Huge win for Arizona if Haaland leads Interior
The confirmation of U.S. Rep. Debra Haaland as secretary of interior by the Senate on Feb. 23 will be a tremendous win for Arizona.
She represents New Mexico, but Ms. Haaland is a daughter of Arizona. Born and raised in Winslow, she is one of us. She deeply understands our history and our struggles. She also shares a unique life experience with the 317,000-plus Indigenous citizens of this state, and a rare intimate knowledge of the inherent sovereign authority of our state’s 22 Indigenous Nations.
There are unique development challenges in the Indigenous territories that make up more than a quarter of our state. With her lived experience, Ms. Haaland is uniquely positioned to ensure that the interests of Indigenous America, and all of rural America, is at the fore of thinking in the beltway.
As an Albuquerque resident, she also understands the challenges faced by a vibrant and expanding metropolis in an arid region.
For Indigenous peoples and nations, she is essential to our survival.
COVID-19 threatens our very existence, and Ms. Haaland understands this in a way no other secretary of interior could.
The Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund has been on the front lines in the battle against COVID and our wounds cut deep. We have lost 1,144 relatives on the Navajo Nation as of Feb. 21 — a number that exceeds the enrollment of nine Arizona tribes. The loss is staggering and raises serious questions on how we will rebuild our families, economy and workforce after losing so many.
This question is especially daunting when we consider that 65% of those we have lost are our elders, wisdom keepers and culture bearers. Ms. Haaland understands the unique pain and fallout from COVID-19 in Indian country, and the absolute urgency in stemming further losses.
These losses have also disproportionately hit rural communities abutting Indian country. Swift measures to control COVID-19 will lend stability to us all.
Ms. Haaland understands why Indian country has been so hard-hit by COVID-19: the longstanding lack of investment in the critical capital infrastructure that serves as the necessary foundation for any thriving economy and society.
Up to one-third of homes on Navajo and Hopi lack running water, and another third lack electricity even while our lands provided the source of coalfired power that built Phoenix and much of the West. We were left vulnerable to COVID-19 by the extractive legacy that precipitated overcrowding by replacing our homes with strip mines, impaired our aquifers and reduced our water access, and imposed asthma, cancer and other underlying conditions upon us.
Ms. Haaland offers the hope of a secretary of interior who will look at us and see our basic humanity and our urgent human needs.
As secretary of interior, she will understand that, in Indian country, it is not about building back better; it is about conducting the initial build of the capital infrastructure that the rest of this country has long enjoyed but has never existed in our homelands.
It is also about stopping the use of Indian country as a national sacrifice area. This rebuilding and healing will benefit Indian country, our neighbors and our nation.
This will require someone who can successfully work across the aisle, and Ms. Haaland has a proven track record of this. In 2019 she introduced the most bills with bipartisan cosponsors of any House freshman.
For the good of Indian country and rural America, I pray Ms. Haaland is swiftly confirmed. The survival of my people in the face of COVID-19, and our successful rebuilding post-COVID, depends upon it.
Ethel Billie Branch is interim executive director of the Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund. She is a former attorney general for the Navajo Nation. Reach her at ethel.nhfcr@gmail.com; on Twitter: @ebbranch, @NCovid19relief.