Not One Republican Asked Deb Haaland About Her Vision For Indian Country

In 2019, Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) pressed a Trump administration Interior Department official about his historical past of ridiculing Native Americans over their spiritual beliefs relating to sacred lands. After downplaying his 2009 assertion as one made “as a private attorney representing private clients,” William Perry Pendley, then-acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, stated he was excited in regards to the alternative to work with Native American tribes ― particularly to assist them develop their oil, gasoline and mineral sources. 

Haaland, a member of the Native American Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico, reminded Pendley that tribal priorities don’t begin and cease with extraction. 

“There are tribes who want to protect their ancestral homelands because they feel like they’re under attack,” she stated. “It’s very clear that the energy part is what’s important to you, and not the voices of the people.” 

Less than two years later, Haaland is President Joe Biden’s choose to guide the Interior Department, the guardian company of the Bureau of Land Management and several other different federal companies. If confirmed, she’ll make historical past because the nation’s first-ever Indigenous cupboard member, and can lead an enormous division that, along with managing federal lands, is tasked with upholding the federal government’s belief and treaty obligations to tribal nations. 

Elected tribal leaders, intertribal organizations and tons of of inexperienced and progressive teams have celebrated her historic nomination as an essential step towards confronting the U.S. authorities’s ugly historical past towards Indigenous peoples and rebuilding relations with them.

Yet when it got here time to query Haaland at her affirmation listening to earlier this week earlier than the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, not a single Republican on the panel inquired about her imaginative and prescient for supporting tribal sovereignty and empowering Indigenous communities. Instead, the GOP lawmakers bombarded her with questions on her private view on oil and gasoline ― views that largely align with Biden’s. They introduced up tribes nearly solely within the context of fossil gas growth.

The two-day listening to laid naked Republicans’ priorities, stated Crystal Echo Hawk, the founder and govt director of Native-led advocacy group IllumiNative and an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma.

“They were only interested in furthering their agenda to ensure Rep. Haaland would continue to allow extractive industries to have free rein over the department,” she instructed HuffPost through e-mail. “It is a reflection of what they fear about [her] — she is not beholden to the oil and gas industry as they are.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) instructed Haaland at one level that it appeared as if had change into “a proxy fight about the future of fossil fuels.” 

While the Interior Department is greatest recognized for managing 500 million acres of federal land ― together with the 63 nationwide parks ― and setting insurance policies that govern pure useful resource exploitation, its portfolio is way bigger. It’s answerable for managing water sources throughout the West, reclaiming deserted mine websites and defending and recovering endangered species. And it’s in command of the Bureau of Indian Education, which funds and operates greater than 180 tribal colleges, in addition to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  

Watching Republicans query Haaland, you wouldn’t know the way important the company is to Indian Country on an array of issues. 

“They didn’t ask questions about” the Bureau of Indian Education or Bureau of Indian Affairs, Echo Hawk famous. “It shows how little they care about Native peoples and tribal governments and how much allegiance they have to an industry [with] a long history of harming our community.”

The Republicans main the trouble to defeat Haaland’s nomination have obtained thousands and thousands of {dollars} from the oil and gasoline trade, as HuffPost beforehand reported.

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the committee’s rating Republican, learn aloud from a letter that the Northern Arapaho Business Council despatched to Biden this week urging him to rescind the administration’s short-term pause on new oil and gasoline leases on federal lands. He then grilled Haaland about her earlier statements in opposition to hydraulic fracturing and new fossil gas infrastructure. 

What Barrasso didn’t point out is that regardless of the Wyoming-based tribe’s heavy reliance on oil and gasoline revenues and the letter to Biden, the council’s chairman, Jordan Dresser, has voiced support for Haaland’s nomination.

“I’m just really excited for her,” Dresser instructed KUNM radio in Albuquerque. “It feels like another glimmer of hope for us.”

