Cheryl Fairbanks 

TLINGIT–TSIMSHIAN ELDER & JUSTICE ADVOCATE

Cheryl Demmert Fairbanks, Esq., is Tlingit-Tsimpshian and was born in Ketchikan, Alaska. She is an accomplished attorney, justice, educator, and policy leader whose career has been devoted to Indian law and Indigenous rights. Currently, she serves as the Interim Co-Director for the University of New Mexico’s Native American Budget and Policy Institute. She has also served as a Tribal Court of Appeals Justice and as the Walter R. Echo-Hawk Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark. In addition, she has been a visiting Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico’s Southwest Indian Law Clinic, where she shared her expertise with the next generation of Indigenous lawyers and leaders. 

Ms. Fairbanks has held many roles throughout her career, including Senior Policy Analyst with the New Mexico Office of Indian Affairs, where she was instrumental in establishing the Indian Child Welfare Desk, the New Mexico Office of Indian Tourism, the University of New Mexico Indian Law Clinic, and the passage of the New Mexico Indian Arts and Crafts Act. Her private practice has spanned work with several respected law firms, including Cuddy McCarthy LLP and Roth, VanAmberg, Rogers, Ortiz, Fairbanks & Yepa, LLP, specializing in tribal-state relations, peacemaking, tribal courts, mediation, family law, and Indigenous law. 

Before her law career, Ms. Fairbanks dedicated herself to education, teaching at the Albuquerque Public Schools, Zia Day School, and serving as an administrator at Acomita Day School and the Albuquerque/Santa Fe Indian Schools. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Fort Lewis College (1969) and a Juris Doctorate from the University of New Mexico (1987). Throughout her life’s work, she has combined her dedication to justice, education, and policy with a deep commitment to uplifting Indigenous communities and strengthening tribal sovereignty.