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Native woman takes reins at Interior: What’s next?
Deb Haaland
United States Secretary of the Interior
As tens of thousands of people waited, then watched, Deb Haaland took the reins of the U.S. Interior Department in March, becoming the first American Indian to hold a Cabinet position.
Haaland now leads a department that manages much of the United States’ public lands, wildlife, and mining, as well as oil and gas production. At the same time, she oversees the department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and a long history of neglected treaty rights and trust responsibilities to 574 Indian tribes.
Her confirmation was a cliffhanger and a major win for Indigenous communities that came out in force to support her. After two days of grueling hearings, four Republican senators finally joined the Democrats in the Upper House to approve Haaland to lead the Interior Department.
“At my confirmation hearing, I said that we all have a stake in the future of our country. No matter your political party or zip code, your ancestral heritage or income level, we all must take the formidable challenges that lie ahead seriously, and we will take them head-on, together.”
-Deb Haaland, United States Secretary of the Interior
During the hearings, she narrowly convinced Congress that her role in the new administration of U.S. President Joe Biden would not be to impose a ban they fear on petroleum industry leases and pipeline construction.
Her past outspoken record of opposing Arctic Wilderness Reserve oil drilling and Dakota Access Pipeline development in unceded treaty territory were her personal positions, she insisted.
Taking the oath of office before her first full day in charge March 22, she delivered a statement that foreshadows a prominent place in present policy for Native America:
“At my confirmation hearing, I said that we all have a stake in the future of our country. No matter your political party or zip code, your ancestral heritage or income level, we all must take the formidable challenges that lie ahead seriously, and we will take them head-on, together.
“I am proud and humbled to lead the dedicated team at Interior as we seek to leave a livable planet for future generations. Together, we will work to advance President Biden’s vision to honor our nation-to-nation relationship with tribes, address the climate and nature crises, advance environmental justice, and build a clean energy future that creates good-paying jobs and powers our nation.
“I am proud and humbled to lead the dedicated team at Interior as we seek to leave a livable planet for future generations. Together, we will work to advance President Biden’s vision to honor our nation-to-nation relationship with tribes, address the climate and nature crises, advance environmental justice, and build a clean energy future that creates good-paying jobs and powers our nation.”
–Deb Haaland, United States Secretary of the Interior
“The change we need will take hard work and perseverance, but I know that together there is nothing we cannot accomplish,” she said.
Biden’s “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” contains an outline of Haaland’s marching orders in its “goal of conserving 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030.”
Quickly nicknamed the “30×30” clause after its Jan. 27 unveiling, it should be implemented with priority on “the rights, voices, and knowledge of Indigenous peoples, who have protected and managed the lands and waters for millennia, and (it should) affirm the Administration’s commitment to tribal sovereignty,” an expert panel of the non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council responded in writing.
“30×30 needs to mark the end of a history of the United States as a barrier to that remarkable stewardship and provide tribal communities with the funds and means to, if they wish, fulfill their vision and priorities for the stewardship of their natural and cultural resources,” the panel said.
“30×30 needs to mark the end of a history of the United States as a barrier to that remarkable stewardship and provide tribal communities with the funds and means to, if they wish, fulfill their vision and priorities for the stewardship of their natural and cultural resources.”
-an expert panel of the non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council
The survival of species in massive land and sea blocks depends on the success of a cooperative effort between Native Americans, federal agencies, and other parties, the 30×30 plan recognizes.
For one, the Sagebrush Ecosystem, home to 14 Western states and overlapping numerous tribal jurisdictions, is economically reliant on management that takes into account more than 350 species living here. Facing population pressure and development, it has lost half its vital bird habitat.
Likewise, the plan takes aim at protecting underwater species and humans who depend on them against accelerating climate change and contamination. It is a part of the executive order’s promise to get the ball rolling globally. Many other parts of it remain to be addressed
Biden’s pledge “to move quickly to build resilience, both at home and abroad, against the impacts of climate change that are already manifest and will continue to intensify according to current trajectories” is the order of the day for the New Mexico Democrat from Laguna Pueblo, who gave up her seat in Congress to accept this charge.
Rylee Mitchell is a Little Shell Chippewa student at Montana State University’s Great Falls College and a contributor to the Great Falls Tribune. Contact her at ryleemitchell51@gmail.com.
Patience O'Dowd
We are all very glad Deb Haaland was confirmed. We worry for our Native Species of 55 Million years, the Wid and free Roaming horses. The canary in the coal mine that is UNDER FIRE of Farm Bill Kick Backs. We watch, we work, we worry. If the horse does not make it, no other natve specie will.
HOWWEVER:
The cheat grass, the crested wheat grass, both non-native grasses are turning our western lands into BIG AG lands while flaming out our native flora and fuana. THIS is with full intent to take every last acre of wildlands for BIG AG and wiping out our water supplys on hay while we ship cattle and the nutrients it took to grow them overseas for $$$$$ A betrayal of multiple use, of the people, and of our future and of our earth.
Patience O'Dowd
We are all very glad Deb Haaland was confirmed. We worry for our Native Species of 55 Million years, the Wid and free Roaming horses. The canary in the coal mine that is UNDER FIRE of Farm Bill Kick Backs. We watch, we work, we worry. If the horse does not make it, no other native specie will.
HOWEVER:
The cheat grass, the crested wheat grass, both non-native grasses are turning our western lands into BIG AG lands while flaming out our native flora and fuana. THIS is with full intent to take every last acre of wildlands for BIG AG while wiping out our water supplies on hay while we ship cattle and the nutrients it took to grow them overseas for $$$$$. A betrayal of multiple use, of the people, and of our future, and of our earth home.
Not to mention the METHANE of their digestive ruminant enteric fermentation and from their untreated manure, or that they out weigh us, they out waste us, though none of their waste is treated. This inefficient and even cruel habit, which was started 10,000 years ago, on another continent. It raises our health care costs indisputably, and Indigenous Peoples have been relegated to this type of lively hood by this corrupt partisan crazed government by the FARM BILL on both sides.
It will take courage and vision to even rein this wasteful earth killing train.
Will Deb Haaland have that kind of courage? Does she have a non-partisan vision?