First Native interior secretary leaves legacy after 4 years of impact: 'My authentic self'
Deb Haaland had just begun her second term in the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2021, elected from her native New Mexico. She was one of the first Indigenous women to be elected to Congress, but President Joe Biden had another "first" in mind.
He nominated her as the first Native American cabinet official and the first Native person to serve as Secretary of the Interior.
Haaland said it was "a really scary thing" when she first stepped onto the road to public service.
"It was like stepping into an area that you haven't gone before," she said. "And the job was no different. I had never been a Secretary of the Interior before."
She overcame that anxiety and set out to make history. Among her accomplishments managing the U.S. government's largest agency was a significant step for Indigenous communities.
"We gave tribes a true seat at the table."
Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, will depart the Interior Department at the end of Biden's term on Jan. 20. She leaves behind new and enhanced partnership agreements, more Indian Country homes with electricity for the first time and tribes playing a more active role in directing management of the Colorado River.
During an interview with The Arizona Republic Tuesday, Haaland said she was proud of the work she and her staff have done to put tribes at the table and as partners in land and water management.
She was particularly proud of her efforts to shine a light on the harm done to Indian Country children, families and communities by federal Indian boarding schools.
During a two-year study she commissioned, Haaland gathered first-hand accounts of school survivors and their families, assembling a record of the worst abuses in the 367 boarding schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and later the Bureau of Indian Education.
As part of her "Road to Healing Tour," she visited the Gila River Indian Community, hearing from people about their sometimes harrowing experiences. One former student talked about how her tongue was split when a teacher put a clothespin on it as punishment for speaking in O'odham in class.
The tour and study were summarized in a two-volume report that detailed many abuses in the system: how so many kids were taken from their homes and sent to faraway schools, how the long-term effects of generations of traumatized students scarred their families and communities. And how so many children died in the schools.
The report also outlined recommendations for healing communities wracked by the social ills wrought by the schools, for revitalizing language and cultural support, for reunifying families, for reforms in tribal community education, and for steps to reduce violence in tribal communities.
Haaland accompanied Biden to the Gila River Indian Community in October as he formally apologized to Indian Country, a historic moment for the government and the thousands of people whose lives were upended by the schools.
In December, Biden announced the creation of the Carlisle Indian Boarding School National Monument, which will share the story of the thousands of Native children, their families and communities who were affected by the schools. Carlisle was the first of its kind, designed to forcibly assimilate Native kids with the goal of terminating tribes. "Native American history is American history," Haaland said. "And we are making sure that our country doesn't forget the sacrifices during this era of our history, as sad and terrible as it was."
Protecting lands, waters and fish, hiking the Havasupai Trail
The secretary's days weren't all spent recounting abuses and trauma. Some of Haaland's work highlighted during her travels after her 2021 confirmation were joyous occasions.
Haaland visited Arizona in 2022, when she outlined water, drought resilience and other projects that would be funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. She discussed water delivery, funding for the Drought Resilience Plan and tribal water projects.
In July 2023, Haaland joined Biden and tribal, federal and state dignitaries for the creation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The 917,618-acre monument encompasses public lands surrounding Grand Canyon National Park and includes many sacred and cultural sites for area tribes.
Two months before that announcement, Haaland made a historic trip of her own when she hiked down the steep eight-mile-long Havasupai Trail to Supai as part of the first-ever visit of a sitting Interior Secretary to the Havasupai Tribe. After the visit, she hiked back up the trail the same day.
In June, Haaland joined Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs to formally sign a historic agreement as the next step in the 4,300-member tribe's project to lease or exchange portions of its Arizona water allocation.
Haaland returned to Arizona in September to formally announce the Apache trout had been removed from the Endangered Species List after a 50-year-long conservation partnership among federal, state, tribal and nonprofit organizations. The trout is the first sport fish and the first trout species to recover from near-extinction.
Haaland also played a leading role in forwarding Biden's “America the Beautiful” initiative which set out to conserve 30% of the nation's lands and waters by 2030.
She oversaw the establishment of new rules governing the oversight of 250 million acres of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management to better safeguard the lands, expedite clean energy development and continue to provide for outdoor recreation.
Tribes now have more say in what happens to ancestral lands and other issues important to Native peoples.
"We had held consultations that really made sure that tribes had a seat at the table," she said. "Because of President Biden, $45 billion was able to be sent to Indian Country for (tribes) to make the lives of their people better."
She established a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Person unit at the Bureau of Indian Affairs to institute a cross-government approach to pursue such cases.
Haaland also created a task force to eliminate offensive geographic names.
She praised her team, including Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton, for working to give tribes representation in many Interior agencies.
She also touted the work the Interior has done to forward the clean energy transition, including offshore wind and tribal electrification across the nation's reservations. She signed water deals and held groundbreaking ceremonies for new transmission lines to bring renewable solar power to the West.
"The Hopi Tribe had houses that never had electricity before and now have electricity," Haaland said.
And, in what Haaland believed was an enduring change, Interior agencies signed 400 co-stewardship agreements with tribes incorporating tribal traditional knowledge into land stewardship.
Some of her decisions weren't universally acclaimed by tribes. In 2023, Haaland issued a 20-year ban on new oil and gas drilling and fracking around Chaco Canyon, a world heritage site protected by the Chaco Culture National Historic Park. That move, heralded by Pueblo tribes, some Navajos and environmentalists, was panned by the Navajo Nation, which said the ban could impede local Navajo residents' ability to make a living by developing the resources under their land.
Cheering from the sidelines
Haaland said she's not done yet.
"We're going to keep working for another month," she said. "The folks who will leave when I leave are still working to get things done."
The career staff, including scientists, biologists, ecologists and other experts, will still be on the job after she and her fellow appointees leave, she said.
"And I am going to be cheering them on the sidelines because I know they'll continue to do the amazing work that they always do because they're public servants and they care about this country," Haaland said. "I wish the American people knew what I know about them, that they wake up every single day ready to serve their dedicated to the future, and so I applaud them every day."
The Department of the Interior's 65,000 employees run the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service. Interior also oversees the bureaus of Reclamation, Ocean Energy Management, Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. The staff oversees 480 million acres of public lands as well as subsurface minerals such as oil and gas, and the outer continental shelf.
The department also manages several Indian agencies including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education and the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration.
Haaland is hopeful that much of that work to include tribes as partners continues into the next administration. For example, "All of those co-stewardship agreements that we put into place, all of the tribal traditional knowledge that we've been able to incorporate into the way we steward those lands, aren't going away," Haaland said.
"Above all, I really hope that the tribes will continue to have a voice," she said. "We've really worked hard to make sure they've had a seat at the table in the important decisions that we have made when it comes to their ancestral homelands." Haaland said she hopes tribes continue to use their voice and make sure they're listened to when moving forward.
Haaland was cagey about her plans after leaving the Interior as rumors swirl about her possible bid to become New Mexico's first Native American governor in 2026. Instead, she said, "I'm going to be cheering the staff from the sidelines."
As she prepares to leave her office, Haaland said she has been visiting different groups across the department. "I've gone into their hallways. I've been visiting with staff and appointees for about the last month."
At the end of the day, Haaland said, "What I can say is that I really tried to be my authentic self."
Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at debra.krol@azcentral.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @debkrol.
Coverage of Indigenous issues at the intersection of climate, culture and commerce is supported by the Catena Foundation.