Women of the Year: Lorraine Parlange’s grit has made her a fierce legal advocate for the Kalispel Tribe of Indians

For seven weeks Lorraine Parlange would undergo chemotherapy for breast cancer and then head straight to the office where she continued to work as an attorney for the Kalispel Tribe of Indians.

Through sickness and nausea, she pushed through the grueling hours of being a tribal attorney. It might have fazed her for a second, but not for long. Parlange was on a mission to serve the tribe.

“The work was there and it needed to be done,” she said.

Everyone else around her watched in awe – she had grit, determination and a true passion for the Native community.

“Sometimes attorneys (want to) collect paychecks,” said tribal attorney and Kalispel Tribe member Alex Hilborn, who has worked with Parlange for around 10 years. “That isn’t her ethos.”

While Parlange isn’t a member of any tribe, she has made enough inroads with Kalispel members that people feel free to come to her whenever they need. She’ll work on weekends after a full shift. She’ll pick up phone calls late into the evening. And at the same time, she remembers everyone’s caseloads.

The work also is extensive because tribes are their own governing body and operate as sovereign nations. The number of legal issues on the table is diverse. Each tribe also determines its own government functionality, so the relationship with state and federal law and law enforcement can often be complicated and abstruse, especially following tribal nations’ historical loss of land and sovereignty throughout the years when undermined by the federal government. Tribal attorneys must be able to navigate it all.

“It takes someone like her,” said Weston Meyring, also a tribal attorney. “She is an incredible person. I was a criminal prosecutor for 14 years. You want to have control of a courtroom. That’s what I think when I think of her. When she comes into a room, she can lead.”

Parlange, 54, grew up in Australia and moved to New York to attend college to become a social worker. She started working with survivors of trauma, assault and domestic violence, snagged an internship working in a juvenile detention center and spent a summer as a house parent in a group home.

Social work is where she thought she’d be for a while, but she yearned for more advocacy. When she made her way to Gonzaga to attend law school, she fell in love with Spokane.

Parlange began as a public defender and moved on to working with the Spokane Tribe until she branched out and tackled child welfare and other criminal cases, and later found her spot representing the Kalispel Tribe. She became the tribe’s senior attorney in 2020.

In all her years as an attorney she’d wager 25 of them have been spent working with tribes, Parlange said. At first, she didn’t realize the lack of representation and involvement that tribes have within the justice system. It floored her.

Years of historical isolation and forced assimilation by the federal government, restrictions on tribal sovereignty and the continual tweaking of laws that have affected how tribes operate have often contributed to tribes facing a lack of resources and loss of land.

“There needs to be a greater recognition of tribal sovereignty. I think when there’s tribal sovereignty at work, it benefits all of society. And I think the systems and the laws in this country were not set up to support and foster tribal sovereignty, so tribes have had to fight incredibly hard in order to have that tribal sovereignty recognized,” Parlange said. “And I think the systems just were not set up for that to occur.”

The restrictions on such sovereignty complicate how the tribe can use their land and also their jurisdiction over non-Indians, according to the American Bar Association.

These tactics likely led to generations of broken trust between some tribes, which Parlange has seen firsthand, she said. Especially survivors of violence.

“Often, what would have been serious felonies anywhere else in the country, resulted in the crimes being prosecuted as essentially misdemeanors in tribal courts. Tribes have incredibly gifted and dedicated social workers and law enforcement officers who work diligently to develop cases,” Parlange said. “However, given the complex jurisdictional laws that tribes are faced with – tribes are limited in the ability to fully prosecute offenders in tribal courts often leaving the federal government with that responsibility.”

Throughout the years, however, she has seen change. And those around her believe she is part of the effort.

Parlange is relatively modest about her accomplishments and hardworking attitude. Her colleagues agree. They are in awe of her, but she stays humble. Parlange was one of the fiercest Spokane tribal attorneys who fought for children to be reunited with their tribe, culture and extended family under the Indian Child Welfare Act, said Margo Hill, who is an attorney and member of the Spokane Tribe.

The act, passed in 1978, prioritizes a Native child’s best interest during a custody or welfare case to preserve their culture and tribal ties. Parlange traveled around the country in an attempt to reunite Native children with their tribes, Hill said.

“She just sinks her teeth into a case like a pit bull,” Hill said of Parlange. “She is an amazing litigator. She is smart, she is sharp, she is passionate. I have so much respect for her. When it comes to protecting tribal interests, I have a lot of respect for her legal knowledge.”

Fighting the good fight

Bonte Nemec, who worked with Parlange as a senior paralegal for nine years, lost her husband to a heart attack. The loss crushed her.

Nemec was struggling to return after Christmas that year, so Parlange allowed her to go on the “tribal equivalent” of medical leave, Nemec said. Parlange never questioned her, only asked her “What else can we do for you?”

When Nemec returned months later, she still felt out of place. She was having “crashes” in the middle of the day, she was reading the same documents over and over because she couldn’t comprehend them. The grief was too much, Nemec said, and she had to resign from her position.

“It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made, because (Parlange) bent over backwards for everyone. She made that place so warm,” Nemec said through tears. “And I do miss it so much. She is incredibly dedicated to the tribe and to doing the best she can. She is selfless.”

That’s apparent in the way Parlange speaks – when pressed about herself, she gives all her gratitude to the tribe and her team of attorneys. Seldom does she feel the need to brag about her accomplishments, such as heading back to school to get her master’s degree in special education because there was “so much more” she needed to know. She was working with families who had struggled with the school system and became a foster parent. The journey back to school only felt right, she said.

When Parlange developed breast cancer and began chemotherapy and radiation more than eight years ago, it was a different obstacle. It wasn’t going back to school or learning tribal law, it was something she didn’t know how to face at first. Now, she hardly acknowledges how hard she pushed to beat it.

“I never even think about it,” she said, adding that she is in remission. “It’s like, ‘How am I gonna survive it?’ But I did.”

Parlange could only recall one goal she didn’t meet: When she purchased two goats, she had broad plans to milk them and begin a hobby of cheesemaking. Instead, they became her beloved pets.

“They can’t come in the house, but one of them can open the back door,” she laughed.

Her work-life balance, though hard to maintain with her workload, is something she cherishes. Aside from taking care of some chickens and her goats, she loves to paint, hike, travel and spend time with her four children.

Hilborn has come to think of Parlange as not just an attorney, but as a friend. In separate interviews, Parlange and Hilborn both quipped about how attorneys often come across more “to the point.” Their relationship often transcends that, Hilborn says.

Because he is not only an attorney, but a tribal member, Hilborn has run into a few instances of a conflict of interest in his work. Parlange will often take on a problem instead so he doesn’t have to compromise his professional life.

“I always have faith she will deal with something in the best way possible if it involves my family or friends,” he said. “She’s been an incredible support network and mentor.”

Parlange isn’t just a mentor, however. She’s a constant communicator and perpetual clarifier.

“It’s funny, they joke at tribal counsel, ‘Oh, Lorraine wants to clarify something again!’ ” Hilborn said as he laughed. “She always wants to clarify. She has to come up with a different word to say now. But really, she is truly passionate about the work in a way other attorneys aren’t. The community deserves it.”

Nemec, who often reminisces on her time working with Parlange, believes her impact will be felt within the tribe and surrounding communities for years to come. All the years Parlange put into the tribe has shown, she said.

“She has worked incredible hours, week after week, year after year,” Nemec said, “And she has fought the good fight for the tribe.”