Team Member: Darrah Blackwater

Darrah Blackwater, J.D.

Diné

Pronouns: She/Her

Positions(s):

Indigenous Law and Policy Fellow, University of Arizona College of Law

Email me: dblackwater@arizona.edu

Darrah Blackwater is from Farmington, New Mexico and is a citizen of the Navajo Nation. She is a recent graduate of the University of Arizona, where she earned her law degree studying Indigenous law and telecommunications law. In a previous career she was a tennis professional at the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in New Braunfels, Texas and in Zhongshan, China. While in China, Darrah and her walking partner, Ann Liang, walked 1,388 miles from Zhonshan to Beijing to raise money for organizations that empower people with disabilities. She spent a year of law school working on tribal issues in Washington D.C., and has assisted in building multiple community networks in Indigenous communities. Darrah has extensively researched and written about the concept of spectrum sovereignty, the idea that Native Nations have exclusive rights to the electromagnetic spectrum on and over their lands. Darrah spent her summer after law school hiking the Colorado Trail to raise awareness about the digital divide and Indigenous issues. In her spare time she can be found playing tennis, making art, or playing in the mountains.

Recent Publication:

For tribal lands ravaged by COVID-19, broadband access is a matter of life and death