Sad to report the passing of a true giant in the world of Native American law

From the Yakima Herald:

"Longtime Yakama Nation attorney Tim Weaver left behind big shoes to fill, a tribal leader said Tuesday, a day after his death.

Weaver, a champion of American Indian law who battled in court for Yakama fishing rights, died at home Monday. He was 65.

He will be remembered as an aggressive attorney who was an advocate for tribal treaty fishing rights and who honored the Yakamas' way of life, said Yakama General Council Vice Chairwoman Mavis Kindness.

"Those who knew him, those that knew they could rely on him are going to miss him," she said Tuesday. "It's going to be a big void. It's going to be tough for us to find someone who was as aggressive as he was and as assertive."

Weaver spent 40 years representing the tribe in state and federal courts -- including two cases in U.S. Supreme Court -- over myriad issues, including fishing and water rights, zoning and development and natural resources.

Some Yakama tribal leaders considered Weaver a warrior who respected the tribe's way of life. They point to a 1974 case he successfully argued all the way to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which for the first time affirmed the tribe's authority to enforce its own fishing laws outside reservation boundaries."

You can read more about our departed colleague HERE.  Our condolences go out to his family and friends.

twp