Native judge awaits movement on historic nomination to federal bench
Monday, March 7, 2022
Indianz.Com
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has once again scheduled a meeting to advance the nomination of another Native woman to the federal bench.
Sunshine Suzanne Sykes, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, has been waiting for committee movement for more than a month. Her confirmation hearing took place on February 1, when she spoke of her immense pride in her tribal background.
“I would not be here today without the sacrifices and resilience of so many that came before me,” Sykes said in her opening statement to the committee.
“I come from a long line of strong Mą’ii deeshgiizhinii Navajo women,” she added, using the Navajo language term for her clan.
“The seed that brought me here existed long ago,” Sykes said at the hearing in the nation’s capital. “It was held by my ancestors and nurtured by my great-grandmother, when she raised her family while tending sheep on the Navajo Reservation.”
“It grew in my grandmother as she entered life at Indian boarding schools,” Sykes said in reference to one of the many strong Navajo women in her background. “It sprouted in my mother when, as a little girl, I saw her strength — even when she herself thought she had none — and it flourished in me.”

Senate Committee on the Judiciary Notice
Executive Business Meeting (March 10, 2022)
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Tribal leaders hail historic nomination of Native woman to federal bench (December 17, 2021)President Biden nominates another Native woman to federal bench (December 15, 2021)
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