The Historic Appointment of Secretary Deb Haaland It is often said that, “personnel is policy” – a President’s advisors and agency officials provide deep insight into the policy positions that the Administration will press for the duration of the four-year term. The most impactful decisions that a President makes are the nominations made to appoint cabinet-level positions. On December 17, 2020 then-President Elect Biden made the announcement that he would nominate Rep. Deb Haaland to serve as Secretary of the Interior. To say this nomination is a historic moment in Indian Country would be an understatement. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the nomination on February 23, 2021. Rep. Don Young (R-AK) introduced Rep. Haaland, providing a key endorsement of her nomination. The full Committee approved the Haaland nomination on March 4, 2021, with Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski joining all Committee Democrats voting to approve the nomination. The full Senate confirmed President Biden’s nomination of Secretary Haaland on March 15, 2021 by a vote of 51-40. Four Republicans joined 47 Democrats, voting in favor of her nomination. Four months into the historic term of Secretary Haaland, early actions indicate that she will place a careful focus on Interior’s decision-making on issues relating to Native cultural preservation, land restoration, climate impacts on Native communities, and the centuries long need to face the past, educate the public, and move all of Indian Country forward. A Return to Preserving Native Culture The Interior Department manages more than 500 million acres of public lands. Interior agencies make determinations about whether to open these public lands for oil and gas drilling and other development. For decades, decision makers have ignored the impacts of federal actions on tribal government treaty rights and sacred places on these federal lands. Haaland’s first trip as Interior Secretary was a visit to the Bears Ears National Monument in early April. She hiked and held three days of meetings with tribal leaders, members of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, the Governor of Utah, and members of the Utah federal delegation to discuss the current status of the Monument. The 1906 Antiquities Act authorizes the president to “declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated on land owned or controlled by the Federal Government to be national monuments.” Former President Obama established the Bears Ears National Monument on December 28, 2016. The Monument protects 1.35 million acres, more than 100,000 objects of historic significance, including burial sites, ceremonial grounds, and ancient cliff dwellings. Tribes and advocates sought to preserve the area for decades. In his proclamation designating the Bears Ears Monument, then-President Obama noted that the area represents “one of the densest and most significant cultural landscapes in the United States, [containing] rock art, ancient cliff dwellings, ceremonial sites, and countless other artifacts that provide an extraordinary cultural record." On December 4, 2017, former President Trump slashed the size of the Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent to 228,000 acres, opening 1.1 million acres of formerly protected lands to leasing for oil and gas development. In early June, Secretary Haaland submitted the Interior Department’s recommendation to President Biden relating to the restoration of Bears Ears and two other National Monuments that were diminished by the previous administration. The recommendations remain under review at the White House. According to Indian Country Today Reporter-Producer, Ailyah Chavez (Kewa Pueblo), Secretary Haaland’s first business trip also included a visit to her homelands. On April 6, 2021, she held a listening session with Members of the All Pueblo Council of Governors at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Former Cochiti Pueblo Gov. Regis Pecos described the meeting as a “profoundly defining moment…. Their availability to
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