By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
Justice Brenda Toineeta Pipestem, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, received a very prestigious legal award recently.
Justice Pipestem received the Huntington Her Hero Lifetime Achievement Award at the New York Bar Association (NYBA) International Conference on Women held earlier this month. Information from the NYBA states, “Justice Pipestem has committed her legal career to strengthening American Indian tribal nationhood through appellate judicial service…Justice Pipestem has dedicated her life to nurturing her family and empowering tribal communities through law, policy, and education.”
Justice Brenda Toineeta Pipestem received the Huntington Her Hero Lifetime Achievement Award at the New York Bar Association (NYBA) International Conference on Women held earlier this month. (Photo contributed)
Justice Pipestem told the One Feather, “The recognition bestowed by the New York Bar Association International Conference on Women encompasses my work for our Tribe and Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians as a Supreme Court Justice. During my 25-year tenure on our Court, I also advocated and educated about Eastern Band Cherokee courts and sovereignty, with a specific focus on the health, safety, and mentorship of Cherokee women and children, and the protection and advancement of Tribal sovereignty.”
She added, “I accepted the Huntington Her Hero Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of my mother, my grandmother Mattie Youngdeer Toineeta, and all our Cherokee matriarchs past and present whose love, resilience, and wisdom have enabled our community and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to not only survive, but to thrive.”
In 2000, Justice Pipestem was appointed as an associate justice of the Cherokee Supreme Court by the late Ugvwiyuhi (Principal Chief) Leon Jones. She was confirmed by the EBCI Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) at the time and served in that position for 25 years – until March 2025. Justice Pipestem has served as an associate justice on the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Supreme Court since 2008.
According to information from NYBA, she also served on the Lower Sioux Indian Community Appellate court from 2007-08 and as an associate justice pro tempore for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians Supreme Court from 2008-11.
In 2018, Columbia Law School did an alumni profile on Justice Pipestem who graduated from there with a juris doctor degree in 1999. In that profile, she was asked what she thought the most pressing issues were in Native American law.
She replied, “Two important issues facing Tribal Nations are (1) to have inherent tribal criminal jurisdiction over all persons, Indian and non-Indian, recognized so that tribes can fully enforce tribal and federal criminal laws within their jurisdictional boundaries; and (2) the preservation of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a 40-year-old statute designed to protect Native children, that a federal district court in Texas recently ruled is unconstitutional. In the interim, reauthorization and expansion of the Violence Against Women Act that acknowledges Tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit domestic and dating violence crimes on tribal lands is of utmost importance for tribes to continue providing protection to tribal citizens. Without full jurisdiction over their lands, Tribal Nations are unable to protect their citizens and property from the criminal acts of non-Indians.”
Justice Pipestem was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and received the Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman LLC Fellowship while a student at Columbia Law.
She represents Region Six on the Native American Indian Court Judges Association Board of Directors as well as being a member of the World Assembly of Indigenous Judges and on the board of trustees for the American Indian College Fund.
Justice Pipestem is a major voice on Indigenous law, not only within Indian Country, but worldwide.
