EagleWoman was the Dean of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada from 2016 until she stepped down in June 2018, alleging issues of systemic racism leading to constructive dismissal.

During her childhood years in Kansas, she was raised mostly in a single-parent household by her mother; her family, including a brother, faced poverty conditions.

Her grandmother, Ramona (DeCoteau) Washington and her father, Stephen L. Jackson Sr., both attended mandatory government boarding schools in South Dakota.

When she was 15 years old, she received her woman's name in the Dakota language of Wambdi Awanwicake Was'teWinyan in a family ceremony on her reservation.

[4] As a young woman, she was mentored by Roger Jourdain, former Chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, and a strong sovereignty advocate for Indigenous nations.