Tesuque Pueblo, N.M. (AP) _ Carol Jean Vigil, the first Native American woman to be elected as a state district judge in the United States, died Friday. She was 61.

Vigil died in her sleep at Tesuque Pueblo, her family said. She had a number of health problems, including diabetes, according to her husband Philip Palmer.

Vigil earned her bachelor's and law degrees at the University of New Mexico.

After passing the bar - the first pueblo Indian woman to be admitted - she worked for Indian Pueblo Legal Services, Inc.

She served as assistant state attorney general under Jeff Bingaman, who is now a U.S. senator, and in the mid-1980s went into private practice, her husband said.

She served as a tribal lawyer for Tesuque Pueblo and wrote the tribal codes for Tesuque and Taos pueblos, Palmer said.

In 1988, Vigil was hired by the 1st Judicial District, which includes Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties, to be a child support hearing officer and six years later she was named special commissioner for domestic violence and mental competency.

She was elected to New Mexico's 1st Judicial District in 1998 and retired from the bench in 2005, citing health reasons.