{"id":33090,"date":"2023-07-05T01:30:51","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T07:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-interior-secretary-haaland-reflects-on-tenure-and-tradition-amid-policy-challenges\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:06:06","slug":"u-s-interior-secretary-haaland-reflects-on-tenure-and-tradition-amid-policy-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-interior-secretary-haaland-reflects-on-tenure-and-tradition-amid-policy-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Interior Secretary Haaland reflects on tenure and tradition amid policy challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland poses for a picture, in Albuquerque, N.M., Monday, June 12, 2023. (AP Photo\/Roberto E. Rosales)<\/span>Roberto E. Rosales<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

ALBUQUERQUE \u2013 It was never about making history for Deb Haaland, but rather making her parents proud.<\/p>\n

She says she worked hard, putting herself through school, starting a small business to pay bills and eventually finding her way into politics \u2013 first as a campaign volunteer and later as the first Native American woman to lead a political party in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The rest seems like history. Haaland was sworn in as one of the first two Native American women in Congress in 2019. Two years later, she took the reins at the U.S. Interior Department \u2013 an agency whose responsibilities stretch from managing energy development to meeting the nation\u2019s treaty obligations to 574 federally recognized tribes.<\/p>\n

Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet member in the U.S., spoke to The Associated Press about her tenure leading the 70,000-employee agency that oversees subsurface minerals and millions of acres of public land.<\/p>\n

The hardest part? Balancing the interests of every single American, she said.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland poses for a picture, in Albuquerque, N.M., Monday, June 12, 2023. (AP Photo\/Roberto E. Rosales)<\/span>Roberto E. Rosales<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"U.S.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks to The Associated Press, in Albuquerque, N.M., Monday, June 12, 2023. (AP Photo\/Roberto E. Rosales)<\/span>Roberto E. Rosales<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"U.S.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks to The Associated Press, in Albuquerque, N.M., Monday, June 12, 2023. (AP Photo\/Roberto E. Rosales)<\/span>Roberto E. Rosales<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI might feel one way about an issue personally. It doesn\u2019t mean that that\u2019s the decision that\u2019s going to be made,\u201d said Haaland, 62, sitting in the shade of the towering cottonwood trees that line her backyard in Albuquerque. \u201cThere is a process, so I am dedicated to that. I really do want to find a balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Criticism of Haaland has mounted in recent weeks. Environmentalists slammed her department\u2019s approval of the massive Willow oil project in Alaska, while a Republican-led U.S. House committee opened an investigation into ties between Haaland and an Indigenous group from her home state of New Mexico that advocates for halting oil and gas production on public lands.<\/p>\n

Both Democratic and Republican members of Congress also have grilled her about her agency\u2019s $19 billion budget request. Critics say the Interior Department under her guidance had failed to conduct quarterly oil and gas lease sales as required under law, doubled the time it takes to get permits, and raised royalty rates charged to energy companies to discourage domestic production and advance the administration\u2019s climate goals.<\/p>\n

Haaland defended the Biden administration\u2019s priorities, reiterating that her department was following the law and was on track to meet the administration\u2019s goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.<\/p>\n

But even some Democratic senators who support more wind and solar energy development have questioned that timeline, saying some projects take years to be permitted and could be at risk. Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico did not get a response from Haaland when asking when the first utility-scale offshore wind projects would be permitted<\/p>\n

Haaland said she had an idea of what the Cabinet job might entail, having served in Congress and as a member of Joe Biden\u2019s platform committee when he was the Democratic presidential nominee. Many of Biden\u2019s ideals about climate change, renewable energy and conservation mirrored her own.<\/p>\n

What gets conserved and how is at the root of a few thorny projects Haaland must navigate, from the Willow project to a drilling moratorium around a national park near northwestern New Mexico\u2019s Chaco Canyon, and now protests by Native American tribes over a proposed lithium mine in Nevada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t a one-size-fits-all for any of these things,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to take each one individually and find the best solution that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Native American tribes are not always pleased with the outcome, she acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery tribe, I think, is different. Their opportunities are different. Their lifestyles are different and it\u2019s up to us to make sure that we get them to the table to tell us what\u2019s important to them,\u201d she said. \u201d \u2026 And we do our best, as I said, to balance whatever the project is \u2013 using the science, using the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haaland\u2019s heritage as a member of Laguna Pueblo makes her unlike any previous secretary, and she\u2019s aware of the added expectations from Indian Country as she leads an agency with a fraught and even murderous history with Native tribes.<\/p>\n

She has worked to boost consultation efforts with tribal governments, allocate more resources to help address the alarming rate of disappearances and deaths among Native Americans, and launched an investigation into the federal government\u2019s role in boarding schools that sought to assimilate Native children over decades.<\/p>\n

Wenona Singel, an associate professor at Michigan State University College of Law and director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center, pointed to the stories Haaland has told about her grandparents being taken from their families when they were children. The story is similar to Singel\u2019s own family and many others.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe understands the pain and the trauma of having our ancestors be stripped of their culture and their language and their Native identity,\u201d said Singel, a member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians. \u201c She has demonstrated a deeper understanding of our nation\u2019s need to come to grips with the reality of this history and the way in which it continues to impact our communities today.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Haaland, there\u2019s no way to disconnect from her heritage: \u201cI am who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haaland grew up in a military family \u2013 her late father was a decorated Marine and her late mother spent more than two decades working for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs after serving in the U.S. Navy. Haaland often talks about how her mother \u2013 who also was a member of Laguna Pueblo \u2013 raised her to be fierce.<\/p>\n

Haaland, a mother herself, got married in 2021 to her longtime partner Skip Sayre. They share a home in Albuquerque with their two rescue dogs \u2013 Remington and Winchester.<\/p>\n

Haaland still hangs her clothes on the line out back to dry in the New Mexico sun, finds time to be outside every day and makes big batches of her own red chile sauce with garlic and oregano, freezing it so she has a ready supply when she comes home.<\/p>\n

Despite moving around as a kid, Haaland said her traditions keep her grounded. In fact, she\u2019s working to finish her master\u2019s degree in American Indian studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, a feat nearly 25 years in the making.<\/p>\n

Haaland\u2019s mother was the one who encouraged her to finish her thesis \u2013 an exploration of Laguna Pueblo\u2019s traditional foods. Haaland was proud to say she turned the paper in to her committee in early June, looking to show that Indigenous knowledge continues to be carried down and that the foods eaten at Laguna Pueblo \u2013 including stew and piki bread \u2013 haven\u2019t changed since the tribe migrated from the Chaco Canyon area generations ago. While modern ovens may have taken the place of hot stones, Haaland said Laguna\u2019s foods are still rooted in tradition.<\/p>\n

One of her first obligations as a Pueblo woman is to nurture her family and community, and Haaland said that\u2019s not unlike the demands of her current job: to manage and protect natural resources and cultural heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have values as a human being,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way you\u2019re raised by your family, and that\u2019s what I bring to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

hardest part? Balancing the interests of every single American<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82044,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33090\/revisions\/82044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33090"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}