Charles Galbraith ’98 – 2023 St. Francis Xavier Award for Ignatian Identity

In photos from Brophy’s 1998 yearbook, a smiling Charles Galbraith is being hoisted in the air after a winning varsity baseball game; another shows him working on The Roundup — the school newspaper. His senior bio mentions going on Kairos 25 and leading Kairos 26. Whether forged on the baseball field, in Living the 4th, in Brophy classrooms, or on the land of his Navajo ancestors, Charlie Galbraith’s leadership has left its mark on a grateful world, and in particular, among the Native American people for whom he is such a powerful advocate.

Charlie left Brophy for the University of Chicago and then returned to Arizona to earn a law degree from Arizona State University as a Navajo Nation Fellow. His work as an attorney has taken him from the U.S. Capitol where he served as U.S. Senator Tim Johnson’s Legislative Assistant for Judiciary and Indian Affairs, to the United States Department of Justice where he prosecuted fraud cases as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, to the White House where he advised President Obama on Native American Affairs and other issues, to private practice where he is now a partner and co-chair of the Native American Practice Group at the top-ranked Jenner & Block law firm in Washington, D.C. — with a few stops in between.

Along the way, he has received numerous accolades from legal, government and Native American entities. 

Since leaving government he has continued his service to the Native American Community representing tribes directly as an attorney, including as pro bono counsel opposing the Pebble Mine project in Alaska and for the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse team—inventors of the game and currently the third-ranked team in international competition. He also serves on the boards of the Institute of American Indian Arts, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, Nike N7, and the Grand Canyon Conservancy. He was a contributor to the recent effort to protect the Grand Canyon which included the establishment of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona. 

To Charlie, the accolades are meaningful because of what they represent — a commitment to honoring his heritage and Indigenous peoples throughout the country by walking with them on a mission of fair and competent representation as they seek to protect homelands and sacred places and to ensure an equitable quality of life.

And like his ancestors, he remains firmly grounded in the outdoors as a runner, hiker, climber, and baseball player. Long-distance running is prevalent among Indigenous cultures—“every step a prayer, every mile a ceremony”—is the way one Native American group describes it. And it is on his own long-distance runs—Charlie has completed more than 20 marathons—that he takes time away from courtrooms and boardrooms to reflect on his journey from Brophy Prep to his membership in the top echelon of attorneys in our nation’s capital. 

Like St. Francis Xavier, who traveled great distances to bring the Jesuit message of God in all things, on Charlie’s journey, he evokes the spirit of the divine creator who helped form both the literal and figurative paths that have led him to this moment. Brophy College Preparatory is honored to present the St. Francis Xavier Award for Ignatian Identity to Charles Galbraith.