Date: September 1, 2022
Time: 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Topic: Peacemaking Circles
Join us today (September 1st) on Facebook for a special Elders Talking Circle with Cheryl Demmert Fairbanks who will share information on peacemaking circles.
Peacemaking is a process where people can talk together to resolve conflict. It is a community-based process that addresses the concerns of all interested parties. While it has been adapted to other circumstances, in Indigenous communities the process uses traditional values and sometimes ceremonial practices.
The talking circle will be led by Elders Program Coordinator Ann Stepetin and held as a Facebook Live event on Tlingit & Haida’s
Facebook page. The event will also be recorded and posted to Tlingit & Haida’s
YouTube channel.
About Our Guest Speaker:
Cheryl Demmert Fairbanks, Esq. works in the area of Indian law as an attorney and tribal court of appeals justice. She is a peacemaker and owner of Sovereignty 360 and also serves as an Associate Justice for Tlingit & Haida’s Tribal Court.
Formerly a partner at Cuddy McCarthy, LLP, she had a general practice in Indian law, including tribal-state relations, personnel, tribal courts, peacemaking and family conferencing, mediation, family, school, education, and indigenous law.
She previously served as Co-Executive Director and Senior Policy Advisor to the University of New Mexico Native American Budget and Policy Institute and also as a partner with the law firm of Roth, VanAmberg, Rogers, Ortiz, Fairbanks & Yepa, LLP where she specialized in Indian law. She also worked as Senior Policy Analyst with the New Mexico Office of Indian Affairs in the area of state-tribal relations where she was instrumental in establishing the Indian Child Welfare Desk, 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.
Cheryl recently served as the Walter R. Echo-Hawk Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark in Oregon and also as a visiting Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico’s Southwest Indian Law Clinic.
Cheryl is Tlingit and Tsimshian and was born in Ketchikan, Alaska and grew up on Prince of Wales Island. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts from Fort Lewis College in 1969 and her Juris Doctorate in 1987 from the University of New Mexico. Prior to her law career, she served as a teacher for the Albuquerque Public Schools, Zia Day School, and administrator for Acomita Day School and the Albuquerque/Santa Fe Indian Schools.
