In addition to breaking a barrier at Interior, Haaland would be the first Native American Cabinet secretary. In a letter to Biden last month, congressional Republicans asked him to revoke her historic nomination over their concerns.
At least one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, the committee chairman, has said he has not decided how he will vote. But in a mid-January interview with The Washington Post, Manchin said he’s “always been deferential to whoever the president” picks for his Cabinet.
Unlike the bipartisan approvals enjoyed by the last two nominees to run Interior, Haaland’s nomination may face a tie vote on the committee, which is composed of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans. In that case, Democrats would still be able to bring Haaland’s nomination to the full Senate for a vote following several procedural steps.
Native Americans are letting the senators know they’re watching.
On reservations, at think tanks, in cultural groups and lobbying organizations, American Indians who celebrated Haaland’s selection are working to push it through to confirmation. They are organizing a multicultural coalition stretching from Washington, D.C., to her home state of New Mexico to Montana and Oregon to voice support for Haaland.
The Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council erected two billboards Thursday with Haaland’s picture in Billings and Great Falls, Mont., the state represented by Haaland’s harshest critic, Sen. Steve Daines (R). Tom Rodgers, president of Global Indigenous Council, said the group wants to send a message to Daines, who has said he may try to block Haaland’s nomination.
Daines has questioned Haaland’s qualifications to run a department that manages 73 million acres of land with vast energy resources, criticized her support for the Green New Deal, and has labeled her positions “radical.”
“Even though he’s a senator from the state of Montana, his statements did not reflect the views of the tribes at all,” Holly Cook Macarro, chairwoman of the American Indian Graduate Center, said of Daines. Native people are nearly 10 percent of Montana’s population, she said. “We are not invisible.”
As the billboards were erected in Montana, Haaland’s supporters have lined up speakers for a virtual town hall to be held Monday before the hearing. Organizers plan a tweetstorm that will exhort supporters to contact their senators. They want the tweeting to continue the following day throughout the hearing.
“You’re watching a big campaign unfold right now,” said Crystal EchoHawk, executive director of Illumanative, a nonprofit group that works to use pop culture and media to undo Native American stereotypes.
“There was a groundswell of support of her nomination and it was diverse and big,” EchoHawk said. “People have been hanging back and waiting, and now that we finally have a hearing date, we’re taking action. I think obviously part of the catalyst has been the absolute outrage that people have been expressing after seeing these statements Republicans have been making.”
Judith LeBlanc, director of the Native Organizers Alliance, said the criticism of Haaland at such a historic moment stings. In addition to managing land, Interior oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Country.
“American Indians, we suffer from being erased from history. We were brought to our knees and forced into treaties. A huge majority of people think we don’t even exist,” LeBlanc said. “This department has the most impact on our daily lives. Land use, water use, health care, education and tribal governance.
“This nomination has such grass roots pride about the fact that one of our people is being nominated. I’m an elder. I’m 69. I’ve never seen anything like this. We are being rewritten back into history.”
Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo Nation in New Mexico, where 30,000 drilling wells and numerous mineral mines dot the landscape. Native people have…
Read More: Deb Haaland, nominated to be the first Native American cabinet secretary, faces GOP opposition