Smoke Signals
Tribal Council Secretary Retires, Will Live On The Tulalip Reservation
Tribal Elder Claudette Parazoo saw many changes in Grand Ronde, now she will be closer to family.
8 FEBRUARY 15, 2004
By Peta Tinda
"I'm looking forward to going back to the Res
ervation," said Tribal Elder and Tribal Council
Secretary Claudette Parazoo on the eve of
her retirement after almost nine years of
workirg for the Tribe.
Parazoo said that the Grand Ronde of
today is different from when she first ar
rived. "It's been good to work here these years
and see the changes," she said one after
noon at the Tribal Governance Center.
"Mainly there are more buildings and
services and transferring over from the tim
ber industry as the main revenue, to ca
sino revenue. That's been the big change
that took place."
She said that though trmrp nrp still TVihnl
members who struggle, there are many
who have better jobs and lives as a result
of the new economy.
Parazoo, who was born at the Indian hos
pital in Rosebud, South Dakota, has spent
a lifetime working.
"This is the way I was raised I knew
how to work, so I worked."
In 1956 she began her career at the Bu
reau of Indian Affairs in Everett. Wash
ington, and subsequently worked for the
Klamath Tribe as Natural Resources Manager.
She then spent two years in Tulalip employed
with the Indian Housing Authority, then worked
for the Grand Ronde Tribes, first as a tempo-
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Highlight Grand Ronde Tribal Elder Claudette
Parazoo retired recently after a lifetime of service to
her people and her Tribe. Parazoo 's photo appeared
on the cover of the 1 997 Tribal Annual report, which
she called the highlight of her time in Grand Ronde.
Parazoo is moving to Tulalip, Washington.
Not Goodbye Tribal Council secretary Claudette Parazoo, (center)
was honored for her years of work for the Tribe. Parazoo was presented with
a Pendleton blanket at her retirement party by Tribal Council member Jan D.
Reibach (left) and Tribal Council Vice Chairman Reyn Leno.
rary, part-time worker then later as Tribal Coun
cil Secretary, for another two and a half years.
"I've worked for 48 years, 20 of them in fed
eral government," she said.
She first began at Grand Ronde doing drug
and alcohol counseling.
"Nowadays they call it behavioral health, but
back then it was vocational rehab, general as
sistance and drug and alcohol counseling
that's how small it was they were all in the
same building," she said.
"Now each one is it's own department. That's
another way Grand Ronde has changed."
In addition to working for most of her life,
Parazoo has also sought to educate herself along
the way.
She got her high school diploma from Haskell
Indian School in 1956, then received her associ
ate of arts degree from Oregon Institute of Tech
nology, and culminated her years of dedication
to education by receiving her bachelor of sciences
degree from Portland State University in 2002
at the age of 68.
Her father, Claude Parazoo, was from Oregon,
and her mother, Delphine, from South Dakota.
Being the eldest child, she was named for her
father.
"We lived in a tent," she recalled. "There was
no housing. And of course it was the depression.
My father decided he didn't like the dust and
dirt and moved us out here when 1
was six months old, and we grew
up in Klamath."
Parazoo was raised in Chiloquin,
and says that even though they
were very poor, she was always glad
to have grown up in an Indian com
munity. She was the oldest of six children,
so she grew up taking care of her
siblings.
"I always looked after kids," she
said. "It was my responsibility."
Parazoo said she was happy to
have a background of growing up
around Indian language and In
dian people.
"There's a sense of community you
get from living on the reservation
it's a different background from
society elsewhere there's a feel
ing of safety and knowing your
neighbors."
Parazoo will be moving to the
Tulalip Tribal Elder housing in
Washington, a retirement commu
nity located on Mission Beach, in a harbor of
Puget Sound.
Parazoo described it as longing within her self
to return to Tulalip. She lived there for 20 years
and raised her four sons there, so it's not a
strange place, she said.
"I've enjoyed living here in Grand Ronde, but
these last few years have shown me I need to be
around my family, " said Parazoo.
Most of her children and grandchildren live
in Tulalip but it's only a five-hour drive to
Grand Ronde, and Parazoo says she plans on
returning for pow-wows and special events.
Parazoo remembers that one of the highlights
of her time here was the photo of her in tradi
tional regalia that graced the cover of the 1997
Tribal Annual Report. "The Tribal Council asked
me to do it and I was very honored."
Parazoo has actually retired twice previously,
once in 1994 from the Bureau of Land Manage
ment, and again in 2000 from the Tribal Natu
ral Resources.
Even though this is supposed to be her final
retirement, Parazoo couldn't be sure she would
be able to give up work.
"This will be the third time I've retired and
yet I'm not sure," she said with twinkle in her
eye. "There's a cultural department up there."
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