SEATTLE — Gabe Galanda, who was raised in Port Angeles and was a driving force behind the Tse-whit-zen village settlement, was honored by Indian Country Today Media Network as one of the 50 Faces of Indian Country.
Along with Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault III and Spokane tribal author Sherman Alexie, Galanda was recognized as one of 50 Native people who epitomize “the day-to-day struggle for Indian Country to regain what was taken and that it’s possible to achieve dreams without sacrificing our strength and beauty,” according to the citation.
In 2011, Galanda worked to have the state Department of Corrections reform its religious practices policies to accommodate traditional Native American worship.
In 2012, Galanda was given a Difference Maker Award by the American Bar Association, and in 2014, the Washington State Bar Association bestowed him the Excellence in Diversity Award for his tribal prisoner religious rights advocacy.
In 2007, he helped the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe settle its lawsuits over the failed Hood Canal Bridge graving yard and the ancestral village of Tse-whit-zen discovered on Marine Drive.
Galanda was born and raised in Port Angeles. In 1995, he received an associate degree from Peninsula College, where he served as Associate Student Body president.
He received a bachelor’s in English literature from Western Washington University in 1997 and his Juris Doctor from the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona in Tucson in 2000. At Arizona, he served as president of the Native American Law Students Association.
He is a founding partner of Galanda Broadman PLLC — which has offices in Seattle, Yakima and Bend, Ore. The office represents tribal governments, businesses and members in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters, especially in matters of Native American treaty rights, tribal sovereignty and taxation.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsula dailynews.com.
