This story has been updated to show which Senate committee will oversee the nomination.
Jourdan Bennett-Begaye
ICT
WASHINGTON — The White House quietly nominated Navajo citizen William “Billy” Kirkland as assistant secretary of the Interior, colloquially referred to as the assistant secretary of Indian affairs, on Feb. 3.
The role focuses on assisting the Secretary of the Interior in fulfilling the treaty and trust responsibilities to tribal nations. The post was previously held by Bryan Todd Newland, who resigned along with other political appointees in the Biden administration, a typical part of the process from one administration to the next. Newland is a Bay Mills Indian Community citizen.
The nomination was received by the Senate and referred to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Feb. 3. As of Feb. 6 the congressional database has been updated to show that the Indian affairs committee will handle the nomination, not the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
ICT previously reported that both the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources were listed as the committees to handle the nomination. The nomination can be referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources since it has jurisdiction over the Department of Interior. It also depends on the Senate leadership’s priorities.
In 1946, the House and Senate Committees on Indian Affairs were eliminated, essentially this was during the termination era. The Senate committee had been in existence since the early 19th century. All legislative and oversight of Indian affairs fell to more than 10 committees. “A situation which resulted in a sometimes disjointed treatment of Indian affairs and in an often haphazard development of Federal Indian policy,” as stated on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs website. The infrastructure was not adequate enough to address issues in Indian Country.
The committee came back in the early 1970s, around the time of the Menominee Restoration Act and became a permanent committee in 1983 after “it became increasingly evident that if the Congress was to continue to meet its constitutional, legal, and historical responsibilities in the area of Indian affairs, an ongoing legislative committee with adequate expertise and resources should be re‑established in the Senate.”
President Donald J. Trump nominated Tara Sweeney from Alaska as assistant secretary of Indian affairs in his first term. She was a tribal member of Native village of Barrow Traditional Iñupiat Government and the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope. Her nomination went through the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in the summer of 2018.
Previous nominations of the assistant secretary of Indian affairs, from Newland in the Biden administration all the way to Obama’s first term with Larry J. Echo Hawk has been handled under the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and recorded as the “Assistant Secretary of the Interior” in the congressional database and as written in statute.
Forrest Gerard, Blackfeet, was the department’s first assistant secretary of Indian affairs. Former President Jimmy Carter nominated him in 1977.
Gerard focused on policy for the position and left the daily operations to the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“Previously the top post in Indian affairs had been the commissioner of Indian affairs, but Carter had made a campaign to bring Indian affairs into the top circle of policy discussions,” wrote former ICT Editor Mark Trahant in his book,”The Last Great Battle of the Indian Wars.”
Trahant continued: “‘You have to understand that under the new arrangement, the assistant secretary for Indian affairs will not be absorbed in the day-to-day operations of the BIA as he will be with overall policy; fighting with the Interior Department, dealing with OMG (the Office of Management and Budget), the Congress and major contracts outside the department,’ Gerard said on Aug. 26, 1977.”
The Senate Committee of Indian Affairs had its organizational business meeting on Feb. 5 to elect the chair and vice chair of the committee for the 119th Congress. The committee voted to make Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski chair and Hawai’i Sen. Brian Schatz vice chair. Murkowski is Republican and Schatz is Democrat.
“Part of the passion I have for the Indian affairs committee is because it covers everything,” Murkowski said during the Feb. 5 meeting. “In a way it’s a mini appropriations where you have the ability to see so much. It’s education, it’s transportation, it’s public safety, it’s forestry. And we have such an important charge: it’s solving the problem of and improving the lives of Native people.
Who is William ‘Billy’ Kirkland?
Kirkland graduated with a degree in political science from the University of Georgia.
“Billy has been a longtime grassroots leader in the Georgia Republican Party, has served as an officer in the Henry County Republican Party, and has worked on numerous state and local Republican campaigns, including the campaign of former Governor Sonny Perdue,” according to the Georgia General Assembly. He also has lengthy experience working in the Georgia House of Representatives, the governor’s intergovernmental affairs office, and campaign manager for former Sen. David Perdue.
Native pundit Mike Stopp, Cherokee, said Kirkland is “the best pick that we could have come up with.”
“I think he’s the right pick because he is the right confluence of both the Trump mindset and understanding the needs in Indian Country. And you need someone in that position right now who can really advocate for Indian Country, but also understands how the inner workings of the Trump world works,” Stopp told ICT.
In Trump’s first administration, Kirkland served as the Special Assistant to the President of the United States and Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House. He also held the position of Director of External Affairs within the office of the Vice President of the United States, according to an Authenticated U.S. Government Information document.
Stopp said Kirkland did a lot of behind-the-scenes work, and not the “more typical front-facing” positions, within the executive branch during Trump’s first term. Native people will see this in the confirmation hearings, Stopp said.
“He is well versed in federal Indian policy. And like I said, he fits that description very well. He has the ear of the folks in the Trump administration, and that’s who we need to hear the needs we have in Indian Country to make sure that we don’t get swallowed up in some of these other concerns that the Trump administration is looking at,” Stopp said. “I know there’s been a lot of issues the last week about tribes getting rolled up on some of the issues, with funding, with the DEI decisions. Billy will be a good voice for us to talk about those things and talk about Indian Country.”
Stopp expects Kirkland’s priorities to align with those of Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and the administration. Those priorities are to change the regulatory burden on everyone, including tribal nations, and “put more power closer to the tribes and less paternalism coming from the federal government.”
“We want tribes to have the sovereignty to make their own decisions. If they want to do energy, if they want to drill, they should be able to do that with less burdensome regulations than what they’re under now. It’s their land,” Stopp said. “If they don’t want to do that, if they want to take on a more environmentally sound or environmentally conscious decision, they should be able to do that as well.”
The National Congress of American Indians applauded the nomination.
“(The National Congress of American Indians) looks forward to engaging with Kirkland upon his confirmation to protect and further strengthen the government-to-government relationship and advance policy priorities that support Tribal Nations,” said Mark Macarro, president of the organization, in a statement. “We remain committed to working in partnership with the Department of the Interior to uphold tribal sovereignty.”
Georgia Rep. Brian Jack, Republican, congratulated Kirkland on social media for his nomination. Jack was just elected to Congress and previously served as the White House Political Director under Trump in 2019 to 2021.
“Congratulations to Billy Kirkland on being nominated by President Trump to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs!” Jack wrote on X. “Billy is extremely talented, respected by all, and committed to improving the lives of our Native American citizens. He’s also one of my best friends and will do an incredible job working under President Trump’s and Secretary Burgum’s leadership!”
Arizona Rep. Eli Crane, Republican, also extended a congratulations on X. “I look forward to working with you in this new role to secure wins for tribes in Arizona,” Crane wrote.
Kirkland will have to go through a hearing with the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs and vote out of the committee, and then go through confirmation on the U.S. Senate floor. A date for the committee hearing has not been established yet.
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