Claudeen Arthur

Claudeen Bates Arthur (née Claudeen Rosenda Bates, 1942 November 27, 2004) was a Native American lawyer who was the first Navajo woman licensed as a lawyer in the United States and the first female Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Navajo Nation.

Early life Claudeen Rosenda Bates was born in 1942 in Ganado, Arizona, the daughter of Claude and Rose Bates. She had two sisters, Alberta and Ernestine, and a brother, Lorenzo.

Career After graduating from college in 1974, Arthur spent two years at the New Mexico-based Navajo Legal Services and became one of the first two Navajo people, and the first Navajo woman, to be licensed as a lawyer in the United States. From 1978 to 1981, Arthur worked at the United States Department of the Interior as solicitor for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, following which she was appointed Attorney General of the Navajo Nation in 1983 and was credited with the creation and management of the Navaho Nation's Justice Department.

In October 2003, Arthur was confirmed as the successor to Robert Yazzie as Chief Justice of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, becoming the third justice to be appointed to the court since its inception in 1985, as well as the first Navajo woman to hold the position. After her death in 2004, Lorene Ferguson became Acting Chief Justice until Herb Yazzie was confirmed as Arthur's successor in 2005.

Personal life and death Shortly after graduating from the New Mexico State University, Claudeen Bates married Harris Arthur, who was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Land and Water in the Department of the Interior;