Bellwood Memorial Lecture
About Judge Sara Hill
Judge Sara Hill was sworn in to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma earlier this year, becoming the first female Native American federal judge in Oklahoma history.
Prior to her current role, Hill spent nearly two decades working with the Cherokee Nation. Most recently, she served as the attorney general of the tribe from 2019-23. In that role, she led the Cherokee Nation’s efforts to build up its criminal justice system. Hill also served as the tribe’s secretary of natural resources from 2015-19, deputy attorney general from 2004-15 and tribal special assistant U.S. attorney in 2014.
Hill was born and raised in Oklahoma and received her bachelor’s degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, before earning her juris doctor from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
About the Sherman J. Bellwood Lectures
The Sherman J. Bellwood Lectures bring prominent and highly regarded local, regional and national leaders to the state of Idaho and the University of Idaho campus. Students have the opportunity to discuss, examine and debate a wide-range of subjects related to the justice system.
Throughout his distinguished career, Judge Sherman J. Bellwood was committed to the legal profession and to legal education. In one of his last and most generous contributions to legal education, Judge Bellwood endowed the Sherman J. Bellwood Lectures at the College of Law. According to the terms of his will, Judge Bellwood's purpose in establishing this endowment was "to enable the College of Law to invite and present persons learned in the law to lecture on legal subjects from time to time." This endowment is the largest endowed lectureship at the University of Idaho.