A School of Their Own
A tenacious lawyer and his Navajo clients’ fight for Indian self-determination, from remote New Mexico to the Supreme Court
By Michael P. Gross
Publication Year: 2026
As an Ivy League student in the 1960s, Michael Gross’s optimistic perception of America was shattered. When appalling social inequality became immediate for him – first in the Deep South and later, in Navajo Nation – it struck a nerve.
In his first case as a cub lawyer at a War-on-Poverty legal services office in Window Rock, Arizona in 1968, Gross was assigned to file a lawsuit to reopen a high school in Ramah, New Mexico. He would spend the next fifty years helping tribes achieve self-determination, a dream they chased through centuries of betrayal by the U.S. government.
This is the story of the son of a Holocaust survivor who forged an unlikely alliance with his Native clients: to educate their children, preserve their culture, and adapt to political and economic realities on their own terms.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Alfred D. Mathewson 1
Introduction by Kevin Washburn 5
My Lucky Break 17
My Story 21
How the Junior Year Abroad Derailed My Plans 31
Summer at Tougaloo 37
Andrea Hughes 47
Arrival and First Assignment 53
Annie Wauneka: Matriarch V. Patriarch 57
On Coercive Assimilation 65
My Accidental Career in Indian Law 77
Rough Rock Demonstration School:
An Interview with Anita Pfeiffer 85
Background on Ramah 95
Navajos as Pawns 103
The Job of a Lawyer 109
An Unexpected Gift 115
Our Second Trip to Washington 127
Tł’ohchiní (Little Onion Grass) 129
Go-Getters: Conversations with Bessie Randolph and
Beverly Coho 139
The Dedication of the New Ramah Navajo High School 157
Speaking from Experience:
An Interview with Mary Cohoe 161
Founding the Coalition of Indian-Controlled School Boards 175
A Front Runner in Indian-Led Education:
An Interview with Betty Gress 183
The Omaha, Blackbird Bend and Reuben Snake’s
Crossing-the-Delaware Tale 195
The Most Isolated Chapter:
An Interview with John Loehr 203
East of LA and a Universe Away:
An Interview with John Amarant 227
The Two U.S. Supreme Court Cases:
An Interview with C. Bryant Rogers 239
Navajo Code Talkers:
A Journey through Culture and War 259
Epilogue 269
My Visit to the National Civil Rights Museum 269
Acknowledgments 275
About the Author 277
Michael P. Gross | About the Author
Michael P. Gross spent more than five decades as an attorney collaborating with Native Americans to find a path to self-determination. He began his career by representing a small Navajo community in Ramah, New Mexico to re-open their school, which had been closed against their will. Later, Gross won two major cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, the second on behalf of every tribe in the U.S. His persistence in achieving justice for Native Americans continues to protect their cultural heritage and basic human rights.
Praise for A School of Their Own:
“A School of Their Own is a vivid and important account of Mike Gross’s remarkable half-century mission fighting for Navajo legal rights, especially the right to control their own schools. The book is full of fascinating and poignant stories, unforgettable portraits, and historic legal victories overcoming the dark legacy of boarding schools and forced assimilation. Anyone interested in the history of the Navajo Nation and its struggle for self-determination should read this extraordinary memoir.”
— Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author and journalist
“This is a must-read for anyone curious about how the national tragedy of Native American boarding schools and forced assimilation came to a screeching halt, thanks to the people who ushered in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.”
— Bobbie Greene Kilberg, former White House Fellow; CEO and President Emeritus and Strategic Advisor, Northern Virginia Technology Council
“Finding himself in the hotbed of the Civil Rights Movement in 1966, Gross hoped to practice poverty law. But his first case to reopen a high school in a remote Navajo community convinced him to advocate for equally underserved American citizens. It was a journey that lasted more than five decades. “
— John Echohawk (Pawnee), Attorney and Co-Founder, Native American Rights Fund