Deborah Parker

Deborah Parker

Deborah Parker served as a Legislative Policy Analyst in the Office of Governmental Affairs for the Tulalip Tribes from 2005-2012,

Before joining legislative affairs Deborah Parker developed two unique outreach and education programs for the Tulalip Tribes. Young Mothers was a culturally relevant program for teen mothers, and the Tribal Tobacco Program sought to inspire responsible tobacco use among tribal members, while acknowledging tobacco’s sacred place in Indigenous cultures. Prior to her work for the Tulalip Tribes Deborah served as Director of the Residential Healing School of the Tseil-Waututh Nation in Canada, and in the Treaty Taskforce Office of the Lummi Nation, where she was mentored by American Indian leaders such as Joe Delacruz, Billy Frank, Henry Cagey and Jewell James.

Deborah Parker graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Ethnic Studies and Sociology where she distinguished herself as a scholar and a young Indigenous leader. She lives in Tulalip with her husband Myron Dewey (Paiute/Shoshone) and their five children.

Board Member of Our Revolution

Deborah Parker is a board member for Our Revolution, an organization run by former campaign workers and supporters of former socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

2016 Platform Drafting Committee

Bernie Sanders supporters Dr. Cornel West and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) will be among those on the Democratic Party's important Platform Drafting Committee after the Vermont senator won a key concession as he looks to leave his mark on the party's platform.

The roster of the drafting committee, released by the Democratic National Committee May 2016, reflects the party's agreement that Sanders would have five supporters on the committee, compared to six for Hillary Clinton.

Sanders previously panned DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who appoints all of the committee members, for failing to include enough of his supporters on an initial list. But the latest statement notes that Wasserman Schultz allocated the campaign's seats "proportionally according to the current vote tally."

Sanders supporters on the committee are author Bill McKibben, Arab American Institute head James Zogby and Native American activist Deborah Parker.

Clinton loyalists on the committee are Ambassador Wendy Sherman, former Clinton staffer and current Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden, Ohio Rep. Alicia Reece, environmentalist Carol Browner, Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez and union head Paul Booth.

The remaining four members were chosen by Wasserman Schultz.

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, who has endorsed Clinton, will lead the committee and called Sanders's outsized role on the platform "pretty unusual" for a candidate that likely will not be the party's nominee during a Monday interview on MSNBC. And California Rep. Barbara Lee, who has not endorsed either candidate.

Former Rep. Howard Berman and philanthropist and former CEO of Claire's Stores Bonnie Schaefer were also appointed.

Washington DC action

With Republican Donald Trump headed to the White House, Native women led a huge demonstration in the nation's capital on Tuesday, calling for an end to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

In his first 100 days in office, Trump has vowed to lift "roadblocks" to large infrastructure projects like Dakota Access. He's even invested his own money in the companies that are financing and operating the controversial pipeline.

But Eryn Wise of the International Indigenous Youth Council bore no ill will toward the incoming president despite his negative history in Indian Country. She came to Washington, D.C., with a simple yet strong message.

"I am here to protect his water as well," Wise said outside of the White House, where Trump will be residing come January 2017.

Wise, who is from the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Laguna Pueblo, was joined by three other Native women leaders -- LaDonna Brave Bull Allard (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), Deborah Parker (Tulalip Tribes) and Judith LeBlanc (Caddo Nation) -- for the #NoDAPL Day of Action.

After staging a sit-in at the headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, they led the crowd of about 1,000 people down the streets of Washington, even passing by the newly opened Trump Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

That's where Wise, who has been living at the #NoDAPL encampment since the summer, made good on her promise. She momentarily stopped the march in front of the hotel, which is located on federal property, to offer a prayer.