Arvo Quoetone Mikkanen was born on April 1961 and is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma and a former federal judicial nominee for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
22 Facts About Arvo Mikkanen
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Arvo Mikkanen has been a judicial law clerk, civil practitioner, judge, tribal prosecutor, law professor, and federal criminal prosecutor during his legal career which began in 1986.
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Arvo Mikkanen is an enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, a federally recognized Indian tribe, and is of Comanche and Finnish descent.
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Arvo Mikkanen received the William S Churchill prize as the outstanding freshman at Dartmouth College for the Class of 1983 and received the Morrell Goldberg Prize for academic service several years later.
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Arvo Mikkanen was the recipient of the Gold United States Congressional Award from the US Congress in 1985.
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Arvo Mikkanen received a JD from Yale Law School in 1986, and was the Class Marshal for the Class of 1986 at the Yale Law School and while at Yale received the Beinecke Award in 1986.
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Arvo Mikkanen is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association, having resided in Norman, Oklahoma since 1988.
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Arvo Mikkanen served as a judge of the Court of Indian Offenses for the Anadarko Area Tribes from 1988 to 1994, a federally administered tribal court which is part of the United States Department of the Interior.
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Arvo Mikkanen served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes from 1991 to 1994.
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Arvo Mikkanen published numerous opinions during his period of service as a judge.
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Arvo Mikkanen received the Oklahoma Bar Association's Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award in 1992, and the Equal Access to Justice - Pro Bono Publico Award from Oklahoma Indian Legal Services in 1992.
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Arvo Mikkanen was the recipient of the American Bar Association's Spirit of Excellence Award in 2004 and received the Sonja Atetewuthtakewa Award for Distinguished Service in the Protection of Native American Children in 2003.
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Arvo Mikkanen served as an adjunct professor of law at the Oklahoma City University School of Law from 1988 to 2000.
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In 2012 Arvo Mikkanen received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service in Indian Country during the 60th Annual Attorney General's Awards Ceremony which recognizes both department employees and others for their outstanding dedication to carrying out the US Department of Justice's missions.
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Arvo Mikkanen received the award in recognition of his exceptional and long-standing efforts to enhance law enforcement response to crime.
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Arvo Mikkanen has been an instructor for the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Criminal Justice in Indian Country Training over twenty times and instructed on this topic as part of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol's Police Academy repeatedly.
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Arvo Mikkanen served as the president of the Oklahoma Indian Bar Association for over 30 years.
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Arvo Mikkanen was a federal judicial nominee for more than 10 months in 2011, but his nomination immediately encountered opposition from Oklahoma's congressional delegation.
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Arvo Mikkanen was recommended for the judgeship on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma by Democratic Governor Brad Henry.
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Arvo Mikkanen's nomination was immediately met with opposition from members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation, with Republican Senators Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn and Democratic Representative Dan Boren expressing disappointment that they were not consulted on the nomination.
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Public opposition to Arvo Mikkanen's nomination has centered around procedural grounds rather than substantive issues about Arvo Mikkanen himself.
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Arvo Mikkanen's nomination was returned to the President on December 17,2011, pursuant to the rules of the Senate, and Obama did not renominate Mikkanen to the judgeship.