Governor Napolitano announced the appointment of Marnie Hodahkwen as her policy adviser for tribal affairs at a meeting July 23 of tribal leaders at the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona.

“When I was inaugurated as governor, I spoke of a diverse group of people forming one Arizona, and whose fates and futures are tied together,” Ms. Napolitano said. “In that spirit, I have always pursued constructive intergovernmental relationships between the state and its Native American tribes. Marnie Hodahkwen is the person to continue that spirit in my office.”

Ms. Hodahkwen came to the Governor’s Office from the law firm Quarles & Brady, Streich, Lang, where she worked on tribal legal issues as an associate for two years. She has previous experience working for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa and Gila River Indian communities.

Ms. Hodahkwen earned a bachelor’s degree in general business administration and a law degree, with an Indian law certificate, from Arizona State University. As a law student at ASU, she received several awards and commendations and served as the vice president of the Native American Law Students Association. She is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, a tribe once from the Great Lakes that is now in Kansas. She officially took over as the governor’s policy adviser for tribal affairs Aug. 2.

Arizona Capitol Times interviewed Ms. Hodahkwen recently.

What exactly do you do as tribal policy adviser≠

Ms. Hodahkwen: I’ve tried to narrow that down myself. The reality is, the governor has such a good, collaborative relationship with all of the tribal leaders, and that concept goes through her entire administration. So, while I’m technically the policy adviser for tribal affairs, every policy adviser knows a lot about tribal issues, and they consider the tribal perspective in everything that they do. So, I guess my role is to sort of help coordinate that.

What’s been the toughest aspect of the job since you began in August≠

I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to it, but the toughest thing that I have to do is, I had the privilege of representing the governor at a funeral of a Navajo serviceman very shortly after I started here. That was very difficult. I felt very privileged to be able to do that and meet with the family

What is biggest tribal issue facing Native Americans in Arizona≠

There’s not one big issue. One of the really great thing about the governor’s relationship with tribes is she recognizes that they are each independent nations [and] each one of them has its own priorities. For the Gila River, water is an extremely important issue. Right now, they’re trying to get the water settlement through Congress. Other tribes have other issues. The Tohono O’odham, for example, homeland security is a major focus for them right now. Each tribe has its own priorities and we do our best to help each tribe achieve its priorities.

How important is it for the governor and other state leaders to view tribes as sovereign nations≠

Saying it’s important is almost an understatement. It’s important in that it’s a fact of life, it’s a reality. There’s no other way to it.

How difficult is it to work with so many different tribes≠ How do you make sure policy is crafted so that it benefits all tribes≠

It is a delicate balance, but, fortunately, there are organizations, such as the Intertribal Council of Arizona, where the tribal leaders themselves can discuss issues of common interest, and they can make common recommendations and things like that. The assistance of organizations like that is very helpful. Even though tribes have differences of opinion on issues, they all try their best to work together, to collaborate and to cooperate to the best of their abilities, and that makes my job much easier to relate to each of them.

Is there any plan for tribal-oriented legislation being submitted this session from the Governor’s Office≠

For the most part, the way the governor’s relationship with tribes works is that we listen to them, we listen to tribal leaders, to have them tell us what their priorities are. So, we try to respond to those. They have [brought some issues forward], and the broad categories would be these areas: education, health care, homeland security and economic development. By education, I mean both K-through-12 and higher education. And each individual tribe would have its own issues that are important to them.

Are those areas that the Governor’s Office will look at and submit bills to the Legislature≠

Possibly, yes.

What kind of experience do you have with tribal law≠

I worked on some taxation issues, I helped a couple of tribes with social service program planning and development and sort of a legal aspect of that, economic development and things of that nature.

What does tribal law encompass≠

It’s a catchall term, but there’s actually several different categories. There’s tribal law, which would be the body of law specific to any individual tribe, and that governs the internal relationships on their territory and that sort of thing. Then there’s another body of law called federal Indian law, which is the relationship with the federal government and the tribes. So, Indian law encompasses all of those things.

Does having to know each individual tribe’s laws make it difficult to deal with multiple tribes at the same time≠

It makes it interesting. I wouldn’t say difficult. Anyone who practices Indian law knows that one tribe may treat an issue a certain way and another tribe may have a different perspective and treat the same issue a different way. Those are the things that we would find out.

What made you want to study and practice Indian law≠

From the time I was a kid, I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer, and I just assumed, growing up, that I would learn to be a lawyer and I would take my lawyering skills to work for the Indian people. I didn’t realize that there were places like ASU that had great and established Indian law programs that could teach me how to do all that in one law school. I came upon all that by a very fortunate surprise.

How did you end up transitioning from being a lawyer to helping craft public policy≠

I’ve always known that I wanted to spend a significant part of my career in public service. I worked for Salt River right out of college; Gila River while I was in law school and I loved both of those experiences. And I don’t mean to sound naïve, but the great thing about working in the public sector is you know you are helping people every single day, and that’s just a wonderful feeling. When I worked at Salt River, I was an assistant to the director of Health and Human Services. I’m not really a direct-service-provider kind of person — my skills are more toward the administrative area, so I got to do a lot of that. My boss could set policy and be a leader, and I could handle the details, so that’s what I did there. At Gila River, I was there during law school as an intern in their law office, working on issues, like the water settlement, that have been going on a very, very long time. I also had a chance to work in tribal court as a prosecutor in juvenile offender cases. One of the great things about practicing in the public sector, and practicing in a tribe, is that many tribes allow qualified individuals or law students to practice in their court — people who haven’t yet been admitted to the state bar. That kind of experience, early on in your legal education, is extremely valuable. I will always remember the first time I stepped in front of a judge and said, “Marnie Hodahkwen, representing the community.
” It’s a great feeling. I was an intern, and they said, you’re going to follow the prosecutor around for a couple of weeks, and when you feel like you’re ready to go, we’re going to put you in there. It’s overwhelming, but when that’s the kind of work that you know you want to do, you just kind of jump at it and go do it. They were really great to me — they knew I was inexperienced and they let me learn.

Phoenix is such a large metropolitan area — how is the local Native American community here different from in rural areas around the state≠

I wouldn’t say it’s clouded, but I would say it’s a little bit different. Phoenix has a very strong Indian community, and a very large Indian community. But, because it is an urban community, you have people like myself who are not necessarily from an Arizona tribe. You have Indian people living in Phoenix from all across the country, from Canada, from everywhere. So that’s probably the difference, whereas in Flagstaff or Tucson, or even in a place like Albuquerque, the Indian communities tend to be populated more by people from that area. —