Arizona U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa has a long and storied career serving her state. She became the first Native American woman selected to the federal bench a decade ago, but before then she spent a decade in Arizona’s U.S. Attorneys office as a victim advocate, tribal liaison, senior litigator and then eventually the first Native American woman to serve as the top federal prosecutor.
As an enrolled member of the Hopi Nation, she has also served her tribe, and is an expert on Native American legal issues. She worked a stint as deputy counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and for five years, she served as a judge on the Hopi Tribal Appellate Court. She became a federal judge in 2014, after her nomination by President Barack Obama.
During the course of her 30-plus years in public service, Judge Humetewa has seen many changes in the Arizona legal scene. Her docket has exploded during her decade on the bench, and she's testified before Congress about her court's high caseload. But she's also seen progress in Native American representation in the legal community and in communication between federal judges-and-lawyers and tribal governments.
We asked Judge Humetewa about these shifts in the Arizona legal scene and her various experiences on the benches of the Hopi Appellate court, the U.S. District Court, and the Ninth Circuit.

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