Rep. Deb Haaland – Photo by Joshua Roberts | Getty Images
WASHINGTON Rep. Deb Haaland confronted expected tough questioning from Republican senators on Tuesday at her confirmation hearing to become the first Native American secretary of the Department of the Interior.
But the New Mexico Democrat also drew support from Rep. Don Young, a longtime Alaska Republican who made a quick appearance to praise her for her willingness to work with GOP colleagues in the House. Many of Haaland’s critics are from oil-and gas-producing states in the West and have slammed the Biden administration’s recent moves on energy policy.
“I have a lot at stake here. I am an oil-producing state too,” Young told members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “She’ll work for us and she’ll reach across the aisle. If we have people in the Department of Interior like Deb maybe there’ll be a balance.”
President Joe Biden, Photo Courtesy The White House
Pres. Joe Biden this week signed a series of executive actions aimed at advancing racial equity in the United States.
The list included an executive order directing the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development to address racial bias in federal housing programs; another order phasing out federal contracts with private prisons; a memorandum recommitting the government to respecting tribal sovereignty of Native American nations; and another memo directing the Dept. of Justice to collect better data on hate crimes against people of Asian and Pacific Island descent, which have risen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The order directs each government agency to turn over plans for how they can better consult with the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes.
“It is a priority of my administration to make respect for Tribal sovereignty and self-governance, commitment to fulfilling federal trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations, and regular, meaningful, and robust consultation with Tribal Nations cornerstones of Federal Indian policy,” Biden wrote in the memo.
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“History demonstrates that we best serve Native American people when Tribal governments are empowered to lead their communities, and when federal officials speak with and listen to Tribal leaders in formulating federal policy that affects Tribal Nations, he added.
AP Images
Fallen pine cones covered 16-year-old Leslie Keiser’s fresh grave at the edge of Wolf Point, a small community on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation on the eastern Montana plains.
Leslie, whose father is a member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, is one of at least two teenagers on the reservation who died by suicide this summer. A third teen’s death is under investigation, authorities said.
Leslie’s mother, Natalie Keiser, was standing beside the grave recently when she received a text with a photo of the headstone she had ordered.
She looked at her phone and then back at the grave of the girl who took her own life in September.
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