Galanda Broadman Litigation & Tribal Associate Position Announcement

May 18, 2024 Update: This announcement has expired.

Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an Indigenous rights firm with seven lawyers and offices in Seattle and Yakima, Washington, and Bend, Oregon, seeks to add an experienced civil litigation associate who is also interested in practicing tribal law.

Galanda Broadman is an Indigenous owned firm dedicated to advancing tribal and tribal citizen legal rights and tribal business interests.  The firm represents tribal governments, businesses, and citizens in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters, especially in the areas of Treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, land rights, cultural property protection, taxation, commerce, gaming, serious/catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, disenrollment defense, and Indigenous human/civil rights.

The firm seeks a lawyer who are deeply committed to representing Indigenous interests, who is state bar licensed in Washington state or Oregon; and who has civil litigation or a judicial clerk experience.  The lawyer would help bring federal Section 1983 civil rights claims against local governments, federal claims for tribal governments, as well as serve tribal governments as general outside counsel. 

We prefer applicants with at least three years of experience but exceptions can be made for exceptional candidates.  Proven motion and civil rules practice, if not trial, experience, and the ability to self-direct are critical. Impeccable writing and research skills; critical and audacious thinking; strong oral advocacy; tremendous work ethic; tenacity; and sound ethics are required. 

Salary DOE. 

Qualified applicants should submit a cover letter tailored to this announcement, as well as a résumé, writing sample, transcript, and list of at least three educational or professional references, to Alice Hall, the firm’s Office Manager, at alice@galandabroadman.com. 

Applications directed elsewhere will not be considered.

Gabe Galanda: Inter-Tribal Kinship as a "Durable Source of Strength is Under Duress"

Gabe Galanda has published "Durability and Duress: Inter-Tribal Kinship and Indian Gaming Capitalism," at the invitation of the Arizona State University School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. 

An excerpt:

Kinship is an Indigenous cultural tradition. It is also a political practice.

Indigenous societies and nations withstood colonization for centuries by wielding the political power of kinship. Inter-Tribal kinship alliances prevented the total annihilation of Indigenous peoples during the colonial and early American eras and defeated threats to Tribal national existence in modern times. Indigenous peoples leveraged kinship first to withstand genocidal wars and territorial assaults and later, U.S. Congressional and Supreme Court attacks.

Today, Indigenous kinship and its inter-Tribal safety net are under duress. National Tribal political practices and federal policies catalyzed by gaming capitalism weaken historical inter-Tribal kinship alliances and jeopardize Tribal nationhood writ large. Tribal per-capitalism has transmuted certain Indigenous peoples into casino enterprises. While Tribal gaming politicians wield per capita dollars to sustain their political prominence, Tribal members clamor for the individual distribution of those monies instead of Indigenous community reinvestment and revitalization.

These intra-Tribal dynamics create a race to the bottom with Tribal gaming politicians seeking to increase unearned per capita income by building new casinos and related amenities in the ancestral homelands of others. Meanwhile, the Obama and Biden administrations’ laissez faire approach to the generation and use of Tribal gaming dollars contributes to the erosion of Indigenous kinship systems. These forces create inter-Tribal division and weaken time-honored kinship alliances.

Unless inter-Tribal territorial and relational balance are restored, the divisions will only broaden and deepen, rendering Tribal nations ill-prepared to defend or preempt the next existential attack.

Gabe Galanda Shares "Tribal-State Collaboration and Compacting" Lessons with Washington State Legislators

Yesterday, Gabe Galanda presented “Tribal-State Collaboration and Compacting,” to the Washington State House of Representatives State Government and Tribal Relations Committee.

Gabe discussed the history of Indigenous relations in the state of Washington, dating back to the Stevens Treaties in the 1850s and the Fish Wars of the early 1970s and carrying forward to the last half-century of increasing state-tribal consultation and collaboration. 

You can watch his presentation here (beginning around minute 40) and view his slides here.

Galanda Broadman Named "Best Firm" in Native American & Gaming Law for Twelfth Year

Galanda Broadman, PLLC, has been named a “Best Law Firm” by U.S. News - Best Lawyers in the arena of Native American Law and Gaming Law, for the twelfth year in a row. 

According to U.S. News - Best Lawyers, the firm's national ranking was determined through the firm's overall evaluation, which was derived from a combination of Galanda Broadman’s “clients' impressive feedback” and “the high regard that lawyers in other firms in the same practice area have for [the] firm.” 

Galanda Broadman is dedicated to advancing Indigenous legal rights and business interests and defending Indigenous human rights.

