Cheryl (Tlingit-Tsimshian) works in the area of Indian law as an attorney, peacemaker, and tribal court of appeals justice. A former Soros Fellow, she recently founded Sovereignty 360, a peacemaking entity.
She currently serves as a Peacemaker and a Justice for the Tlingit and Haida Supreme Court and the Inter-Tribal Court of Appeals of Nevada. She is a member of the Tribal and Native Relations Committee for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
She was the Interim Co- Director for the UNM Native American Budget and Policy Institute, visiting Professor of Law at the UNM Southwest Indian Law Clinic and the Walter R. Echo-Hawk Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark School of Law. Ms. Fairbanks was a partner with the law firms of Roth, VanAmberg, Rogers, Ortiz, Fairbanks & Yepa, LLP, and Cuddy McCarthy LLP, specializing in Indian and Indigenous law.
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. She also worked as senior policy analyst with the New Mexico Office of Indian Affairs in the area of state-tribal relations. There, 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.
Ms. Fairbanks is Tlingit-Tsimshian and was born in Ketchikan, Alaska. She obtained her BA from Fort Lewis College in 1969 and her JD in 1987 from the University of New Mexico.
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