TULALIP — Hazen Shopbell, a longtime Tulalip fisherman, entrepreneur and advocate for treaty rights, was elected chairman of the Tulalip Tribes Board of Directors following the General Council meeting and election on March 21, 2026.
The seven-member Board of Directors governs the Tulalip Tribes. Directors are elected by enrolled tribal members to three-year terms who hold ultimate authority over tribal affairs. The Board’s Officers — chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer — are selected by the board from among its members.
This year, three seats were up for election: Incumbents Teri Gobin and Hazen Shopbell sought re-election alongside challenger Marlin Fryberg Jr. and other candidates including Pat Contraro, Angel Cortez, David Fryberg Jr., Summer Hammons, Sarah Hart-Carpenter, Laverne Jones, Kisar Jones-Fryberg, Teresa Meece and Malory Simpson. Key issues during the campaign were economic diversification beyond gaming, housing and cost-of-living pressures, youth programs and cultural preservation, enforcement of treaty rights, and balancing services with self-sufficiency.
Of the total 1,608 votes were cast by Tulalip Tribes members, the top three elected were Shopbell led with 662 votes, followed by Malory Simpson with 558 and Teri Gobin with 540. The new seven-member Tulalip Tribes Board of Directors then selected Hazen Shopbell as chair, Deborah Parker as vice chair, Theresa Sheldon as secretary and Ryan Miller as treasurer. Former Chair Teri Gobin, Glen Gobin and Malory Simpson round out the board.
Shopbell, entering his third term, brings a background rooted in tribal traditions and practical enterprise, his biography states on the tribal governance website. The middle child of nine born to Rocky and Peggy Shopbell, he and his wife Tia are raising six children in the Hermosa neighborhood overlooking Tulalip Bay. A commercial fisherman since age 14, Shopbell has exercised treaty fishing rights, participated in geoduck diving and led efforts in a recent Fish Wars case affirming Coast Salish tribes’ rights to fish in usual and accustomed areas against the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Shopbell has built multiple enterprises including seafood distribution, automotive detailing, vapor products and general contracting. He worked 12 years at Tulalip Resort Casino in security and table games. He regularly participates in traditional sweat lodge ceremonies and Sun Dances with his family.
The Tulalip Tribes are direct successors to the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish and allied bands who signed the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott. The treaty, negotiated at Mukilteo — a site of profound historical significance where roughly 2,300 Native people gathered and 82 headmen signed the agreement on January 22, 1855 — ceded vast ancestral lands in exchange for reserved rights to fish, hunt and gather, and establishment of the Tulalip Reservation as a permanent homeland.
In his first public remarks as chair, Shopbell addressed the General Council with humility, according toan article in the Tulalip News.
“I never thought in a billion years I would be standing here,” Shopbell said. “There are 5,400 of us, and we are relatives. We are all in the same canoe together. My last name is Tulalip, not Shopbell, and I am going to support each and every one of you and your families.”
Former Chair Teri Gobin expressed optimism: “I feel like we are in a good place, and we will work well together.
Newly elected Malory Simpson, who won her first bid for the board after grassroots community work, focused on service: “I look forward to serving our people. It’s not just a win for me, it’s a win for us.”
The swearing-in too place on April 4, 2026, and featured traditional cultural elements, including honors from Shopbell’s Sioux family.
Author: Mario Lotmore
