WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Biden announced his intent to nominate Sara Hill (Cherokee) to serve as a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Hill is President Biden’s fourth Native American judicial nominee, and if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, would be the first American Indian or Alaska Native woman to serve as a federal judge in Oklahoma, and the seventh actively serving as a federal district court judge in the U.S.
Hill served as Attorney General of the Cherokee Nation from 2019 to 2023. She is currently a lawyer in private practice. Hill previously served the Cherokee Nation as Secretary of Natural Resources from 2015 to 2019, Deputy Attorney General from 2014 to 2015, and an Assistant Attorney General from 2004 to 2014. From 2014 to 2015, she served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma. She has litigated at all levels of state and federal court on a diverse range of issues including the Nation’s treaty rights and the preservation of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
“NCAI strongly supports President Biden’s nomination of Sara Hill, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, to be the first-ever Native American woman to sit on the federal bench in the State of Oklahoma,” said NCAI Executive Director Larry Wright, Jr. “Sara Hill will bring unparalleled experience in law and policy to our justice system. NCAI urges the swift confirmation of Ms. Hill as the nomination moves before the U.S. Senate.”
“Sara Hill has a strong history of public service and possesses excellent qualifications to be a federal judge,” said John Echohawk, Native American Rights Fund Executive Director. “We applaud the Biden administration’s selection of this historic nominee and urge her confirmation. She will be a strong addition to the federal judiciary in Oklahoma.”
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) have long advocated for increasing Native representation in the federal court system.