One Year in Office: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland

 

Deb Haaland marks first year in office

By Pauly Denetclaw As the first Indigenous person to lead the Department of the Interior, her voice has finally been heard. But is it enough?  Just three weeks after the discovery made in Kamloops, Haaland announced at the National Congress of American Indian 2021 Mid Year Conference that the Interior Department would undertake a comprehensive review of federal boarding schools with an emphasis on cemeteries and potential burial sites. “As I read stories about an unmarked grave in Canada where the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found last month, I was sick to my stomach,” Haaland wrote in an op-ed. “But the deaths of Indigenous children at the hands of government were not limited to that side of the border… The United States also has a history of taking Native children from their families in an effort to eradicate our culture and erase us as a people. It is a history that we must learn from if our country is to heal from this tragic era.” ... continue reading