Biden to pick Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary pressdemocrat.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pressdemocrat.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Biden to pick Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary, first Native American to lead agency
She would be the first Native American to lead the powerful federal agency that has wielded influence over the nationâs tribes for generations.
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President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M. as interior secretary. The historic pick would make her the first Native American to lead the powerful federal agency that has wielded influence over the nation s tribes for generations. [ J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE | AP ]
Published Dec. 17, 2020
President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary, according to two people familiar with the decision, a historic pick that would make her the first Native American to lead the powerful federal agency that has wielded influence over the nationâs tribes for generations.
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President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland to be secretary of the interior. She would be the first Native American to lead the agency.
Haaland, 60, is a member of the Laguna Pueblo. The Interior Department has a large influence over the country’s nearly 600 federally recognized tribes, in addition to overseeing federal lands, including wildlife, national parks and mineral wealth.
Native American groups were pleased. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said he was overjoyed, according to The Associated Press.
“It is truly a historic and unprecedented day for all Indigenous people,” he said.
AP sources: Biden to pick Rep. Haaland as first Native interior secretary startribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from startribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Haaland, 60, is a member of the
Laguna Pueblo and, as she likes to say, a 35th-generation resident of New Mexico. The role as interior secretary would put her in charge of an agency that not only has tremendous sway over the nearly 600 federally recognized tribes but also over much of the nation’s vast public lands, waterways, wildlife, national parks and mineral wealth.
The pick breaks a 245-year record of non-Native officials, mostly male, serving as the very top federal official over American Indian affairs. The federal government often worked to dispossess them of their land and, until recently, to assimilate them into white culture.