🪶 From Hope to Heartbreak: The Complex Legacy of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland
Achievement and betrayal mark historic tenure of Indigenous cabinet member - Historic appointment gives way to controversy over sacred lands
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🌟 Deb Haaland made history by becoming the first Native American to lead the important government department, the Department of Interior. 🇺🇸✨ She did many good things, like helping find out what happened to missing Native American women 🕵️♀️💔 and protecting special places sacred to Native peoples 🌄🙏. But she also approved a big power line project ⚡️🏗️ that will hurt land that's very important to other Native American tribes 🌿🚫. This makes people wonder 🤔 if having an important job sometimes makes leaders forget about protecting their own people's rights 🛡️🤝.
🗝️ Takeaways
🌅 Deb Haaland made history as the first Native American Interior Secretary, achieving significant progress on boarding school accountability and MMIW issues
⚖️ Her approval of the SunZia transmission line project through sacred tribal lands raises questions about power's corrupting influence
🏜️ San Carlos Apache and Tohono O'odham tribes taking fight to UN after US courts dismissed their claims
💔 Biden administration acknowledges historical Indigenous trauma while ignoring current tribal sovereignty
⚡ Project highlights the ongoing pattern of sacrificing Native lands for colonial infrastructure, even in the green energy era
Power and Promise: Reflecting on Indigenous Leadership in Colonial Institutions 🪶
¡Hermanas, hermanos, y relatives! Gather around as we share stories of hope, disappointment, and the wisdom that comes from both.
Today, we're reflecting on a journey that belongs to all of us—the historic tenure of Secretary Deb Haaland, our first Indigenous relative to lead the Department of Interior. 🏛️
Imagine that moment in 2021 when our hearts swelled with pride when we saw one of our own take her oath in a building that once housed policies designed to erase us. Many of us wept, prayed, and dared to dream of transformation.
We witnessed history being made, but as our ancestors taught us, with great power comes great responsibility—and sometimes, great temptation.
The Dawn of Hope: Our Sister Takes Office 🌅
Like the first light breaking over the pueblo at dawn, Deb Haaland's confirmation as Secretary of the Interior illuminated possibilities we had only dreamed of in whispered prayers.
Imagínense, relatives—one of our own, a daughter of Laguna Pueblo, would now lead the very department that once sought to erase us.
The walls that had echoed with the voices of those who wrote the boarding school policies would now carry the sound of moccasined feet, of turquoise jewelry catching the light, of Indigenous wisdom speaking in the halls of power.
Seeds of Change: The Early Victories 🌱
And oh, how those first seasons of her leadership brought forth fruit! Like a skilled farmer tending to long-neglected fields, Secretary Haaland began cultivating change.
Through the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, she helped us confront our collective trauma, documenting the stories of over three thousand lost little ones who never returned home to their families.
No más silencio - no more silence around this generational wound.
When she restored and expanded Bears Ears National Monument, our hearts soared. Here was something tangible—sacred lands returned to their sacred purpose. Through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, she secured the largest investment in tribal water rights settlements in history.
Agua es vida—water is life—and finally, our water rights received the recognition they deserved.
But perhaps closest to our hearts was her creation of the Missing and Murdered Unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For generations, our sisters, mothers, and daughters have disappeared into the shadows of an indifferent system. Each turquoise ribbon tied to a tree, each red dress hanging empty in the wind, called for justice.
Secretary Haaland heard those calls and established a dedicated unit to investigate these cases, aiming to bring our relatives home—or at least bring their families peace.
Sacred Lands Under Siege 🏜️
But mi gente, here's where our story takes a painful turn.
In the San Pedro Valley, every ridge and wash holds a memory. The I'itoi Ki:him (petroglyphs) near the proposed transmission corridor aren't mere rock art—they're our ancestors' signatures on the land, telling stories of water ceremonies and marking ancient tribal boundaries.
The SunZia project cuts through ceremonial grounds where O'odham and Apache peoples have gathered since time immemorial to honor the summer rains, to celebrate first harvests, to remember our dead.
Near the Winchester Mountains, there are caves where medicine people have sought visions for generations. The proposed 550-foot towers would stand like metal giants, casting shadows over these sacred spaces where our spiritual leaders still go to pray, to gather ceremonial plants, to maintain the delicate balance between our world and the spirit world.
Cada lugar es sagrado - each place is sacred, each site a chapter in our living history.
The False Promise of Progress 💰
Let's talk numbers, familia. New Mexico stands to gain billions from SunZia, with Pattern Energy projecting $1.3 billion in direct economic benefits. Meanwhile, our communities bear the burden of destroyed sacred sites, disrupted ceremonial grounds, and fragmented ecosystems.
Las promesas son como el viento - promises are like the wind.
