Outgoing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland hands off closer ties with Indian Country : NPR

in farewell speech In Washington, D.C., this week, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland reflected on President Biden’s formal apology last October for the U.S. government’s historic assimilation policy and India’s residential school system. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, children were separated from their families, and the missing and dead were never fully accounted for.

“I believe we are entering a time of healing,” she told the crowd. “That healing is one of the most important things I’ve done as secretary.”

Haaland went on to reflect on her trip with Biden to one of the most notorious boarding schools in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. national monument.

”“As I stood next to the president, I felt the strength of our ancestors who overcame unthinkable odds so that we could all see this day,” she said.

Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico, said her grandparents and mother were expelled and spoke about the trauma in an interview with NPR just before the November election. Haaland says her 12-stop “Pathway to Healing” tour through Indian Country, which included listening sessions and a report to better explain what was missing, was a turning point.

“This is an important part of our history, and every American should know about it. It’s a painful part of our history,” she told NPR.

Haaland’s tenure was historic but will be shaped by future events

It may be too early for historians to judge Haaland’s accomplishments in leading the Interior Department. Experts argue that the Ministry of the Interior was established as part of the management and control of indigenous peoples.

But it’s certainly historical. She is presiding over the distribution of unprecedented billions of dollars in federal funding to tribes for everything from water to schools to security improvements to address alarming conditions. human trafficking Reservation crisis.

It is unclear how the new Trump administration will work with tribes and tribal lands. But agency observers argue that Ms. Haaland has profited from giving tribes a seat at the table in land decisions and working to right a legacy of historical wrongs in Indian Country, including breaking treaties.

“People can’t forget this history now,” said Robert Maxim, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Nation. “My concern is that we will not be able to act quickly enough to continue to respond to the ongoing impacts.”

Maxim, a fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, co-authored a report funded by Congress after the November election, saying it will likely be up to individual states to continue with Haaland’s reforms. he warned. Maxim said much of his analysis is based on looking back at President Trump’s first term.

“I’m really concerned about how his administration will choose to delay the opening of new monuments and other things and not prioritize funding for language revitalization.” [or] Defund Indian nationally essential programs like Head Start. ”

But on the other hand, Haaland’s potential successor, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, has close ties to the tribe, Maxim said. During Thursday’s Senate confirmation hearing, Burgum said he would seek input from everyone on public land issues.

“From my experience as governor, working with North Dakota tribes, working with local communities, including grazing associations, county commissioners, mayors, and local residents, I think consultation is key,” Burgum said. .

Trump administration promises more drilling

The new Trump administration is certain to push for more oil and gas drilling and extraction on federal and tribal lands. While environmentalists warn of climate-warming emissions, some tribes on energy-rich reservations will praise the income it generates.

Haaland has made conservation a hallmark of her tenure, at one point overseeing a moratorium on new drilling permits on federal land. She said she prioritized consultation with tribes in every decision.

“I feel like this administration has done a much better job of tribal consultation than any previous administration, and that was a priority for President Biden,” Haaland said.

But Nevada tribes have accused Haaland of not intervening more to prevent lithium mining from being approved on federal land they consider sacred. There is also the issue of inter-tribal gaming, which still leaves some painful feelings. On the West Coast, some are angry about a late-night decision to allow some tribes to open casinos off their reservations.

”I was very, very excited when she became secretary, but that quickly disappeared,” says Carla Keene, president of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians.

Keene’s tribe sued the Department of the Interior over approval of another tribe’s off-reservation casino near Medford, Oregon. Keene says it will compete with her tribe’s casino, which funds essential services.

“I wish she would have come out and visited our homeland if she had been invited,” Keene said. “And I wish she had taken the time to learn about our tribe and not be so afraid of offending someone.”

The ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the gaming dispute. Secretary Haaland, who led the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a government agency that controls one-fifth of the United States, said there was hardly a day in the past four years when she didn’t get yelled at by someone about something. Ta.

Indeed, leading the Department of the Interior, which has a diverse mission, is a difficult job and can sometimes come with conflicting pressures, said Laura Harjo, dean of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

But Harjo says Haaland is beginning to overturn the U.S. government’s tradition of managing Native lands as resources and goods.

“We’re definitely seeing a level of humanization of Indigenous peoples, and I think they’re recognizing that with a lot of her major initiatives,” Harjo says.

Zooming out, Indian Country activists generally respect Haaland for respecting their history, a change that could be difficult for a future administration to reverse.