The firm, with eight lawyers and offices in Seattle and Yakima, Washington and Bend, Oregon, represents Indigenous governments, businesses, and citizens in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters—especially in matters of Treaty rights, sovereignty, taxation, civil rights, and belonging.

Washington Attorney General Continues His War Against The Yakama Treaty

By Joe Sexton

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is running for governor next year and he is the clear front-runner according to a recent polling.  Ferguson leads the field among self-identified Democratic voter respondents, with 42% of respondents backing Ferguson over second-place contender Hillary Franz who polled at 16%.  What the polls and the media are not highlighting, though, is Ferguson’s long history of hostility towards Tribes and their Treaty rights. 

In fact, Ferguson’s lack of respect for Tribal treaty rights is so regressive that even Trump-appointed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch finds it repellant. 

The most glaring evidence of this is found in Ferguson’s continuing open hostilities against the Treaty rights of the Yakama People, a ceaseless conflict with a Yakama business owner waged over several legal battles.  Ferguson has repeatedly lost each and every battle over the last decade. 

Yet he persists in his crusade. 

In what most reasonable people would consider the final nail in the coffin for Ferguson’s contention that the Yakama Treaty Right to Travel does not pre-empt Washington state’s fuel tax scheme, the U.S. Supreme Court handed Ferguson a loss on the issue in 2019.  That decision came after Ferguson lost in the Washington State Supreme Court in 2017 [1], which followed another loss in Yakima County Superior Court. 

At every adjudicative step from an administrative appeal to the highest courts in this state and the nation, Ferguson and the State Department of Licensing (DOL) were told—over and over again—that the Yakama Treaty pre-empts any state law burden on the Yakama People’s right to travel.  Justice Gorsuch wrote in his concurring 2019 opinion that affirming the 1855 Treaty rights of the Yakama People was the least “we can do”:

Really, this case just tells an old and familiar story. The State of Washington includes millions of acres that the Yakamas ceded to the United States under significant pressure. In return, the government supplied a handful of modest promises. The State is now dissatisfied with the consequences of one of those promises. It is a new day, and now it wants more. But today and to its credit, the Court holds the parties to the terms of their deal. It is the least we can do.

One would think a person with any measure of respect for Tribal Treaty rights would get the message by that point.  Ferguson, unfortunately, has not.  To quote a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion—from another Stevens Treaty rights case Ferguson lost before SCOTUS—he still “has a remarkably one-sided view of the Treaties.”  For whatever reason, he and DOL remain “dissatisfied” with the Treaty of 1855.  They are still trying to find a way to undermine its “modest promises”—four years after losing at the U.S. Supreme Court.  

(Governor Stevens with indigenous leaders, Walla Walla Council, May 1855.

Illustration by Gustav Sohon, Courtesy Washington State Historical Society)

Why Ferguson wants to continue his losing battle is unclear.  What is clear is that the fight involves money.  The fight over this issue started back when Barack Obama was president, with a 2013 state tax assessment for $3.6 million against Cougar Den, Inc., a Yakama-member owned business.  A decade later, in 2023, Ferguson claims the Yakama-owned business owes “$34,979,246.89 (excluding penalties and interest).”  To the surprise of no one except perhaps DOL and Ferguson, the state has been handed another loss. 

Once again back before a state administrative law judge (ALJ), a decision was issued on October 2, 2023, finding Ferguson’s dishonest [2] attempts to circumvent and undermine the Yakama Treaty unpersuasive:

Here, it is not possible for the Respondent to remove fuel from a terminal without traveling or transporting that fuel on public highways. Accordingly, the Respondent has met its burden to establish that, just like the fuel tax at issue in Cougar Den I & II, taxes assessed pursuant to RCW 82.38.030(9)(a) impermissibly burden the Respondent’s treaty-protected Right to Travel.

Money is no excuse to undermine Tribal Treaty rights.  The least Ferguson and DOL can do at this point is finally recognize that they have lost their war against the Yakama People.  But will they now, or ever?  Or are they hoping for yet another battle at the U.S. Supreme Court, now reinforced with a bigger cadre of anti-tribal jurists?

 Joe Sexton is a partner with Galanda Broadman. His practice focuses on complex civil litigation defending indigenous rights and litigating tribal environmental and cultural resources disputes in federal, tribal, state, and administrative forums.  He has litigated indigenous civil rights matters on behalf of individuals and represents tribal governments outside of the courtroom in economic development and natural resources matters.   He has argued before the Washington State Supreme Court, the Washington Court of Appeals, and the United States District Court, and he has represented clients before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.

