Pilar Thomas

Pilar M. Thomas is an American lawyer and a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona, for which she has served as attorney. She has worked on water rights, treaty rights, gaming law, and coordinated federal agency policies and efforts in tribal energy development. Her mother's family came from Mexico and Arizona. She was admitted to the Bar in Arizona in 2002. She has said she regards the two most important parts of her work in government as participating in the interagency negotiations for the U.S. adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and work on the Department of the Interior's tribal land leasing reform, including the HEARTH Act.

In 2016, Thomas was one of a group of former Administration Native American officials who called on President Obama to block or reroute the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL). Thomas is a member of the policy advisory committee of the National Tribal Air Association (NTAA).

Honors Service Award from the U.S. Department of Justice for her work on the United States v. Michigan treaty rights litigation. The Best Lawyers in America - Native American Law, 2017.