A MILESTONE FOR INTERIOR?
Two from N.M. in running to become first Native Cabinet secretary
A Native American heading the federal agencies that oversee tribal medical care, education, housing and lands seems a natural fit, but it has never happened.
It soon might.
Both the Beltway and New Mexico are abuzz about two Native Americans being considered to become the next secretary of the Department of the Interior. If one is chosen, it would be a milestone.
A Native American has never been a Cabinet secretary, and this job would have the added significance of leading the department that oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education.
One candidate is U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, an Albuquerque Democrat and Laguna Pueblo member who has gathered a groundswell of support in the weeks since Joe Biden was elected president. The other, according to The Hill and the New York Times, is Michael Connor, a former deputy interior
secretary with ties to Taos Pueblo.
Connor enjoys a possible advantage of having held a high-ranking Interior Department job under President Barack Obama.
The two candidates are among five from New Mexico who have been considered for the post. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently turned down the offer to be interior secretary, Biden’s transition officials have said. And as the incoming administration continues to fill positions in the Cabinet, the speculation on the Interior Department grows almost daily.
U.S. Sens. Tom Udall of Santa Fe and Martin Heinrich of Albuquerque also are thought to be in the mix. Udall is retiring from the Senate this year.
Udall, 72, has a long history of environmental activism and an interest in the Interior Department — his father, Stewart Udall, headed the agency under two presidents in the 1960s — making him a top contender. He expressed his passion for conservation in his farewell speech to Senate colleagues Tuesday.
One environmental advocate said all of New Mexico’s candidates are highly qualified for the job.
“That … itself sets that slate of candidates apart from who we’ve had running the show for the past four years,” said Susan Jane Brown, a staff attorney who oversees the wildlands program for the Western Environmental Law Center. “It will be a tough choice in a lot of ways.”
As for a Native American heading the agency, Brown said it’s way overdue.
“More Native voices in the Cabinet can only be a good thing,” she said.
Connor’s name only recently surfaced as a candidate. Haaland has been in the conversation for weeks.
Neither responded to inquiries about being on Biden’s shortlist.
Connor is an attorney at WilmerHale, a high-powered Washington, D.C., law firm. He specializes in natural resources, energy development and Native American law.
Haaland, 60, is an environmental and tribal advocate. She was one of two Native American women elected to Congress in 2018 — another historic first — and easily won reelection in the 1st Congressional District, which encompasses metro Albuquerque.
As Biden’s transition team began vetting her for the Cabinet post, she drew support not only from Native American advocacy groups across the country but from 50 Democratic leaders who signed a letter urging Biden to pick her.
“The Secretary of the Interior will play a leading role in carrying out your administration’s environmental and climate policies and managing its relationship with tribal nations,” wrote Raúl Grijalva, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. “You should choose a nominee who has a deep understanding of and connection to these important responsibilities.”
Haaland is vice chairwoman for the Natural Resources Committee and chairs the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands.
She also has served on the House Armed Services Committee and is a member of Biden’s Climate Engagement Advisory Council.
Last month, Haaland told HuffPost she would jump at the opportunity to be interior secretary.
“Oh yes, of course,” Haaland said. “Of course.”
Two Native advocacy organizations — the NDN Collective and the Indigenous Environmental Network — wrote a letter to the Biden transition team, urging it to pick Haaland as interior secretary.
“We strongly believe that the next Secretary of the Interior should be an Indigenous person,” the coalition wrote. “Someone with experience protecting public lands, addressing the climate crisis, and serving the needs of Indigenous communities. And someone who has no ties to fossil fuels or conflicts of interest when it comes to protecting our natural resources. Rep. Haaland is the only leading contender for the position who meets that criteria.”
Haaland recently joined Democratic lawmakers in passing a bill that would ban oil and gas drilling within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico.
She also has denounced sacred tribal sites being destroyed during construction of the southern border wall. And she spoke against Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s recent order to restrict funding to expand conservation areas under the Great American Outdoors Act.
Whoever becomes interior secretary will be in charge of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which manages 55 million acres of government land held in trust for tribes.
To have a Native American — whether it’s Haaland or Connor — head an agency that was part of a historic effort to forcibly remove Indigenous people and dilute their cultures would be pivotal, Native American advocates say.
“Any Indigenous person selected would definitely be appropriate for the seat of the secretary of interior,” said Leona Morgan, a Navajo community activist. “It is not only necessary but brings some optimism to the future [after] the long history of trauma that the United States has put on the Indigenous people.”
Morgan said she is quite familiar with Haaland but knows nothing about Connor.
Native communities would strongly support an Indigenous interior secretary, but they also would demand accountability, Morgan said.
“If an Indigenous person is appointed, they won’t get a free pass,” Morgan said. “They’ll have to work even harder.”
Marissa Naranjo, a Santa Clara Pueblo member, said Haaland has shown leadership in working with environmental groups and with tribal advocates who are fighting on behalf of their communities amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Haaland has led congressional efforts to deal with climate change and protect ancestral sites such as the greater Chaco region, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments, and the Arctic Wildlife National Refuge, Naranjo said.
“She really does continue to address a lot of issues that integrate economic, environmental and racial justice,” Naranjo said. “And a lot of those solutions definitely align with our core values as Pueblo people.”
The Interior Department also regulates activities on federal lands, including parks maintenance, grazing, logging, and oil and gas extraction.
Judy Calman, policy director for Audubon New Mexico, said Haaland, if chosen, would be in charge of the Bureau of Land Management and would ensure it keeps to its multiuse mission, which is not only energy development but recreation, conservation and preservation.
“Her appointment as the first Native American in a presidential Cabinet would also be a step in the right direction towards a government which is actually representative of the people,” Calman said. “We would all be lucky to have her there.”