[1] Galanda Broadman appeared and argued as amicus counsel on behalf of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation before the Washington State Supreme Court. 

[2]The ALJ chose more diplomatic language in its order granting Cougar Den summary judgment:  “The Department’s contention that taxes under RCW 82.38.030(9)(a) attach the moment fuel is removed from the rack, without being tied to travel at all . . . rests entirely upon its misapprehension, and misstatement of the law.” Straining to make their argument fit the law, the state twisted the statute’s language to claim that fuel is taxed when it is “removed at the rack.”  The statute’s language, however, uses language Ferguson’s team omitted from their brief in describing the taxable event: i.e., when fuel is  “removed from the rack.”  As the ALJ found, removing fuel “from the rack” —as the statute prescribes—requires travel.  This omission was certainly purposeful, and used in this case in a cynical effort to continue a fight against the Yakama Treaty that’s never been successful.  

Gabe Galanda Named Among Best Lawyers in America for Seventeenth Straight Year

Gabe Galanda’s peers have named him to Best Lawyers in America for the seventeenth consecutive year.
Gabe is the managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an Indigenous rights law firm headquartered in Seattle. He has also been dubbed a Super Lawyer by his peers from 2013 to 2023.

The American Bar Association named Gabe a Difference Maker in 2012 and recognized him with the Spirit of Excellence Award last year.

The Washington State Bar Association honored him with the Excellence in Diversity Award in 2014. The University Arizona College of Law awarded him the Professional Achievement Award and Western Washington University named him a Distinguished Alumnus, in 2018. Gabe also recently earned the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law 2022-2023 Alumni of the Year Award for his extraordinary accomplishments and continued dedication to the university.

His practice focuses on complex, multi-party litigation and crisis management, representing Indigenous nations, businesses and citizens.Gabe is skilled at defending Indigenous nations and business against legal attack by governmental or private parties, as well advocating for the human rights of Indigenous citizens. He advocates against tribal disenrollment and other Indigenous human rights abuse.  He also assists Indigenous clients with transactions and strategy related to various economic diversification initiatives.

Three Galanda Broadman Indigenous Rights Lawyers Honored by Super Lawyers

Indigenous rights lawyers Gabe Galanda (Round Valley), Anthony Broadman, and Amber Penn-Roco (Chehalis) were once again honored by Super Lawyers magazine for 2023.

Gabe and Anthony were named “Super Lawyers” and Amber a “Rising Star,” all in the field of Native American Law.

With eight lawyers and offices in Seattle and Yakima, Washington and Bend, Oregon, the firm is dedicated to advancing and protecting Indigenous rights.

Kimberly Bender's Law Takes Effect

Today Kimberly Bender’s Law takes effect. As KING-5 news reports:

Senate Bill 5033, known as Kimberly Bender's Law, imposes harsher penalties for sexually abusive jail and prison guards. It goes into effect July 23.

The law would raise the status of second-degree custodial sexual misconduct from a gross misdemeanor to a Class C felony. The second-degree charge applies to cases when a corrections officer or member of law enforcement has sexual contact with a person in their custody. 

"Kimberly Bender's Law" is named after a Quileute woman who died by suicide in her Forks jail cell after reporting her jail guard, John Gray, sexually harassed her.

Gray, the corrections officer at the center of a KING 5 investigation that prompted the legislation, was convicted in 2021 of two felony and two misdemeanor counts of custodial sexual misconduct for sexually assaulting four women who were inmates at the Forks jail in 2019. He served 13 months of his 20-month sentence.

Why is WSHFC Suspending Tenant Home Ownership Opportunity?

WSHFC Director Steve Walker, testifying before Congress about LIHTC, in March 2023.

On June 23, the Washington State Housing Finance Commission (WSHFC) voted to suspend a component of its federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program that facilitates tenant home ownership. 

A WSHFC administrator explained: “we need to get our house in order.”  That is because it appears WSHFC has failed to administer the program for the last two decades.  As a result, the eventual home ownership regime that Congress encouraged in 2001 has fallen short in Washington state, if not failed entirely.

Excerpt of WSHFC June 23, 2023 meeting information.

For example, WSHFC reports that there are at least 12 LIHTC eventual home ownership projects in Washington tribal communities. Those projects involve 369 units whereby Indigenous tenants engage in home buyership (commonly called “rent to own”) over a 15-year period. 

