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Confirmed: New Interior Secretary Deb Haaland makes history

Person with long dark hair, wearing blue dress and facing camera with green grass, trees, and a crowd in the background

Then-Rep. Deb Haaland at an event in support of climate action in 2019

Kalita Conley, Moms Clean Air Force, Flickr

1st Indigenous-descended person in confirmed Cabinet post

More than 700 people have been confirmed to serve at the helm of modern Cabinet-level agencies in U.S. history. But until this week, nobody descended from North America’s Indigenous peoples was among them.  

With bipartisan support, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was confirmed as the 54th Secretary of the Interior on March 15. In addition to her extensive qualifications as a champion of public lands, climate action and increasing access to the outdoors, Secretary Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo Nation, will bring sorely needed perspective to an agency that has been responsible for exploiting and mistreating Indigenous peoples and their lands.

The Department of the Interior is currently tasked with managing the federal government’s Indian trust responsibilities--a legal obligation that includes guaranteeing the protection and safety of Tribal lands and resources (for example, ensuring access to fish, game and sources of clean water). Secretary Haaland has been hailed a strong advocate on those issues. As Amy Besaw Medford, a Harvard researcher who is a member of the Brothertown Indian Nation and of Menominee descent, recently put it, Secretary Haaland is “the first Native woman who will be responsible for policies that will affect Native American communities.” 

“Secretary Haaland is uniquely equipped to modernize the Interior Department, and turn the corner on decades of discrimination against Native Americans and their tribal nations" -Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society

“Secretary Haaland is uniquely equipped to modernize the Interior Department, and turn the corner on decades of discrimination against Native Americans and their tribal nations," said The Wilderness Society President Jamie Williams in a statement. "We look forward to working with Secretary Haaland and the Interior Department to take on these opportunities to solve our climate crisis in an equitable and just manner.”

Secretary Haaland has previously said she would work to undo public lands policies that have led to a shortsighted focus on fossil fuel development, instead expanding renewable energy production. Fossil fuels drilled and mined on public lands account for nearly one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and experts say addressing such development would be an important step in confronting climate change. 

Additionally, Rep. Haaland has been a leader in pushing the U.S. to embrace a national goal of protecting 30 percent of lands and waters by the year 2030, which scientists say will help stem the ongoing extinction crisis and deterioration of the natural world.

Key accomplishments of new Interior Secretary Deb Haaland: