KLAMATH -- The Resighini Rancheria swore in a tribal judge with decades of experience for its tribal court Friday.

David L. Harding was sworn in during a ceremony at the Resighini Rancheria Tribal Headquarters.

He's an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa Indians of North Dakota.

Harding got his law degree from the University of Oregon and he also attended the University of Idaho College of Law.

”In 1980 Judge Harding was appointed to the bench by the Confederate Tribes of Warm Springs, Ore.,” stated a press release. “He has sat as the tribal judge for 25 different tribes throughout the Northwest.”

He has served as a president and a vice president of the National American Indian Tribal Court Judges Association and the Northwest Tribal Court Judges Association.

Harding currently sits as a judge for his own tribe, the Spokane Tribe of Indians at Wellpinit, Wash., and as the chief justice of the Yurok Tribe of the California Court of Appeals.