The cruel irony cuts deep: about 15,000 Navajo households remain without power, while their lands have long been home to some of the nation's dirtiest power plants.
The Navajo Generating Station stood as a monument to this exploitation. Its massive turbines burned coal to push precious CAP water over 300 miles of desert and uphill, all so Phoenix and Tucson could pretend they lived beside flowing rivers.
Qué ironía más amarga - what bitter irony that our relatives still lack basic electricity while their lands powered the colonial dreams of distant cities.
Taking Our Fight Global ⚖️
When the federal district court dismissed our claims, our relatives didn't bow their heads in defeat.
The San Carlos Apache Tribe and Tohono O'odham Nation, alongside the Center for Biological Diversity, elevated this struggle to the international stage—the United Nations, where Indigenous peoples worldwide have increasingly found voice and solidarity.
Chairman Verlon Jose of the Tohono O'odham Nation spoke truth to power: "We do not disagree with renewable energy. We are for renewable energy. You know what the fix to this issue is? They could have rerouted it. But they didn't listen."
His words - this "punch to the gut" - echo through the canyons of broken promises.
The Pattern Continues 🔄
Mira, familia - from the radioactive legacy of uranium mining on Navajo lands to the coal strip-mining that has scarred Black Mesa, to the copper mines that threatened Apache sacred site Oak Flat - each generation faces its own version of resource exploitation masked as progress.
And here's where the story takes another twist that brings hope mixed with familiar pain: Tucson's own Regina Romero, our first Latina mayor in 145 years of city history, previously worked at the Center for Biological Diversity—the very organization now standing alongside our tribes in this fight against SunZia. Her journey from environmental justice warrior to city leader shows us that our people can rise to positions of power while staying true to their values.
¡Así se hace! That's how it's done!
But then we look at the White House, and ay, qué dolor—what pain. Yes, Biden offered apologies for the boarding school horrors where over three thousand of our little ones never returned home. Pretty words, pero ¿y qué? And then what?
Here's the bitter truth that stings like desert sand in the wind: while this administration, through Haaland's work, readily acknowledges our dead—the lost children of boarding schools, the missing and murdered women—they turn blind eyes and deaf ears to our living.
Leonard Peltier, our elder brother, our warrior for justice, still sits behind colonial bars after 47 years. The Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache peoples raise their voices today, their breath carrying ancestral wisdom across sacred lands threatened by SunZia, only to be ignored.
It seems our people are more valuable to them in history books than in the present struggle.
Don't they see? The SunZia approval and Peltier's continued imprisonment draw the same line in the desert sand—a boundary that says "this far, no further."
These are the markers they use to remind us that in their settler colonial society, we remain subjects, not sovereign peoples. They'll take our votes, shed tears at our ceremonies, but when it comes to true liberation?
Ahí está el límite - there's their limit.
Looking Forward with Heavy Hearts 🌅
This reflection isn't just about Deb Haaland—it's about the nature of power itself, about the systems that shape even the most committed leaders into instruments of their own people's displacement. When our leaders walk the marble halls of power, do they inevitably lose touch with the earth beneath their feet?
Yet still we rise, still we resist. La lucha sigue - the struggle continues.
Through the United Nations, through our ceremonies, through our stories, we maintain our sovereignty and our sacred connections to the land. Until there comes a day when our leaders can truly walk in both worlds without losing their way, we will continue to be the voice of the land, the keepers of sacred trust, the defenders of our children's future.
¡Adelante con la lucha! The fight continues, and in this struggle, we carry the prayers of our ancestors and the hopes of generations yet to come. 🙏🏽✊🏽
📖 Further Reading
🏜️ Biden's (and Deb Haaland's) Renewable Energy Betrayal: Tucson Native Voices Silenced 🌞🔇🏳️ Sacred Lands, Corporate Hands: The Battle for San Pedro Valley 🤝💰
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for younger readers
🌵 Mondays with Morales: 🦅 A Call for Clemency for Leonard Peltier
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
⚡ The Toxic Trail: SunZia Tramples Indigenous Rights Underfoot
From the devastating legacy of the Navajo Generating Station and uranium mines to the present-day SunZia controversy, the pursuit of energy resources has consistently come at the expense …
🚨 Tribes Take SunZia Battle to U.N.: Indigenous Rights vs. Green Energy Greed 🌿💰
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for younger readers
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I share your disappointment with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. Sadly, the pattern continues. A Democrat assumes a sensitive post and does at least a moderately (reasonably?) decent job, albeit one that disappoints those who hoped for more. Then a ReThuglican comes in, and tries to destroy everything.
I sent Haaland many missives, urging her to take action on various environmental issues. Often she did; sometimes she did not. Comes now the new Trump nominee, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who will also concurrently serve as the chair of the new National Energy Council. We must brace ourselves for the worst.