Pauly Denetclaw
ICT
WASHINGTON — Four years ago, President Joe Biden was getting ready to take his oath of office in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection. The country’s capital was heavily guarded by 25,000 National Guard troops, who would stay for a five-month deployment. The usual crowds on the National Mall were missing — at the request of the Secret Service it was closed.
The country was in the midst of a global pandemic that had killed thousands of Americans — one of the hardest hit were Indigenous nations. During the inauguration, federal officials, past presidents, and guests donned masks, and social distancing was in full effect.
By the end of 2021, Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, Bay Mills Indian Community, and National Park Service director Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, would all take their oaths of office.
For the next four years, they would all make historic changes in their respective departments.
“Working with Secretary Haaland, it is hard to put it into words except that she’s just a wonderful person,” Newland told ICT. “Everything that people think, she is in public. She is more in private. She’s warm and genuine and brilliant and tough.”
“I’m leaving this position with an enormous amount of gratitude. I’ve been blessed to work alongside brilliant, dedicated people who want to make life better for Indian people.”
It would take nearly one more year for Chief Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba, Mohegan Tribe, to be sworn in as the U.S. Treasurer. She would stay for just two years before leaving her post in fall of 2024. Despite her short tenure, she would lead historic tax status changes that would solve decades long issues that uniquely impacted tribal nations and their enterprises.
The Biden administration is coming to a close, and the gains made under his leadership for Indigenous people and nations will be remembered for decades to come. Biden could possibly join the ranks of former Presidents Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy as Indian Country’s favorite heads of state. The dawn of a new era is upon the country with the inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump in just a few days.
As Haaland said in her farewell speech: the future is uncertain.
Hope remains strong
The only aspect of politics that’s predictable is there will be change, new administrations come in, different parties take control of the House and Senate, and new policy goals become a priority. Regardless, the mission of the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs role remains the same despite who serves in it.
“That’s really what this role is about: to work with Indian people. Not to make decisions about what’s best for Indian people (but) to bring sovereigns together for a common purpose of meeting our trust obligation and helping Indian people,” Newland said. “We’re going to have Republican presidents, we’re going to have Democratic presidents, and years from now who knows what other parties and folks (will) come into office. My hope is that the person who serves in this role understands their place in history and also is working alongside Indian Country.”
One piece of advice Newland has for the person who will be his successor is to stay grounded and not lose sight of the people they serve.
“It’s really easy to come here and be isolated and to lose touch with the everyday experiences of people in tribal communities. People who have to haul water, or people who have to go to fish camp and canned salmon for their food in the winter, or people who are crowded into homes with multiple generations,” he said. “It’s easy to fall out of touch with that, living here in Washington, D.C. And so it’s important to be on the ground in communities, places where government officials don’t often visit, and to just listen.”
The Biden-Harris administration made tribal consultation one of its priorities, releasing guidelines that define what tribal consultation is and looks like. Newland hopes this continues into the next administration.
“Consultation shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It should be just a matter of course. I think it leads to better policy,” he said. “I know from having been a tribal leader myself, and working with tribes, how much I appreciate it when government officials would talk to me about things that affected me. We’ve set the bar high and I hope Indian Country doesn’t expect or allow for anything less.”
Before becoming a federal official, Newland was elected to a two-year term as president of the Bay Mills Indian Community in northern Michigan. In taking the role of assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, Newland saw it as an act of public service, and his way of giving back to not just his nation but others across what is now known as the United States.
“I would encourage everyone out there to find ways to give of themselves and to serve,” Newland said. “I’m out of energy. I feel like I’ve left it on the field, but I’m filled with gratitude.”
There are many ways to answer the call, Newland said.
“You don’t have to serve as assistant secretary or president or senator or what have you,” he said. “We can all serve in our own ways, whether it’s our family or our communities or the natural world around us, and to do just a little bit to make the world a better place.
“If you had a chance to come into the federal government and serve, there’s nothing like it.”
There were many rewarding parts about being a federal official but one stood out for Newland.
“It’s really rewarding to know that you’re shaping the policy of the federal government. As a Native person, it’s rewarding to play your part in changing it, to make it better for Indian people,” he said.
Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, was tasked with telling the true history of this country by Haaland. Over the last almost four years, he’s proud of the work he’s been able to accomplish as the first Indigenous person to lead the National Park Service.
The agency has been able to share the stories of Chinese people who helped to build the infrastructure and created the first concessionaires in what would become Yosemite National Park in California, and on a more somber note the torture, lynching and murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy, by two older white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, in Mississippi.
“When I was sworn in over three years ago on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Sec. Haaland said, ‘Chuck, I’m charging you with being fierce in our storytelling, not to tell just the great stories and the happy stories, but also those that are hard,’” Sams told ICT. “The staff have leaned into telling all of those stories, across the breadth of who we are as Americans, so that we can ensure our future generations understand what it takes to have a vibrant democracy.”
The last day for Biden’s political appointees is Jan. 20.
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