President Obama Nominated the Very First Native American Woman For Federal Judge

Diane J. Humetewa, a member of the Hopi tribe and former U.S. attorney in Arizona, has been nominated to serve on the U.S. District Court for the district of Arizona as a federal judge. If confirmed, she would be the first active member of a Native American reservation, and first Native American woman to serve as a federal judge. Not only would this bring more diversity to the federal bench, but Arizona’s prominent Native community will finally be represented in a state that is infamous for ignoring Native issues.

This is a big deal because she is a Native woman from the same Arizona that has become a police state through its insistence on criminalizing communities of color, deportations, and via renegade leaders like Sheriff Arpaio. Arizona is swiftly becoming a state known for its extreme racial profiling regarding folks who look “brown.”

In Obama’s first term he nominated Arvo Mikkanen of the Kiowa Tribe, but Republicans blocked the nomination.

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http://www.powwows.com/2014/01/04/icymi-president-obama-nominated-the-very-first-native-american-woman-for-federal-judge/#ixzz2pczwE1TI