Deb Haaland: First Native American to serve as Cabinet Secretary for the Department of Interior
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Deb Haaland is the first Native American Cabinet Secretary of the Stewart Udall Department of Interior Building in Washington, DC. She is determined to rectify the historical assimilation of Native Americans. Secretary Haaland has been breaking down historical barriers and plans to continue to do so in her new position.
Deb Haaland grew up in Mesita Village, Laguna Pueblo, with her grandmother in her rock home. She is a thirty-fifth-generation New Mexican and grew up in a military family. Her father served for 30 years and was a Silver Star Medal recipient for saving six lives while in Vietnam. Her mother was a Navy Veteran and later worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She attended 13 public schools as a military child before graduating from Highland High School in Albuquerque.
As a single mother, Secretary Haaland volunteered at her child's preschool to afford early childhood education. Like many parents, she sometimes had to rely on food stamps, lived paycheck-to-paycheck, and struggled to put herself through college. At 28, she enrolled at the University of New Mexico and earned her Bachelor's degree in English, later graduating from Law School as a Juris Doctor (JD).
Secretary Haaland ran her own small business producing and canning Pueblo Salsa, served as a tribal administrator at San Felipe Pueblo, and became the first woman elected to the Laguna Development Corporation Board of Directors. While in this position, she pushed for environmentally friendly business practices.
After running for New Mexico Lieutenant Governor in 2014, Secretary Haaland became the first Native American woman to be elected to lead a State Party and one of the first Native American women to serve in Congress. Her main focuses while serving were environmental justice, climate change, family-friendly policies, and missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Leading the Department of Interior, she has been tasked to right the historical wrongs committed by the US by President Biden. Haaland says, “It’s an important piece of our history that every single American should know about…It’s a painful part of our history.” She is currently working on a healing tour centered around Indian boarding schools. Her own grandmother attended a Catholic boarding school, where students were abused and punished for their indigenous heritage.
Since taking on the position, she has faced criticism but has made monumental changes. While sacred land is still being infringed upon, like the lithium mining boom in Nevada, she is working within the department to correct this. She acknowledges that these mistakes are not primarily because of her, “There were past administrations that were working on some of these things.”
As a Congressional member, she helped to pass the Not Invisible Act in 2019, which initiated the formation of a commission to advise the Interior and Justice departments due to their failure in solving murder and missing persons cases in Native communities.
Cherokee chief Chuck Hoskin has praised Haaland and believes that she has raised the bar for future leaders by appointing leaders who will support the Indian Country. Hoskin says, “We have seen over the decades progress, and then some level of retreat…I think overall we’re on a path of progress in this country that’s beyond party lines.”
The administration has set aside $45 billion to support Native communities. With this money, the administration has worked towards clean water and accessible electricity. She said, “We’re proud that tribes have had this once-in-a-generation investment to make their communities better…You know there are tribes like the Hopi Tribe in Arizona who are able to electrify homes with solar power for the first time ever.”