Rep. Deb Haaland, nominated to lead Interior Department, draws praise from Nevada tribal leaders
In 2018, Deb Haaland made history as one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. Haaland is making history again as the first Native American nominated for a federal cabinet position — and Nevada’s tribal leaders are celebrating the moment.
President Joe Biden tapped Haaland, a two-time New Mexico congresswoman of Lagua Pueblo heritage, to lead the nation’s Department of the Interior.
“It’s a great accomplishment for Native Americans across the country,” Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Chairman Arlan Melendez told the Reno Gazette Journal.
Nevada has 27 nations represented with at least 50,000 urban Indians, said Stacey Montooth, executive director of the Nevada Indian Commission.
“We all are different. We’re indigenous to this land, but we all have different songs, different dances, we eat different foods. But the one thing not just indigenous people in the United States have in common, but on the whole planet, is our connection to Mother Earth,” she said. “Within our region, 5 million acres are under the purview of Native American tribes. So, it is a great day to be indigenous.”
Haaland’s role in the White House
The Department of the Interior manages federal relations with 574 recognized tribes, comprised of roughly 1.9 million people. That includes overseeing tribal affairs and administering mineral rights on tribal lands.
“To have somebody who has the experience and has lived how Natives have lived throughout the years – she has that experience,” Rulon Pete, executive director of the Las Vegas Indian Center, said Thursday during a Facebook live panel discussion of Nevada tribal leaders. “There’s been people involved in the Department of Interior who have studied it or have heard about a lot of things, but to have somebody who can actually relate to Natives is incredible.
"She can bring in a different perspective on what we go through on a daily basis and what we deal with, not only on tribal land, but in urban communities.”
Known as a champion for public lands, clean water, and renewable energy, Haaland has also drawn support from state leaders in Nevada, where more than 80 percent of the state is managed by the federal government.
“Nevada is proud to see a highly esteemed and distinctly qualified Native American woman tapped to lead DOI,” Bradley Crowell, director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said in an email. “As an enrolled member of the Laguna Pueblo Tribe, Rep. Haaland brings a unique, authentic perspective to DOI that complements many of our shared goals and priorities here in Nevada.”
History of environmental activism
Haaland brings a strong history of environmental activism to the table, something that attracts Democrats who support her confirmation. Republicans have extensively criticized her during Senate confirmation hearings.
Appearing before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday, she was questioned for past positions calling for an end to natural gas fracking and pipeline development and an October tweet that said, "Republicans don’t believe in science."
“Rep. Haaland’s positions are squarely at odds with the mission of the Department of Interior,” Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the panel’s top Republican, said as the hearing opened. “That mission includes managing our nation's oil, gas and coal resources in a responsible manner. Not eliminating access to them.”
In 2016, before she was elected to Congress, she joined the Standing Rock Sioux protesters in North Dakota in opposition to the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
In 2020, Haaland and other U.S. representatives introduced the Thirty by Thirty Resolution to Save Nature, setting a goal for the United States to conserve at least 30 percent of its coastal waters and land by 2030.
“Globally, the loss of nature – accelerated by climate change – is putting up to one million species on the path to extinction,” Haaland said in a 2020 press release regarding the resolution while serving as vice chair of the House Natural Resources Committee. “Conserving our lands and waters is essential to protecting humans and wildlife and stabilizing our climate.”
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, only about 26 percent of the nation’s coastal water sand 12 percent of its land is currently protected.
Earlier this year, the Biden Administration committed to reaching that goal.
A similar resolution has been put forward in Nevada.
Although most Republicans seem unsatisfied by her responses regarding how she would handle environmental policies from endangered species to mineral extraction, Haaland is still expected to win confirmation in the Democratically controlled Senate and make history by becoming the first Native American member of the presidential cabinet.
“I just can’t overstate how important it is that we finally have a woman, a Native, in office that oversees so much of our tribal governments and so much our tribal lands and our public lands,” said Taylor Patterson of the Native Voters Alliance of Nevada.