Lost Opportunity

Senate confirmation hearings for Interior secretary gloss over Native issues

Despite the department's impact on Native communities, nominee and lawmakers overlook Indigenous issues in favor of political pageantry

U.S. Capitol Building Dome, Washington D.C., Library of Congress collection.

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On Jan. 16, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum had his confirmation hearing for the Secretary of the Department of Interior. The hearing was held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., and was led by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah presided over the meeting.

As most of us know in Indian Country, the alleged infamous and dysfunctional Bureau of Indian Affairs is under the fabled Department of the Interior. As American Indians, our lands, our issues, our well-being, our blood, our sweat, our tears, and the federal government’s trust responsibility to us as a result of our treaties is lumped right alongside fish and wildlife issues. What a joke.

Federal permitting for energy development and conservation issues took center stage. One such issue was what Sen. Lee called “the misuse of the endangered species act.”

Sen. Martin Heinrich, Committee Ranking Member, D-N.M., led the meeting. “The Department of the Interior has responsibility for an incredibly broad array of issues, from conserving the places that Americans love to spend time with their families to protecting and recovering our most iconic wildlife species, to delivering water to cities and farms across the west and fulfilling our Nation’s trust responsibility to tribal nations,” said Heinrich. “Pretty much any job that involves responsibilities that range from elementary school students and health care [sic] to bison is a pretty big job.”

Our issues don’t belong in the same category as the Department of Animals and Resource Exploitation. As a result, there has been and always will be an inherent conflict of interest.

Heinrich continued, “I hope you’ll join me in keeping public lands in public hands, and the Interior Department is also the leader in meeting our Nation’s trust responsibility to Tribal Nations and upholding the treaty commitments that we as a Nation made to Tribes and their members. As a Nation, as we discussed in my office, we routinely fall short of meeting those commitments. We can and we must do better.”

Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota then took the floor. He sang Gov. Burgum’s praises and quoted a short list of the nominee’s accomplishments. Hoeven stated, “Talk to folks he’s worked with in Indian Country, every single tribe in North Dakota; we have five reservations, we have a lot more tribes than that, but every single tribe has endorsed him.” He then held up what appeared to be some letters of support from Tribes and asked that they be introduced into the official record.

Hoeven continued, “More than 180 different tribes across the country have endorsed him, too. That says something. That says something about a guy that’s willing to sit down and talk to folks, and this is a guy that fits this job. He covers all the bases.”

Next to speak was Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. “Let me start out by doing what I always do best, and that is what I agree with John Hoeven. It’s worked very well for me in my career,” said Cramer.

He continued, “I’ll wrap up with this since John did such a great job. I want to read one short paragraph from one of the letters from one of our tribes, and I know that many of the tribes have written letters.”

“Over my years of public service in North Dakota and working hard at relationships with tribal leaders and recognizing government-to-government relationships, the thing that has impressed me the most, perhaps, about Doug Burgum as a governor was the respect that he always showed for them and has been reciprocated because he did the hard thing, he earned the trust that had been lost. Not by former governors, so much as just history. It’s hard work to do that.”

Cramer concluded by reading a paragraph of a letter from Chairwoman Janet Alkire on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota. He called it “probably one of the bit more challenging relationships in recent years. It’s been over the Dakota Access Pipeline, and that particular tribe, which could have been, under different leadership, could have divided people in a big way.”

“But, even through that, even through all of that, he earned their support,” said Cramer. He then began to read the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s letter of support from Alkire. “Governor Burgum understands the Native American dynamic, which, if you are non-Native can be difficult to maneuver, but he does it well. He understands the importance of honoring traditional values and culture, promoting family first, remembering who we are and where we came from, the struggles we endure and community.”

The hearing lasted over 2.5 hours before CSPAN cut away to another program. As I watched, that was pretty much the extent to which American Indians were discussed at any length. Of the time allotted for the interview, probably less than five minutes were spent discussing us Indian people. No serious issues facing us were discussed in detail other than the politicians telling me that we Tribes support the nomination as if we are a bunch of sheep. Other than that, the interview went pretty well.

Burgum should be a shoo-in.

Gowits

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