Deb Haaland is the Real Deal

Rep. Debra Haaland talks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 4, 2019 [AFP/Chip Somodevilla]

By Samantha Grasso

Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the interior, has held powerful institutions accountable in her two years in Congress. How will she continue to do the same if confirmed as secretary?

Haaland is currently one of the first Native members of Congress, and would become the first Native American to lead the department if confirmed. Her nomination is significant – as someone with intimate knowledge of the needs of Indian Country (a general term used by Native communities to refer to Native places), Haaland would be responsible for managing public lands and honoring the country’s responsibilities to Indigenous people. Already, she’s drawn criticism from Republicans who see her support for the Green New Deal and opposition to extraction programs on public lands as a threat.

I spoke with Nick Martin, a staff writer at The New Republic who covers Indian Country, and the intersection of land and water rights and tribal sovereignty, about Haaland’s nomination. Martin, a member of the Sappony Tribe, one of eight tribes of North Carolina, views Haaland as someone who has been “real” about serving Indian Country.

Haaland’s short tenure has left an impression

Though Haaland has only been in Congress for one session, she’s made a name for herself by grilling Trump administration officials about underfunding tribal governments during the pandemic and federal bureaucrats from the Department of Defense for the department’s negative impacts on tribal land. She’s also made enemies at oil and gas companies trying to subvert tribal sovereignty with extraction projects.

“She did a really good job … throughout holding these kinds of powerful institutions accountable,” Martin said. “She got bills passed too … [but] if you just sit there and watch C-SPAN for a while, you can kind of start to understand who's real about serving Indian Country and who kind of maybe will voice it but doesn't really fight as hard for it. And she was real. For two years Haaland was a champion … She brought the goods to the table and was consistently fighting for Native people.”

Her nomination transcends symbolism

While there’s been much chatter about diversity and historic “firsts” among Biden’s cabinet nominations, “on the flip side of that,” says Martin, “if you get a diverse cabinet and they implement terrible policies that then bleed down and affect these same communities in similar ways that all white cabinets have affected them in the past, then you’re not really doing much.”

He thinks Haaland can be different.

“I think that her nomination is meaningful both for the idea of Native representation atop an agency that has, for a long, long time, existed to undermine tribal sovereignty, [harass] tribal governments in a way that only reflects the colonial governmental structure, [and that] she can use that position for good in the same way she used her Congress position for good,” Martin said. “You just kind of hold out hope.”

Haaland, like Biden, will be cleaning up after the Trump administration

“There's going to be immediate pain for people that are going to still be dealing with the fallout from the Trump administration, so it will be interesting to see how she can mitigate some of these circumstances where legally her hands are a bit tied,” Martin said.

Martin thinks that Haaland, if confirmed, will prioritize dismantling the Obama and Trump administrations’ ramping up of domestic oil and gas production.

She’ll also confront mining and pipeline permits and land leasings to private companies pushed through by the Trump administration’s former interior leaders: Trump installed former secretaries Ryan Zinke and David Bernhardt, the latter who was a lobbyist for oil and gas companies. The former acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, William Pendley, disdained the idea of federal public lands altogether and called for the sale of such land to the states.

Leaving Congress

There are only five Native members of Congress, including Haaland. Three are Republican, with Reps. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Yvette Herrell (R-NM) falling well to Haaland’s right, including on issues that affect Indian Country. Haaland’s potential departure underscores the lack of a Native caucus and a strategy for recruiting young members. While the number of Native people in state legislatures has increased in the past five or 10 years, Martin said, Native members must figure out how to bring those people into Congress and how to find the “next” Haaland.

“I think as interior secretary, it’s a much better position for her in terms of affecting immediate change. But at the same time I don't think we can overlook just how outsized she was as a presence in Congress and the need to not just replace that with one other Deb Haaland, but many,” Martin said.

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