Native American Haaland caps rise with Cabinet nod
AFP, LOS ANGELES
A single mother who overcame alcoholism, poverty and prejudice to become one of the US’ first Native American lawmakers, Deb Haaland capped a remarkable rise on Thursday with her nomination as the nation’s next secretary of the interior.
If confirmed, her historic appointment by US president-elect Joe Biden as the first indigenous Cabinet secretary would see Haaland run the agency responsible for about one-fifth of land in the US including its many tribal reservations.
Haaland, 60, who hails from New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo tribe and once started a company that made salsa dip to support herself and her young daughter as she struggled through law school, has just won re-election to a second term in the US Congress.