Thread by @BBuchman_CNS

.@RepDebHaaland is poised to become Interior Secretary, a historic first and a major shakeup to a department that has, for four years now, been deeply entrenched in a top-down pattern of regulatory rollbacks and often, lack of access and transparency around environmental issues.

Julia Bernal, executive director of the @puebloalliance, commended President-elect @JoeBiden's pick saying:

“Congresswoman Deb Haaland has the unique perspective on how culturally important our lands are in the Southwest."

"Being an Indigenous womxn from Laguna Pueblo, she has advocated for the protection of our ancestral cultural landscapes from the oil and gas industry that has spiraled out of control under the Trump Administration."

(To wit, a tweet from the pick today:

https://twitter.com/RepDebHaaland/status/1339631451093032967?s=20

)

"Nominating Congresswoman Haaland as the Secretary of DOI would provide the sovereign tribal nations a chance to be an integral voice when it comes to how our lands and waters are managed.

"In order for us to mitigate climate change and address other adverse environmental impacts, an Indigenous feminist perspective on resource management is the only way to shift the paradigm and protect our ancestral lands for generations of the future."

@CourthouseNews

"If this administration will not lead the way, this committee will," Deb Haaland, 2/13/19, serving as the new chair for House Natural Resources.

Background:
courthousenews.com/scientists-pus…
@CourthouseNews

Developing.
courthousenews.com/biden-taps-1st…
@CourthouseNews

The lives of some 1.9 million Native Americans in the United States are intimately tied to decisions at the Interior.

In 2017 as the Trump admin was first getting its footing, members of a House cmte tasked w/overseeing matters of the Interior were visibly dismayed at reports from GAO, Interior & the Interior’s OIG on the state of schools for indigenous children
courthousenews.com/subcommittee-t…

The reports cataloged snow drifting into classrooms, mold clinging to the walls, and a persistent deficit of resources and funding among the 183 schools on Indian lands servicing some 42,000 students.

What was needed then isn’t much different now.

A ProPublica report published this August detailed at length the warnings offered to the Bureau of Indian Education to improve conditions or leave generations of indigenous children behind.
propublica.org/article/the-fe…

Mary Kendall, fmr deputy IG at Interior, told lawmakers 3 yrs. ago the way forward relies on more than oversight: “Serious action by new leadership at the Office of Indian Affairs would help."
If Haaland is confirmed, whomever she taps to lead that office comes under her purview.