Deborah Parker facts for kids

Deborah Parker (born 1970), also known by her native name cicayalc̓aʔ, is an important activist and Indigenous leader in the United States. She is a member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington. From 2012 to 2015, she was the vice-chairwoman for her tribe. Today, she helps lead groups like Our Revolution and the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center. She also helped start a group called Indigenous Women Rise.

Deborah Parker played a big part in passing the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. This law helps protect women from violence. She worked hard to make sure that tribal courts could deal with violent crimes against Native American women and families, even if the person who committed the crime was not Native American. She also helped shape the Democratic Party's plans during the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She made sure that issues important to Native Americans were included in their goals.

Who is Deborah Parker?

Deborah Parker is a member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington. She also has family from the Lummi, Yaqui, and Apache tribes. Her native name, cicayalc̓aʔ, has been passed down in her family for many years. She was born in 1970 and grew up on a reservation. This helped her understand the challenges faced by Native American communities.

In 1999, she graduated from the University of Washington. She studied American ethnic studies and sociology. After college, Deborah Parker worked with many groups and organizations. She helped create programs for the Tulalip Tribes, like "Young Mothers" for teen mothers. She also started the "Tribal Tobacco Program" to teach about responsible tobacco use, respecting its sacred role in Indigenous cultures.

From 2005 to 2012, she worked as a policy analyst for the Tulalip Tribes. In 2012, she became the vice-chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes. She was the youngest and only woman on the board at that time. After three terms, she decided not to run again in 2015. She wanted to spend more time with her family and focus on her activism.

Deborah Parker also worked to improve education and political involvement for Native Americans in Washington. She helped create Native Vote Washington to encourage more Native Americans to vote. She also served on the board of trustees for the University of Washington's Friends of the Educational Opportunity Program.

From 2014 to 2017, Deborah Parker was a trustee board member for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. In 2017, she became the director of Equity, Diversity, and Indian Education for the Marysville School District.

Deborah Parker lives in Tulalip, Washington. She is a mother to three children. She was married to documentary filmmaker Myron Dewey until he passed away in 2021.

Today, she is a board member for Our Revolution and the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center. She also works as a senior strategist for Pipestem Law, a law firm that helps Native American interests. She volunteers as a policy analyst for Mother Nation, a group that supports Native American women.

Deborah Parker's Activism

Deborah Parker describes her strong spirit and ability to keep fighting despite challenges as "warrior status." She has received many awards for her activism and work with tribes. These include the Enduring Spirit Award and the Human Rights Award. In 2015, she was recognized as one of Indian Country Today's "50 Faces of Indian Country."

Her Role in the 2016 US Election

During the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Deborah Parker was a key member of the platform committee. She represented Bernie Sanders, who she supported for president. She saw this as a chance to push for important causes. These included Native American sovereignty (the right of tribes to govern themselves), climate justice, protecting women, and addressing income inequality.

As part of the committee, Deborah Parker helped make sure that Native American issues were included in the Democratic Party's main plans. She also wrote an important amendment. This amendment said that the government should use global warming as a "test" for any new policies.

In June 2016, Deborah Parker proposed a change to the party's platform. She wanted to make the language stronger about honoring tribal nations. Her proposal was passed by everyone on the committee. Other members praised her for bringing Native American issues to the forefront. One member said that in all her years, she had never seen a plan that recognized the first peoples of the United States.

The changes she proposed committed the Democratic Party to:

• Upholding and strengthening the United States' trust and responsibility to American Indian and Alaska Native tribes.
• Restoring tribal lands to Indigenous tribes.
• Increasing funding and support for tribal communities, especially for things like roads, schools, and healthcare.
• Getting rid of school and sports mascots that are disrespectful or racist toward Native Americans.
• Improving tribal jurisdiction and Indigenous voting rights.
• Supporting "environmental justice in Indian Country."
• Acknowledging past injustices and harmful government policies that hurt Native American economies, societies, and traditions.

Soon after, in August 2016, Deborah Parker joined Our Revolution as a board member.

Taking Part in Protests

Deborah Parker has often spoken out against pipeline projects. She worries about their impact on the environment and tribal lands. In September 2016, she joined other Tulalip tribal members at Standing Rock. They were protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. A month later, she led a large protest in Washington, D.C. against the pipeline.

In January 2017, Deborah Parker joined other Indigenous leaders at the 2017 Women's March in Washington. During this protest, a new group called Indigenous Women Rise was formed, and she became one of its co-founders. She also participated in the 2018 Women's March in Seattle.

In April 2018, she spoke out against the Trans Mountain Pipeline in Canada. She stood in support of First Nations peoples who were also against the pipeline.

Deborah Parker's Beliefs

In a 2016 interview, Deborah Parker said that restricting gun ownership for people with a history of domestic violence is "necessary" to protect women. She also criticized Donald Trump for using the nickname "Pocahontas" for Elizabeth Warren. She called it "very insulting" and also spoke about Trump's past treatment of tribal nations and their right to govern themselves.

Parker is critical of how the U.S. government has treated Indigenous people throughout history. She has compared Native American reservations to "concentration camps" in the sense that the government kept Native people separate and limited their freedom. She believes that people don't always understand this history.

She also believes it's important to protect the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples. This includes their understanding of nature and traditional medicine. She says that this knowledge should be seen from an Indigenous point of view, which can be different from a "Western-science approach."

See also

• History of Native Americans in the United States
• Native American civil rights
• Native American feminism