Ethan is a federal Indian law attorney whose practice focuses on advocating for Tribal sovereignty through litigation, contract negotiation, and legislative support. Ethan has litigated in federal, tribal, state, administrative, and alternative dispute resolution forums. He has experience with Treaty rights, gaming, economic development, cultural and natural resources, land use, environmental protection, water rights, construction, taxation, and federal contracting, as well as forestry and wildfire, hunting and wildlife, and fishing and fisheries management.
Before joining Galanda Broadman, Ethan worked in-house as lead attorney for a tribal government. He has served in leadership roles for the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, Washington State Courts Board for Judicial Administration, Washington State Bar Association Indian Law Section, and the Yakima County Bar Association.
Ethan lives in Yakima with his family, and enjoys baseball, hockey, cycling, and barbecue.
Selected Cases
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation v. City of Toppenish, No. 1:24-cv-03189 (E.D. Wash. 2024)
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, et al. v. United States, No. 1:21-cv-01527 (Fed. Cl. 2024)
Spencer v. Saluskin, et al., No. 2:23-cv-00283 (E.D. Wash. 2024)
In the matter of Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Proposed Power and Transmission Rate Proceeding, No. BP-24 (Bonneville Power Admin. 2023)
Tahmalwash v. Lewis, et al., No. 1:23-cv-03022 (E.D. Wash. 2023)
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation v. Klickitat County, et al., 1 F.4th 673 (9th Cir. 2021), cert. denied, 2022 U.S. LEXIS 1933 (2022)
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation v. Orth, et al., No. 1:22-cv-03127 (E.D. Wash. 2022)
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation v. Yakima County, et al., 195 Wn.2d 831 (Wash. 2020)
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation v. State of Washington Dep’t of Ecology, et al., No. 20-071 (Pollution Control Hearings Bd. 2020)
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, et al. v. United States, No. 1:19-cv-01966 (Fed. Cl. 2019)
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation v. Yakima County, et al., No. 19-35199 (9th Cir. 2019)
Wash. State Dep't of Licensing v. Cougar Den, 139 S. Ct. 1000 (2019) (appearing as amicus curiae)
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation v. Klickitat County, et al., No. 1:18-cv-03110 (E.D. Wash. 2018)
Representative Client Successes
Won a temporary injunction to allow a tribal shelter to continue providing services to unhoused tribal members during extreme weather conditions. (2024)
Provided transactional support for a tribal government’s newly acquired commercial farming enterprise. (2021-2024)
Negotiated a favorable settlement to protect cultural resources threatened by mineral resource extraction. (2024)
Asserted tribal sovereign immunity to defend a tribal government against multiple frivolous lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages. (2023, 2024)
Provided transactional services to a tribal casino, including contracts related to machines, marketing, entertainment, food & beverage, insurance, banking, cash services, audits, terminal allocation transfers, etc. (2020-2024)
Secured a tribal government’s right to seek money damages from the United States for mismanaging tribal timber resources, and for failing to adequately suppress a wildfire within a tribal forest. (2021, 2024)
Assisted a tribal government to fight the proposed development of a gaming facility within their Treaty-established territory. (2019-2024)
Helped fight proposed wind power, solar power, and pumped storage projects that threatened tribal traditional cultural properties and Treaty-protected resources. (2020, 2023-2024)
Negotiated architecture and construction contracts for the development of significant tribal government infrastructure improvements. (2020-2024)
Defended Indian hunters exercising their Treaty-reserved hunting rights on open and unclaimed lands outside Indian Country. (2022, 2023)
Obtained a federal district court order affirming reservation boundaries, successfully argued to defend the decision before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and defeated a resulting petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. (2022)
Negotiated amendments to a state-tribal gaming compact, and revised a tribal gaming ordinance. (2022)
Successfully argued before the Washington State Supreme Court concerning the protection of tribal cultural resources on non-Indian private lands outside Indian Country. (2020)
Obtained a permanent injunction in federal district court preventing state regulation of tribal member-owned firework stands operating on off-reservation trust allotments. (2018)
Helped a tribal government reinstitute and regulate Treaty bison hunting outside Yellowstone National Park. (2017)
Secured a multi-million dollar settlement arising from the United States’ failure to pay contract support costs for a tribal government’s federal self-determination contracts. (2017)
Engaged in multi-party mediation on a long-term fisheries management plan to protect Treaty-reserved fisheries and a tribe’s continued right to access their full share of that fishery. (2017)
Successfully opposed the development of a water bottling facility that would have depleted tribal water resources. (2016)
Professional Experience
2025–Present Galanda Broadman, Of Counsel
2018–2025 Conf. Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Lead Attorney
2013–2018 Conf. Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Staff Attorney
Education
University of Washington School of Law, JD
University of Washington Foster School of Business, BA Business Admin
University of Washington, BA History with College Honors
Bar Admissions
Washington State
United States Supreme Court
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington
United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
United States Court of Federal Claims
Yakama Nation Tribal Court
Volunteer Work
Lawyer Representative for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, 2021–2024
Executive Board Member, Indian Law Section, Washington State Bar Association, 2021–2024
Yakima County Bar Association
President, 2023–2024
Vice-President, 2022–2023
Secretary, 2021–2022
Committee Member, Appellate Courts Committee, Washington State Courts Board for Judicial Administration, 2020–2021
Publications
Yakama Nation v. Klickitat County: Reservation Boundaries and Public Law 83-280 Jurisdiction, 2020
Diminishing Returns, UW Law Discovery Podcast, April 19, 2021
Recent Presentations
Speaker, Cultural Resources Protection on Private Lands in Washington State, University of Washington Indian Law Symposium, 2024
Speaker, Meaningful Government Consultation with Native Nations, WSBA Government Lawyers Bar Association, 2022
Speaker, Pro Bono Work to Empower Act CLE, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, 2022
Speaker, Intersections of Federal Indian Law: Case Updates & Practical Tips, 15th Annual Federal Civil Trial Practice Seminar, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, 2021
Speaker, Why Federal Indian Law Matters To Your Practice, Yakima County Bar Association CLE Series, 2021
Speaker, Yakama Reservation Diminishment Litigation Through The Lens of McGirt v. Oklahoma, University of Washington Indian Law Symposium, 2021
Speaker, Indian Lands and Litigation, Federal Bar Association D.C. Indian Law Conference, 2019
Speaker, Taxation in Indian Country, Univ. of Kansas Tribal Sovereignty Symposium, 2019
Speaker, Doctrine of Discovery, Standing Rock Sioux Doctrine of Discovery Conference, 2019
Speaker, Reservation Diminishment in Yakama Nation v. Klickitat County, WSBA Indian Law CLE, 2019
