Political Quotes

“it is an honor to recognize the lifetime of service and historic contributions of Navajo Nation Supreme Court Justice Lorene B. Ferguson, who died on March 1, 2021, with her daughters at her bedside, from complications of COVID-19. Justice Ferguson was the first woman justice on the Navajo Nation Supreme Court. In 2001, she was nominated to serve as Associate Justice by President Kelsey Begaye and was confirmed by the Navajo Nation Council. She served as an Associate Justice on the Navajo Nation Supreme Court until 2007, including as Acting Chief Justice from 2004 to 2005. Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Ferguson served as a Navajo circuit judge in the Kayenta District Court and as a Navajo Tribal Court judge in the Shiprock, To'hajiilee, Ramah, and Alamo Courts. She also served for 8 years as a staff attorney at the Navajo Nation Department of Justice, where she drafted the first Navajo Election Code and Navajo scholarship policy for the Department of Education. Justice Ferguson was born in the Sawmill, Ni'ii Ji'ih, Chapter of the Navajo Nation in the Fort Defiance Agency in Arizona. She graduated from Fort Lewis College in 1965. She worked in community development, welfare rights, and Native American education as a Head Start teacher and Indian education training technician. She began her legal career after graduating from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1983.…”