Deb Haaland: America’s first Native cabinet secretary

upnewstoday (25)in #news • 3 years ago

To some, she's New Mexico politician Deb Haaland. To Native Americans, she's Auntie Deb. And Auntie just took the helm at the 172-year-old federal agency that most closely oversees Native affairs.

The Senate on Monday confirmed Ms Haaland as Interior Secretary by a vote of 51 to 40, making her the first Native cabinet secretary in US history.

Her historic selection to lead the Department of the Interior marks, as one Democratic Party lawmaker put it, history coming full circle. The agency manages over 500 million acres of public land, much of which was once seized from indigenous people. It also houses the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which services the 574 federally recognised Native tribes - as well as the 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives - in the country.

The choice of Ms Haaland is not merely symbolic though. President Joe Biden has pledged to aggressively decarbonise the US economy and to work more closely with Native tribes, two goals Ms Haaland's backers argue she is uniquely qualified to act on.

"As Native people, we aren't always used to having a seat at the table," says Rosalie Fish, a young Native athlete and advocate. "Now somebody - one of our own people - has finally risen up against the odds and is taking a stance for us."

3 years ago in #news by upnewstoday (25)

$0.00

STEEM 0.16

TRX 0.13

JST 0.027

BTC 58994.66

ETH 2596.74

USDT 1.00

SBD 2.43

Deb Haaland: America’s first Native cabinet secretary

Coin Marketplace