{"id":2513,"date":"2020-12-16T19:47:47","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T19:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=140104"},"modified":"2020-12-16T19:47:47","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T19:47:47","slug":"deb-haaland-might-become-the-first-native-american-head-of-the-interior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/16\/deb-haaland-might-become-the-first-native-american-head-of-the-interior\/","title":{"rendered":"Deb Haaland might become the first Native American head of the Interior"},"content":{"rendered":"

During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden said<\/a> he would ensure that Native American tribes have \u201ca seat at the table at the highest levels of the federal government.\u201d Progressive activists, environmental advocates, and Indigenous groups are lobbying the now-president-elect to make good on that promise by nominating Debra Haaland, U.S. representative from New Mexico and an enrolled member of the Pueblo Laguna tribe, to lead the Department of the Interior. And according to reporting Tuesday from Reuters, Haaland is emerging as the former vice president\u2019s top choice for the Cabinet position<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Secretary of the Interior is charged with stewarding some 500 million acres of public lands, as well as assuming responsibility for the country\u2019s national parks, endangered species habitat, and oil and gas drilling sites. The department, which houses the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education, oversees the interests of the nation\u2019s nearly 2 million Indigenous people belonging to 547 federally recognized tribes.<\/p>\n

The agency, however, has a long and sordid history<\/a> of abdicating its responsibility to tribes, evicting Natives from their ancestral lands, abusing Indigenous citizens, and breaking treaties<\/a>. And the Interior Department under President Trump has drawn fire for its antagonistic treatment of tribes. In April, for example, Trump directed the department to revoke the reservation status of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe<\/a> in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

If she is chosen to lead the Interior, Haaland, who made history in 2018 when she became one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress, would become the first-ever Indigenous Cabinet secretary. Tribes across the nation have thrown their support behind the nomination, but a major obstacle stands in Haaland\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

A source familiar with the selection process told the Huffington Post<\/a> on Tuesday that \u201cthere is mounting pressure and increasingly vocal concern not to pull anyone else from the House.\u201d That\u2019s because a dozen<\/a> Democrats lost their House seats in November\u2019s election, and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi will be working with only a slim majority in the next Congress. Already, Biden has tapped two Democratic representatives \u2014 Marcia Fudge of Ohio and Cedric Richmond of Louisiana \u2014 to work in his administration, and Pelosi may not want to part with another. If Haaland is nominated to serve at the Interior, Pelosi would have a precarious 219-213 majority until those empty spots are filled in special elections.<\/p>\n

Still, Haaland\u2019s district in northern-central New Mexico went for Biden by 23 percentage points this election. It\u2019s unlikely her deep blue seat would be lost if her district had to hold a special election.<\/p>\n

Instead of further jeopardizing the one chamber of Congress Democrats are assured to have control over, Biden might decide to go with a different Native American nominee: Michael L. Connor, a partner at the law firm WilmerHale \u2014 where former FBI director and Special Counsel Robert Mueller is also a partner \u2014 and a deputy Secretary of the Interior under President Obama. Connor, a descendant of the Taos Pueblo tribe, specializes in environmental and Native American law. The New York Times reported that Connor\u2019s experience working in government, in addition to the fact that his nomination would have no impact on Pelosi\u2019s majority in the house, makes him an attractive alternative to Haaland.<\/p>\n

Opting for Connor is unlikely to sit well with Native groups. Dallas Goldtooth, a member of the Mdewakanton Dakota and Di\u0144e communities and an organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network, says he\u2019s never seen such widespread support among tribes for a candidate for a federal agency position. \u201cYou have hundreds and hundreds of tribal nations who have expressed support for Haaland,\u201d he said. \u201cEven the Taos Pueblo nation that Michael Connor belongs to, is backing and supporting her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, no one really knows Connor, Goldtooth explained. \u201cInsider folks who have worked on Capitol Hill may know of him, but Indian Country doesn\u2019t know him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldtooth says tribes are under no illusion that an Indigenous Interior secretary, like Haaland, will immediately smooth over the Interior\u2019s dark history of disenfranchising Native populations. But he said her appointment would be a \u201csolid step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement on Wednesday, Pelosi pushed back on the idea<\/a> that she was holding back Haaland\u2019s nomination. \u201cIf she is the president-elect\u2019s choice for Interior secretary, then he will have made an excellent choice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n