Gabe Galanda is shown in the January 11, 2011 episode of the tribal television show Tulalip Matters in reference to the movement to restore the religious freedoms of Native inmates incarcerated by the Washington State Department of Corrections. Gabe explained that movement in a September Indian Country Today column that was reprinted by indianz.com. The tribal television episode also features Galanda Broadman's pro bono client, Whaa ka dup.
In April, shortly after I started a new law firm, a local reservation attorney asked me if I would take on the pro bono cause of an Indian chaplain whose contract was terminated by the Washington Department of Corrections for bringing tobacco into Monroe on Easter Sunday, for the Native inmates’ spring ceremony. Now free to take on whatever cases we see fit, my small firm quickly agreed. I soon met the chaplain, Whaa ka dup, a Tulalip Indian whose Anglo name is Robert Monger. He had done time, but is now clean, sober, deeply spiritual, traditionally religious, and committed to helping his relations in “the Iron House” find the Good Red Road. Whaa ka dup – whose persona is tough, blunt and no non-sense – immediately inspired me.
Gabriel "Gabe" Galanda is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC, of Seattle, an American Indian majority-owned law firm. He is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Covelo, California. He can be reached at 206.691.3631 or gabe@galandabroadman.com, or via galandabroadman.com.
