Gabe Galanda has been honored with the Excellence in Diversity Award by the Washington State Bar Association. He will be given the award at the WSBA's annual awards dinner in downtown Seattle on September 18, 2014.
Gabe is an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of California. He currently sits on the National Native American Bar Association Board of Directors, and is a past President of the Northwest Indian Bar Association and past Chair of the Washington State Bar Association Indian Law Section.
He is being primarily honored for his work associated with Huy, a non-profit that provides economic, educational, rehabilitative and religious support for American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and other indigenous prisoners in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the United States.
In 2012, Gabe founded Huy--pronounced "Hoyt" in the Coast Salish Indian Lushootseed language, to mean "see you again/we never say goodbye." He serves as the Chairman of Huy's Board of Advisors, and runs the non-profit through his law office.
Huy's most notable recent activities include two amicus curiae efforts before the U.S. Supreme Court, and advocacy before the United Nations and its Human Rights Committee, on behalf of American indigenous prisoners vis-a-vis their fundamental human rights to engage in traditional tribal religious worship.
Gabe is the Managing Partner of Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an American Indian-owned law firm dedicated to advancing and defending Indian rights. The firm has offices in Seattle, Washington and Bend, Oregon.
