Tierra Marks is a member of the Navajo Nation and is a first-generation law graduate and lawyer. Tierra spent her early years on the Navajo Nation before she moved to a small town in southern Arizona, and then to the Big Island of Hawai’i where she attended a remote Hawaiian culturally driven charter school.
Tierra’s work at the firm ranges from complex litigation and discovery to employment, contract, and construction disputes, bid protests, land disputes, taxation matters, natural resources and environmental regulation, and sovereign immunity and tribal jurisdiction. Tierra litigates at trial and appellate levels in tribal, state and federal courts, and administrative hearings. Tierra has successfully resolved disputes on behalf of her clients with federal and state agencies, assisted with winning a large aboriginal Indian land claim against the United States, successfully filed bid protests under the Navajo Nation Business Opportunity Act and handled claims before the Office of Navajo Labor Relations and the Navajo Nation Labor Commission. Tierra is committed to advocating on behalf of her clients concerning affirmation of tribal rights and status as to protection of tribal lands and sovereignty.
Tierra holds a JD Degree and a Certificate in Indian Law from the University of New Mexico School of Law and a BA in Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. While in law school, she was Co-Managing Editor of the Tribal Law Journal, and a recipient of the New Mexico State Bar Health Law Scholarship and the Mary Beth and W. Richard West Jr. Award which recognizes excellence in Indian Law. Since graduating from law school, Tierra has served as an adjunct professor for the Tribal Law Journal and taught the Tribal Law Journal Seminar at the University of New Mexico School of Law, has presented on discovery and evidentiary issues in litigation against state and federal governments and comparative legal and cultural matters, and also serves on the Indian Law Section of the State Bar of New Mexico and other boards. Tierra is an alumna of the American Indian Law Center Pre-Law Summer Institute and Navajo Preparatory School. And, in 2021, Tierra won 3rd place in the Indian Law Section’s 1st Annual Photo Contest.