doesn’t give a timeline or determine when holding a special election should occur, doesn’t set the qualifications an interim appointee must have, and doesn’t protect the tribe’s interest when a member must step down.”

An associate at Goodwin Procter last summer, Cirelli says completing the constitution will likely take a few more years — and that she’s in it for the long haul.

“Incorporating feedback from our tribal members of different generations, balancing different views, working with attorneys, and ensuring the constitution can support the tribe in the years to come is no small task,” she says. “Despite the challenges, I view working with the committee as my way of ensuring the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake will continue to exist and to prosper for future generations. It’s also my small way of honoring all my relatives who have supported and continue to support our tribe, and ensuring that their legacy and hard work continues.” — Andrew Cohen