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), noting that oil and gasoline manufacturing is a serious supply of earnings for the Osage Nation and his state, requested Haaland about her stance on power growth on tribal lands. Haaland identified that the Biden administration’s pause on new oil and gasoline leasing doesn’t affect tribal lands, promised to check the difficulty carefully and acknowledged that her job as Interior secretary would entail a special mindset than that as a member of Congress. 

“I understand that role. It’s to serve all Americans, not just one my one district in New Mexico,” she stated.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) famous that the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, also called the Three Affiliated Tribes, are main oil producers and ship 300,000 barrels per day by way of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Asked if shutting down the challenge would have a devastating impact on the tribes’ economic system, Haaland agreed such a transfer would have impacts, however once more careworn that Biden’s govt order on federal leases doesn’t embrace tribal lands. 

After canceling a key allow for the Keystone XL pipeline, the Biden administration faces increasing calls to close down Dakota Access and different controversial pipelines. In 2016, earlier than being elected to Congress, Haaland joined representatives of some 200 tribes on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to protest Dakota Access.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who infuriated tribes and tribal teams in his house state this month after he painted Haaland as a “radical” menace to the fossil gas economic system and the Montana “way of life,” solely as soon as talked about tribal communities throughout his three rounds of rapid-fire questions. That got here as a part of a query about animal trapping, wherein he cited a 2019 quote wherein Haaland voiced opposition to trapping on federal lands. 

“About 6,000 Montanans are trappers, including several in tribal communities,” Daines stated. “If confirmed, will you restrict or ban trapping on public lands?”

Haaland stated she intends to observe the science and seek the advice of specialists and stakeholders when making selections, and that when she made that assertion a lot of her constituents again house had expressed severe issues in regards to the problem.  

Daines’ method towards Haaland stood in stark contrast to his treatment of former Trump administration Interior chiefs Ryan Zinke and David Bernhardt. At Zinke’s affirmation listening to in 2017, for instance, Daines instructed the nominee that the “bottom line is Indian Country should be very excited to have you in their corner” earlier than posing this query: “Tell us what you have done to help bring economic prosperity to Indian Country?”

Daines requested no such query of Haaland, who’s extensively thought-about among the many foremost advocates in Congress for Indian Country. 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) acknowledged the importance of Haaland’s nomination however questioned her about her previous opposition to the Willow challenge, a stalled oil development in her state’s National Petroleum Reserve. Murkowski stated the challenge is essential to Alaska Natives and the state’s economic system, and requested, “If we can’t produce oil resources within the National Petroleum Reserve, it causes one to question: Where?”

Haaland assured Murkowski she would observe the legislation and seek the advice of Alaska Natives and different stakeholders in regards to the challenge.

Murkowski additionally questioned whether or not Haaland totally understands the position that Alaska Native Corporations play in representing tribal pursuits within the state. “Their unique structure,” Murkowski stated, “allows really true self-determination and economic empowerment.”

Haaland admitted she doesn’t totally grasp the Alaska Native governance construction, however promised to be taught and be an advocate for the Indigenous peoples of the forty ninth state. 

Unlike most of their GOP colleagues, a number of Democrats on the committee used the listening to to boost issues apart from power growth that have an effect on Indian Country.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) urged Haaland to prioritize the repatriation of stolen tribal cultural gadgets — a difficulty the nominee referred to as “heartbreaking.” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) instructed her that the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in his house state are “sure looking for your new lens” to assist cope with its ongoing water disaster.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) requested Haaland if his state may rely on her to oppose uranium mining close to the Grand Canyon, noting that such a challenge poses a potential threat to the Havasupai tribe’s lone supply of water. And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) requested for her concepts for bettering the lives and well being of Native Americans.

Haaland talked about cleansing up legacy air pollution, addressing schooling shortfalls and combating the disaster of lacking and murdered Indigenous girls.  

“It’s difficult to not feel obligated to protect this land, and I feel that every indigenous person in this land understands that,” Haaland stated in response to a query from Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) about why she needs to function the 54th inside secretary. “We want to protect this country, and that means protecting it in every single way.”