Yay! "Obama Nominates Native American Woman to Federal Court"
[font color=blue]This is Posted in the Barack Obama Group[/font]
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Responding to widespread requests from tribal leaders and Indian legal advocates, President Barack Obama has nominated a Native American to serve on the federal bench.
The president announced September 19 that Diane J. Humetewa is a nominee for the U.S. District Court for Arizona. She is a Hopi citizen, and from 2002 to 2007 she served as an appellate court judge for the Hopi Tribe Appellate Court.
Obama has previously nominated one tribal citizen to serve on the federal bench, Arvo Mikkanen, of the Kiowa Tribe, but Republican senators successfully blocked that nomination during the president’s first term. Oklahoma’s senators in particular expressed frustration that the administration did not consult with them on the nomination, but they would not say specifically what their problem with Mikkanen was at the time. The administration pushed back, with White House officials laying full blame with Senate Republicans, saying it was part of their overall plan to thwart the president.
If Mikkanen would have been confirmed, he would have been the only American Indian to serve on the federal bench, out of a total of 875 federal judgeships, and he would have been only the third Native American in history to secure a federal judgeship.
If Humetewa can pass muster with the Senate Judicial Committee and Arizona’s senators, then she will have the distinction of being the first Native American appointed and confirmed to the federal bench by Obama. It is already known that she has a strong ally in U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) who previously recommended her for a U.S. attorney position during George W. Bush’s second term.
There's more..
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/09/19/obama-nominates-native-american-woman-federal-court-151358
h/t http://theobamadiary.com/2013/09/19/chat-away-239/#comments
Here's Hoping Diane J. Humetewa passes Confirmation! 
[font color=blue]BOG[/font]
= new reply since forum marked as read
I love it. He's not only from a Native American tribe, but as soon as I saw his name, I knew he was from my tribe. He's a Suomilainen! His heritage also comes from Suomi. (Known in this country as Finland.)
My mother was Suomilainen and was fluent in Finnish (both spoken and written) until her dying day. She was active in the Suomi community and would provide translation for US Finns who had documents but could not read them.
It's fun to see these confluences of culture. A Native American with Northern European heritage. (Please don't say that Suomi is Scandinavian. The language roots are entirely different.)
for both Mikkanen and Humetewa. I want to see a Native American SCOTUS justice. And maybe a Suomilainen.
I thought "Arvo Mikkanen" was a very unique name and wondered it's origin? Image, a Native American Tribe in Oklahoma with roots in Finland! Wonderful that your Mom was fluent in Finnish.. good on her!
Too bad the republicon senators blocked his nomination in Pres Obama's first term. 
Now, I hope we have a chance with Diane J Humetewa.. maybe, since Mccain should be on board and might get some other recons to vote Aye.
I would like to see a Native American SCOTUS, too.. in fact I was talking about that the other day.
My grandfather immigrated just after the turn of the 20th century. One of my uncles was born in Suomi. He was named after the Russian Czar, Nicholai. (Suomi has a long history with Russia, as they share a border. Google "Finlandization" to understand why. Also why Finland aligned with Hitler during WWII.)
All my aunts and uncles spoke Finnish first. My grandmother never spoke English, even after living 40 years here. (I have my doubts that she didn't understand English.)
One of my big regrets is that I wasn't brought up bilingual. I have tried to learn three different foreign languages. I failed miserably each time. Alas, my brain just isn't wired right for that talent. But I could have learned it at my mother's knee. It was her first language and it should have been one of mine.
Still, I can curse in Finnish like a longshoreman. That much my mother taught me. 
Culture is important. Whether it be Suomi or a Native American tribe. And the languages are part of that culture.
Maybe you understand my handle. My dad was Norse. I am half Viking.
bi-lingual. It is too bad about not learning Finnish when you were a wee one. It would be so easy at that stage of life.
When I lived in San Diego and started to learn Espanol after the age of 40 and I was so proud of it! When I moved to Colorado, Kaua'i, New York and back again to Kaua'i.. I lost much of what I had learned. Now, I'm practicing again with this Latino kid who just moved here from San Diego!
"Culture is important. Whether it be Suomi or a Native American tribe. And the languages are part of that culture."
I agree.. my main culture is Scotch-Irish with 1/32 Ojibwe.
1/2 Viking! Yes, I now understand your handle 
So what kind of food does your culture favor in America?
Lots of good Suomilainen baked goodies. They use lots of cardamom. My mother was a great baker. She made all sorts of traditional breads and stuff like that. Before she died my older sister helped put together a family cookbook. Everybody contributed but I knew my sister's ultimate goal, to preserve my mother's expertease, handed down from my grandmother.
There are some phenomenal and authentic Finnish recipes in that book. Regretfully it was self published by my sister at great cost so it's not available except those in the family who have a copy.
I treasure mine in spite of being a hopelessly lousy cook. But it's still part of my culture, my heritage. You can have the lutefisk, though. (My father's Norwegian heritage.) The stuff is inedible.
Always glad to see your posts.
but post #1 gives us all what we needed to know about Lutefisk. And, the OP has a pic of Finland President Sauli Niinisto along with other Nordic leaders when Pres Obama was in Sweden before the G20 Summit in Russia.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110215115
That's pretty special to self-publish a family cookbook to pass the precious and delicious recipes down to future generations. 
Glad to see your posts, too, longship
great white snark 