Biography of Catherine Baker Stetson

While working in all areas of Indian law and providing lobbying services to tribal clients, Cate’s current focus includes on- and off-reservation commercial transactions, tribal housing, code development, tribal corporations, and gaming. She has served as a Vice Chair of the American Bar Association, Native American Resources Committee, and as a Vice Chair on the Environmental Quality Committee. She has been on the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas Board of Directors. Cate has practiced in the federal and state courts as well as in numerous tribal courts including those of Crow Tribal Court, Wind River Tribal Court, Jicarilla Tribal Court, Washoe Tribal Court, and the Pueblo courts of Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Isleta, Laguna, Zuni, Pojoaque, and Tesuque, among others. Cate is a certified grants writer and is the Chair of the New Mexico State Bar Federal Indian Law Specialization Committee. She is licensed in New Mexico, Washington DC, Nebraska, New York, and Washington State.

Cate's Indian law experience has been largely in working on housing and commercial transactions on Indian reservations. She has helped develop on-reservation restaurants, casinos, hotels, shopping centers, mobile home parks, sanitary landfills, and gas stations, and also has designed tribal regulatory and business structures intended to complement individual tribes' economic development objectives.

Cate has also been a political activist and fundraiser, primarily for the Democratic Party, active in her own state as well as on behalf of Clinton/Gore, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. She is a registered lobbyist both in Santa Fe, NM and in Washington, DC, on behalf of tribal clients.

Cate Stetson was responsible for initiating the creation of both the Indian Law Section of the New Mexico Bar in 1986, as well as the Federal Indian Law Specialty in New Mexico in 2004. This is the first Federal Indian Law Specialist designation for attorneys in the country and is currently offered only in New Mexico. Cate Stetson is a Board Certified specialist in Federal Indian law and serves as Chair of the Federal Indian Law Specialty Committee, and both Jana Walker and Cate are certified grants writers.

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