Comanche Nation Supreme Court Justice tapped for Pawnee Nation high court

A Comanche Nation Supreme Court Justice has also been tapped to serve on the Pawnee Nation’s highest court.

Aug. 8, the Pawnee Nation Business Council selected Comanche Nation Supreme Court Justice Robert Don Gifford to serve an eight-year term as a Supreme Court Justice for the Pawnee Nation Supreme Court.

A tribal member of the Cherokee Nation, Gifford will continue to serve as a justice on the Comanche Nation Supreme Court.

Gifford is a former Lawton resident who served on active duty at Fort Sill for three years as a military defense counsel in the late 1990s, and in 2011 through 2014 as an Army Reservist as the Staff Judge Advocate for the 95th Training Division.

While as a young captain at Fort Sill in 1990s, he served as a volunteer judge for Lawton’s “Teen Court” for troubled juveniles.

When not on the bench, Judge Gifford is a civil rights and criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

Gifford serves as a trustee for the Oklahoma County Law Library, and is on the board of directors for the Oklahoma County Bar Association.

Gifford also serves as a trial judge for the tribal courts for the Kaw Nation, Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, Seminole Nation, Absentee-Shawnee Tribe, and the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

A retired colonel from the U.S. Army Reserves, Justice, Gifford has previously been honored by the Cherokee Nation with the Medal of Patriotism for his 23 years of active and reserve military service.