At year 15, they are entitled to have the homes conveyed to them, as Congress intends.  But according to WSHFC, it appears that not a single one of those 369 units has yet to be conveyed an Indigenous homebuyer.  That is because WSHFC failed to regulate the home buyership component of those projects since at least 2010. The agency overlooked it all, for the last thirteen consecutive years.

WSHFC’s highly publicized failure to facilitate the conveyance of seven of those 369 units to Indigenous homebuyers at Nooksack, which are now at year 18 in WSHFC’s LIHTC program, has invited the attention of the United Nations; and, according to the Seattle Times Editorial Board, "brings shame on the . . . state."  It is against this political backdrop that WSHFC made its decision to forgo further LIHTC eventual home ownership opportunity for the foreseeable future. 

But that is the wrong approach.  Given the low income housing crisis facing Washington state, WSHFC should be leaning into federally subsidized tenant home ownership opportunity, not recoiling from it.  

More generally, taxpayers should be asking: what is happening—or, what else is not happening—at WSHFC?

Read the UN's Unprecedented Human Rights Communications to the US, Nooksack Tribe (UPDATED)

UPDATED September 28, 2024

The United Nations has once again intervened in the Nooksack human rights calamity, in unprecedented fashion.

In each of the last three years, United Nations human rights officials have decried human rights violations against over 60 Indigenous persons at Nooksack.

Last Friday, the UN criticized the United States and Nooksack governments for failing to substantively respond to its two prior interventions regarding the violated property rights of seven families, “who self-identify as Indigenous Nooksack, but had been disenrolled from Nooksack tribal membership.” The UN is also expressing concern about “fair trial violations” at Nooksack.

Each UN intervention, one after the next, is unprecedented, both in Geneva and the United States. That is because a great many human rights advocates are highly deferential to Tribal sovereignty and otherwise afraid to criticize Tribal nations for human rights abuse.

The UN’s Tribal Interventions “Never Before Seen”

Prior to 2022, at Nooksack, the UN had never before waded into what federal and tribal officials in the United States blithely call “an internal matter.” As the Seattle Times explained in 2023:

Eric Eberhard, a University of Washington School of Law professor and an expert on Native legal issues, has never before seen U.N. experts wade into “what might be viewed as an internal tribal matter,” as opposed to a disagreement between a tribe and the U.S. Not once, let alone twice, he said.

A few passages from the UN’s 2023 communication to the State Department are incisive, and historic.

The UN explained “that all level of state authorities, national, regional, local, Parish, Tribe, and any other, have to abide by national and internationally recognized human rights law and standards and that the national Government has the duty to oversee that this takes place.”

The UN also “emphasize[d] that States and indigenous authorities share the responsibility for ensuring that processes and decisions by indigenous authorities accord with international human rights, particularly in the context of possible conflicts between the rights and interests of individual indigenous members and the collective rights and interest of an indigenous people or community.” 

In what may prove over time to be a watershed moment in domestic Indigenous human rights protection vis-a-vis Tribal nations, the UN proclaimed: “indigenous institutions and justice systems have an obligation to comply with international human rights standards.”

Also prior to 2022, the UN had never before intervened with a Tribal nation that had violated internationally recognized human rights laws.

In its 2023 communication to the Nooksack Tribe, the UN “emphasize[d] that the UNDRIP protects both individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples and that it needs to be interpreted as complementing - and not acting contrary - to the principles of justice, democracy, respect for human rights, equality and non-discrimination, good governance and good faith.”

The UN’s interventions at Nooksack are believed to represent Geneva’s first application of the UNDRIP’s individual rights provisions to Tribal nations, which generally stand above reproach in civil and human rights communities.

In 2021, U.S. Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland testified before the UN, proclaiming: “I strongly affirm the United States’ support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and our commitment to advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights at home and abroad.”

It appears, however, that the Biden administration’s stated commitment to Indigenous Peoples’ rights is just words.

Gabe Galanda is an Indigenous rights attorney and the managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman. He has been named to Best Lawyers in America in the fields of Native American Law and Gaming Law from 2007 to 2024, and dubbed a Super Lawyer by his peers from 2013 to 2024. Below are all of the communications between the UN, State Department, and Nooksack Tribe since 2022.

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2-1-22 UN OHRC Communication to US State Department

2-24-22 US State Department Communication to UN OHRC

3-31-23 UN OHCR Communication to Nooksack Tribe

3-31-23-UN OHRC Communication to US State Department

6-1-23 US State Department Communication to UN OHRC

6-6-23 Nooksack Tribe Communication to UN OHRC

9-27-24 UN OHCR Impact of the Work of Special Procedures - Policy Reform - Nooksack