If confirmed, Deb Haaland will be the first Native American to be secretary of the Interior Department, which came as welcome news to some Indigenous people in Vermont who hope this marks a new direction for the federal agency.
Others remain skeptical that the decision will lead to the fundamental change they say is needed to right colonial wrongs of dispossessing Indigenous people of their land and depleting its resources.
The secretary of the interior oversees use of public lands as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, responsible for providing services to the 574 federally recognized tribes across the United States. Vermont’s tribes don’t receive these services because they are recognized by state government, not federal. But Native leadership at the federal level can still affect Vermont, leaders in the Abenaki community say.
Haaland, 60, a Democrat, was elected to Congress in 2019 from New Mexico. She is a member of the Laguna Pueblo, and former chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico.
“I think it was a very wise choice and also a very empowering choice to have representatives from the Native community,” said Carol McGranaghan, now in her third term as chair of Vermont’s Commission for Native American Affairs.
McGranaghan said representation at the federal level can have ripple effects extending to the work she’s doing now with legislators in Vermont. “Maybe a few more people in the Legislature will be a little more receptive to first of all recognizing that there are Native Americans in Vermont,” she said.
That work includes fighting for protection of sacred sites, which McGranaghan hopes to accomplish through a religious freedom bill that would also allow ceremonial use of tobacco, regardless of age. Efforts that were underway in the last session were delayed by the pandemic.
McGranaghan connects the work she and others are doing at a state level to protect sacred sites with what she hopes Haaland will achieve on public lands across the nation.
“I’m hopeful with this person that the respect for Mother Earth will come back, it will be considered, it will be part of the decision-making,” McGranaghan said.
That could involve strengthening environmental protections and reversing some decisions made in the Trump administration that allow mining and drilling in sensitive areas.
While Vermont is the ancestral homeland of Abenaki people, McGranaghan says she often has to work against “the historical perception that there never were Natives here.” The Haaland appointment brings increased visibility for Native people in the country, and works against that perception.
Rich Holschuh, a spokesperson for the Elnu Abenaki tribe, calls Haaland’s selection a wakeup call for Vermonters. “We really have very little awareness of anything to do with Indigenous people,” said Holschuh, who said he is cautiously celebrating “the momentous occasion of Haaland’s nomination.”
But Holschuh worries that Haaland may give the green light to renewable energy projects that would allow use of public lands for solar arrays, wind turbines and hydroelectric dams.
While green energy is a good thing, Holschuh says, “they’re not addressing the original problem that Indigenous people have been separated from this land.” And he expects that Vermont will be no exception to using public land as a resource and commodity instead of caring for it.
He also worries that the disparity could grow between federally recognized tribes and non-federally recognized tribes, such as those in Vermont.
“Federal tribes are probably going to be in a much better position,” he said, but “other groups that are not recognized are probably going to benefit very little, and that is the situation we’re in here.”
State-recognized Vermont tribes “are going to continue to not really have a seat at the table,” Holschuh said.
Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan Band hopes Haaland’s efforts can benefit tribes regardless of status. “I also hope that she extends that help to state tribes because the ‘status’ (federal or state) is a colonized European imposed obstacle we have to live with under the current rules,” he wrote in an email to VTDigger.
But for others, the appointment is a hopeful one, as Indigenous women increasingly taking on leadership roles.
“I think that it will help us in moving forward with some of the projects that we’ve discussed with a renewed vigor so to speak and hopefulness that it can make a difference,” said Beverly Little Thunder, a Lakota woman who is originally from Standing Rock, South Dakota.
Little Thunder moved to Vermont 16 years ago, leaving Standing Rock after her two-spirit identity was not accepted. For Little Thunder, two-spirit means being a lesbian; in many tribes, two-spirit is used to describe people who don’t conform to conventional gender roles.
While two-spirit people were often traditionally revered in native communities, it became increasingly stigmatized as tribes were forced to assimilate to western cultural norms — including gender roles.
Little Thunder is now on the Commission for Native American Affairs. Over the years, she’s seen more Indigenous women get involved in statewide efforts. Little Thunder said she was ecstatic to learn of Haaland’s appointment.
“It is time for women to step up in tribal matters. It’s time for the women to start taking leadership roles,” said Little Thunder. “That we have someone now that’s in charge of the interior who is an Indigenous woman, there’s bound to be change, and positive change.”
