Bree Black Horse ’13, an adjunct professor and inaugural director of Seattle University School of Law’s Central Washington Hybrid Hub, has been appointed Yakima County Superior Court judge by Gov. Bob Ferguson, effective immediately.
Black Horse, an enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, becomes the first Native American judge on the county’s bench and the third overall to serve on a superior court bench in Washington. Her appointment fills a new position that the governor created earlier this year expanding Yakima County’s bench.
“Bree Black Horse is an accomplished and diligent attorney with broad legal knowledge and deep roots in the Yakima County community,” Ferguson said in a press release from his office. “She will be a strong addition to the bench.”
“I am honored and grateful to Governor Ferguson for the opportunity to serve the people of Yakima County,” Black Horse said in the press release. “I have tremendous respect for the responsibility entrusted to our judges, and I am committed to serving with integrity and humility. Every person who comes before the court deserves to be heard, treated with dignity and respect, and to have their case considered fairly and impartially.”
In addition to leading Seattle U Law’s Central Washington Hybrid Hub Pipeline Initiative, a partnership between the law school, Heritage University in Toppenish, and AccessLex Institute, Black Horse was most recently counsel at Seattle’s Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, focusing on Native American affairs and litigation. In 2024, Black Horse was named the first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington, a central component of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) MMIP Regional Outreach Program, which provides specialized support to U.S. Attorney’s offices to address and combat MMIP issues.
Throughout her career, Black Horse has represented Native American interests, such as tribal sovereignty and treaty rights, both privately and publicly at the federal, state, and tribal levels. She previously served as a public defender and legal aid attorney for the Yakama Nation. Black Horse also completed an internship with the Office of Tribal Justice at the DOJ in Washington, D.C. After graduation, she clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Brian M. Morris in the District of Montana.
Seattle U Law named Black Horse the 2024 Woman of the Year, honoring her extensive service to her community. In her time at Seattle U Law, she co-founded and served as editor of the American Indian Law Journal and was president of the Native American Law Student Association.
In her acceptance speech for the 2024 Woman of the Year Award, Black Horse drew upon the example of Running Eagle of the Blackfeet Nation, who as a teenager pushed past the boundaries placed on women of her day by becoming a warrior - a role traditionally held by Blackfeet men - and devoting her life to protecting her people.
“Running Eagle was my role model growing up,” Black Horse said. “I hope that you will be inspired by the example she set with her bold spirit, just leadership, and service to her community.”
A depiction of Running Eagle riding her horse into battle can be seen in “The Spirit of Justice,” a map collage donated to Seattle U Law’s American Indian Law Journal by Black Horse’s parents, Terrance Guardipee and Catherine Black Horse, in 2012. Guardipee created the piece, a form of ledger art, in honor of the professors, students, and advisors involved with the AILJ.
Black Horse has received numerous other accolades, including being named to the Puget Sound Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list in 2024. She has served in a variety of community service roles, including as president of the Washington State Bar Association’s Indian Law Section and the Washington Women Lawyers Yakima Chapter, as well as on the boards of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, the Eastern District of Washington Federal Bar Association, and Northwest Harvest. She co-founded the Washington Women Lawyers Yakima Legal Education Fund, which supports Central Washington students who want to study law.