Rep. Deb Haaland To Become First Indigenous Interior Secretary

President-elect Joe Biden has selected New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland to head the Department of the Interior in his administration, outlets are reporting, a historic move that would visualize Haaland because the initial Indigenous American assigned to the position of a cabinet secretary in the United States.


If her nomination is confirmed by the Senate, Haaland, a first-term member of the Home of Representatives and member of Pueblo of Laguna, would lead the department that "conserves and manages the nation's organic resources and cultural heritage for the benefit and enjoyment of the American people, provides scientific and other intelligence about organic resources and organic hazards to address societal challenges and create possibilities for the American people, and honors the nation's trust responsibilities or special commitments to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and affiliated island communities to assist them prosper," according to its website.


In other words, Haaland could be heading up the department in charge of decisions that affect the U.S.'S nearly 2 million Indigenous people, moreover to over 500 acres of public lands — about one-fifth of the total land in the country.


The interior secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a federal corporation that acts as "a partner with tribes to assist them achieve their objectives for self-determination while also sustaining its responsibilities under the Federal-Tribal trust and government-to-government relationships." Haaland has pledged give attention to battling climate change and help transform the interior department into one that invests in renewable energy, because the Washington Post reports. Haaland has been vice chair of the Home Committee on Organic Resources, as well.


Biden's nomination of Haaland is one of a few historic and pro-environment picks, immediately after years of regressive policies implemented by the Trump administration. To head the Environmental Protection Corporation, he named North Carolina environmental regulator Michael S Regan, who would become the initial Black man to hold the office. "It could be a honor to move the Biden-Harris climate agenda forward, help servicing the government to government relationship with Tribes that the Trump Administration has ruined, and serve because the initial Native American cabinet secretary in our nation’s history, Haaland mentioned in a statement, per The New York Times.


Indigenous voter turnout helped Biden land victories in key battleground states like Arizona and Wisconsin, and Haaland's confirmation could be a milestone for representation and visibility in American politics, as Protect the Sacred Now's Allie Young recently told MTV News.


"We don't often visualize ourselves reflected in the mainstream, in these high, powerful positions," Young, a Navajo Country activist, mentioned. "It'd be really incredible just to have someone like her up there who looks like me. I'm a firm believer in the fact that you can't be what you can't see."