Sara E. Hill is a Cherokee and American attorney who served as the attorney general of the Cherokee Nation from August 2019 to August 2023 and as the tribe's secretary of natural resources between October 2015 and August 2019. She is the nominee to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
Education
Hill graduated from Northeastern State University with a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude in 2000 and with a Juris Doctor from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 2003.
Career
From 2004 to 2015, Hill served as an deputy attorney general for the Cherokee Nation. In December 2014, she was sworn in as a tribal special assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Oklahoma's U.S. attorney's office, a position she held concurrently as deputy attorney general. On October 12, 2015, Hill was appointed the Cherokee Nation's first secretary of natural resources by principal chief Bill John Baker and she served in that position until August 29, 2019. She was succeeded by Chad Harsha.
Cherokee Nation attorney general
On August 29, 2019, Hill was appointed as the attorney general of the Cherokee Nation by newly elected principal chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.. During her tenure as attorney general the United States Supreme Court issued the landmark McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020) decision which held the Muscogee Nation reservation was never disestablished. On March 11, 2021, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in Hogner v. Oklahoma that the Cherokee Nation reservation had also never been disestablished. Hill led the Cherokee Nation's effort to build up its criminal justice system after the Hogner ruling and the Nation's defense of the Indian Child Welfare Act during the Haaland v. Brackeen (2023) litigation. In the year following the ruling, the Cherokee Nation attorney general's office went from prosecuting around 300 criminal cases to over 3,000 criminal cases. Also during her tenure, the Cherokee Nation attorney general's office successfully sought the official striking of "by blood" language from Cherokee law by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court. Hill criticized the 2022 Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta ruling saying "It really didn’t honor the foundations of federal Indian law. It overlooked and ignored the history of the tribes." In August 2023, she resigned to enter private practice and was succeeded by Chad Harsha.
Nomination to district court
On October 18, 2023, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Hill to fill a vacancy on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Her nomination was endorsed by Senators James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin. The nomination was praised by Cherokee Nation principal chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. for bringing diversity and expertise on Indian country to the federal judiciary. The National Congress of American Indians, Native American Rights Fund, and Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes also supported her nomination. The nomination was criticized by Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt. On October 24, 2023, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Hill to the seat vacated by Judge Claire Eagan, who assumed senior status on October 1, 2022. Her nomination is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If confirmed, she will be the first female Native American federal judge in Oklahoma history.
References
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers Cherokee Nation lawyers Cherokee Nation politicians Northeastern State University alumni University of Tulsa College of Law alumni