Deborah Parker

Deborah Parker (born 1970), also known by her native name cicayalc̓aʔ (sometimes spelled Tsi-Cy-Altsa or tsicyaltsa), is an activist and Indigenous leader in the United States.

Born in 1970 as the daughter of a Tulalip father and Yaqui–Apache mother, she grew up on the reservation, where she became intimately familiar with many of the problems facing the Native American community that she later sought to address.

In 1999, she graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in American ethnic studies and sociology.

Since graduating, Parker has been involved in numerous groups and organizations.

During her time at UW, she appeared as in extra in the movie, Singles.

Prior to working for the Tulalip Tribes, Parker served as the director of the residential healing school of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation and participated in the Treaty Taskforce Office of the Lummi Nation, wherein she was mentored by indigenous leaders such as Billy Frank Jr.., Joe DeLaCruz, Henry Cagey, and Jewell James.

Later, she developed two programs for the Tulalip Tribes: Young Mothers, a culturally relevant initiative for teen mothers; and the Tribal Tobacco Program, which promoted responsible tobacco use among tribal members while acknowledging tobacco's sacred role among indigenous peoples in the United States.

From 2005 to 2012, Parker served as the Legislative Policy Analyst in the Office of Governmental Affairs for the Tulalip Tribes; and, in March 2012, she began serving as vice-chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes, becoming its only woman board member and its youngest member.

In January 2005, she was elected as the treasurer for Choice & Consequence, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes healthy practices among Washington youth.

She later was promoted to its board of directors as the president.

In 2006, she participated in the development of Native Vote Washington, a 501(c)(4) organization that sought to encourage greater political participation among Native Americans.

In 2007, Parker starred as Aunt Fran in Shadow of the Salmon, a docudrama about the significance of salmon among the Northwest Native peoples that was nominated for multiple awards.

Later, in September 2010, she was appointed by the University of Washington's Friends of the Educational Opportunity Program as a member of its board of trustees, where she served her full three-year term.

She has been the recipient of numerous awards relating to her activism and tribal outreach, including the Native Action Network's 2010 Enduring Spirit Award, the National Indian Education Association's 2011 Parent of the Year Award, the Daughters of the American Revolution's 2013 Community Service Award, Potlatch Fund's 2013 Pearl Capoeman-Baller Civic Participation Award, the Snohomish County Human Rights Commission's 2016 Human Rights Award, and KSER's 2017 Voice of the Community Award for Community Impact by an Individual.

A member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington, she served as its vice-chairwoman from 2012 to 2015 and is, a board member for Our Revolution and the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center.

She is also a co-founder of Indigenous Women Rise.

While in Washington, D.C., for an April 2012 meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency, Parker visited the staff of Washington senator Patty Murray to discuss salmon and natural resource issues.

During the visit, she learned about the efforts to pass the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2012 and the struggle that Murray's team were having with keeping support for a provision on tribal jurisdiction.

According to the team, the reauthorization would likely fail, especially with the tribal provision, because the legislation "lacked a face."

After being asked whether she knew any stories that could help the effort, Parker asked to speak directly with Murray.

Murray was on the Senate floor at the time; she agreed to leave immediately to meet privately with Parker.

Parker and Murray met later that afternoon to discuss the reauthorization bill and the inclusion of new provisions to allow tribal courts to prosecute non–Native Americans for crimes against women and families on tribal lands.

Parker, committed to ensuring that the VAWA was reauthorized with tribal provisions, decided that "she had to set aside her fear and become 'the face' and the voice for the issue of Native women and rape."

During the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, Parker successfully campaigned both for the reauthorization and for the inclusion of provisions which gave tribal courts jurisdiction over violent crimes against women and families involving non–Native Americans on tribal lands.

In the same year as her 2013 efforts in support of passing the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, Parker joined Mother Nation, then called Native Women in Need, as an honorary board member after eight months of supporting the group.

She was initially drawn to the organization because of the work it did and the dedication of its founder.

During the political battle leading up to the 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Parker was "vital" in the campaigning that pushed for reauthorization and her public testimony to Congress in particular was influential.

From 2014 to 2017, Parker served as a trustee board member for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.

After serving three terms as vice-chair, she decided to not seek re-election in 2015 to focus more on her family and activism.

While serving the Tulalip Tribes, Parker continued to involve herself in improving education and political engagement among Native Americans in Washington.

In September 2015, she was honored as the first of fifty in Indian Country Today's 50 Faces of Indian Country 2015.

She also served in the 2016 Democratic National Convention as one of the platform committee members representing Bernie Sanders, where she "helped to ensure that Native policy initiatives were ultimately rolled into the party's larger platform."

Deborah Parker is a member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington and is of Tulalip, Lummi, Yaqui, and Apache descent; her native name, cicayalc̓aʔ, extends back multiple generations on her mother's side.

Her grandfather, who was of Lummi heritage, was from Cowichan Bay; her grandmother was from the Snohomish River area.

In October 2017, Parker was selected by Marysville School District to serve as its director of Equity, Diversity, and Indian Education and continues to do so

Parker lives in Tulalip, Washington, where she is a mother to three children and two stepchildren was married to documentary filmmaker Myron Dewey (who is of Paiute and Shoshone descent) until his death in 2021.

she is a board member for Our Revolution and the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center; the senior strategist for Pipestem Law, a lawfirm specializing in representing Native American interests; and the volunteer policy analyst for Mother Nation, a nonprofit organization supporting Native American women.

Parker describes her activism and resilience to resist despite hardships as "warrior status".

Parker was also the keynote speaker at the second annual Faith and Action Climate Team (FACT) Conference in October 2017.