by President-elect Joe Biden's selection of Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., to lead the Department of the Interior — potentially the first Native American to do so and serve as a Cabinet secretary — is being celebrated across Native American groups and viewed as a fresh start for tribal relations with the federal government.
The Interior Department is "a massive battleship. It's not going to turn on a dime, but this is the signaling of a new chapter," said Crystal Echo Hawk, executive director of IllumiNative, a Native American advocacy group. "This is a deep resetting of the federal government's relationship with Native peoples, one that was built on stolen land and broken promises."
Biden's pick of Haaland had drawn concern among some Democrats over the threat of losing another seat and narrowing of the party's slim hold in the U.S. House. But she tweeted Thursday that the historic nature of her nomination has come at the right moment.
"A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior," Haaland, 60, a tribal member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, said. "Growing up in my mother's Pueblo household made me fierce. I'll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land."
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The Interior Department is "a massive battleship. It's not going to turn on a dime, but this is the signaling of a new chapter," said Crystal Echo Hawk, executive director of IllumiNative, a Native American advocacy group. "This is a deep resetting of the federal government's relationship with Native peoples, one that was built on stolen land and broken promises."
Biden's pick of Haaland had drawn concern among some Democrats over the threat of losing another seat and narrowing of the party's slim hold in the U.S. House. But she tweeted Thursday that the historic nature of her nomination has come at the right moment.
"A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior," Haaland, 60, a tribal member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, said. "Growing up in my mother's Pueblo household made me fierce. I'll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land."
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