BIOGRAPHY OF SENATOR ALBERT A. HALE
Albert A. Hale is the former President of the Navajo Nation. He served
as the President from 1995 to 1998. He also served as an Assistant Attorney
General for the Navajo Nation and special counsel to the Navajo Nation
Council. He is also the former President of the Navajo Nation Bar Association.
Senator Hale is the former Chairman of the Navajo Nation
Water Rights Commission, a commission established by the Navajo Nation
Council to oversee and coordinate the Navajo Nation’s water rights,
litigation and negotiation efforts. He served as the Commission Chairman
during the Negotiation of the New Mexico and the Navajo Nation San Juan
River Basin Water Right Settlement Agreement. The Settlement Agreement
was signed on April 19, 2005.
He served as a Judge Pro Temp for the Laguna Courts,
Laguna Pueblo, Laguna, New Mexico. He is one of the lawyers who filed
a lawsuit in 1999 against the tobacco companies on behalf of a number
of Indian Nations requesting compensation for injury to tribal members
from use of smoking and chewing tobacco.
Senator Hale is now in private law practice with offices
located in St. Michaels, Arizona. He represents Navajo and non-Navajo
clients in federal, state and various tribal courts which include Navajo
Nation, Taos, and other tribal courts. His clientele include Navajo Engineering
and Construction Authority, an enterprise of the Navajo Nation, the Fort
Defiance Housing Corporation, the Bishop Piaute Tribe of Bishop, California,
regarding the Tribe’s land and water rights claims, and companies
doing business on the Navajo Nation.
He is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation; born and
raised in Klagetoh, Arizona. He is Ashiihi (salt), born for Todichiini
(Bitter Water), Hanaghani (Walk About clan) are his maternal grandparents
and Kiyanii (Tall House clan) are his paternal grandparents. He is a 1969
graduate of Fort Wingate High School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding
school located east of Gallup, New Mexico. He has a Bachelor of Science
degree from Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona (1973) and a Juris
Doctorate degree from the University Of New Mexico School Of Law, Albuquerque,
New Mexico (1977).
He is a member of the New Mexico State Bar Association
and the Navajo Nation Bar Association and admitted to practice in U.S.
Federal Courts, New Mexico State Courts the Navajo Nation Courts, and
various Indian Nation’s Courts. He has been practicing law for over
27 years, mostly in private practice. His law practice concentrates on
representing businesses on Indian Nations.
On January 20, 2004 Senator Hale was appointed to the
Arizona State Senate to fill the District 2 Senate seat vacated by Senator
Jack Jackson, Sr. Senator Hale was elected to the Arizona State Senate
in November, 2004. Committees Senator Hale serves on are: Appropriations;
Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Welfare; Judiciary; and Rules. |
