Marie Zackuse has been elected the first woman chairman of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington state.
She will face several challenging issues from the start, including that of diversifying the tribe’s economic efforts through the cultivation of marijuana, which goes against her previous stated support drug of drug prevention among tribal youth.
Currently the tribes are suing the state and Snohomish County over the county’s taxation of business transactions on tribal land: the municipality of Quil Ceda Village.
The tribe is still mourning the deaths of a shooting in October 2014 when a tribal youth killed four classmates and fatally shot himself.
At her first meeting the chairman led the board in prayer, something she regularly does herself.
The new chairman commented, “I am honored our membership elected me chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes. I look forward to working with my fellow board members to strengthen our sovereignty by defending our treaty rights, improving services to our membership, and focusing on the health and wellness of our community.”
She said one of her priorities would be to honor women and their contributions. “We want to highlight the role of our grandmothers and to also encourage and support our young women and youth,” she said.
This is the first board of the tribe that has had a female majority. Historically, we have always been a people of matriarchal leadership,” she commented. “Our women have always held high levels of leadership in our tribe, even when they did not have so-called titles. It’s taken us some time to regain this balance within our tribe and it’s exciting to be part of this Tulalip Board of Directors with the majority being women.”
