Pauly Denetclaw
ICT
WASHINGTON — The room erupted in applause when Interior Sec. Deb Haaland entered the theater at the Stewart Lee Udall Building of the Interior Department, located just a few blocks from the White House.
Haaland gave her farewell address on Wednesday morning to a roomful of former and current Interior staff, political appointees, and a few community members. Her official last day in office is Monday, Jan. 20.
“We have ushered in a new era for Indian Country,” Haaland said in her address. “When I got here, I was determined to honor and elevate tribal sovereignty and the nation-to-nation relationship, not with words, but with actions, because that’s our responsibility. It’s our obligation.”
Indigeneity was centered and included during the celebration of the first Native American cabinet secretary.
Before the event started, Stephanie Conduff, Cherokee, gushed about the feather cape she made herself, attaching each feather one by one. She wore a copper gorget inscribed with the Trail of Tears. Heather Dawn Thompson, former director of the USDA’s Office of Tribal Relations, wore a white beaded buckskin dress, the fringe long and flowing as she talked.
Haaland wore an orange ribbon skirt and white moccasins. An eagle staff led the flags during the posting of the colors. The rhythmic beat and songs from the drum group filled the auditorium.
All of this in the heart of a department that in the past sought to eliminate and destroy Indigenous nations and people. Today, it was filled with Indigenous people, speaking their language, singing their songs, and wearing their regalia. The celebration was moving, audience members wiped away tears as staff and Haaland spoke.
As Chelsea Wilson, an Interior staff member, who introduced Haaland during the event, put poignantly, she was more than just a top federal official, and represented a hope come to fruition.
“I looked around and everyone in the room was grinning, beaming with pride that one of us, one of our aunties, one of our warriors, had done it. She was here in this place to fight for every single one of us,” Wilson, Cherokee, said about the first time she met Haaland.
Haaland brought with her many other Indigenous people who served as her senior advisors, communications specialists, and across the Interior’s various offices — including the first Indigenous person to lead the National Park Service.
“It has been such an honor and pleasure to work under the leadership of Secretary Haaland,” Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III, director for the National Park Service, told ICT. “She set out a massive agenda for us to ensure that we were working in Indian Country in a way that finally, really met our trust responsibilities.”
Sams is a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, and is also Cayuse and Walla Walla.
“As head of the National Park Service, she also wanted to ensure that every American, those of us who’ve been here for 30,000 years, or you were just sworn in yesterday as a new American, saw a reflection of themselves in the national parks, and we worked to that end by lifting up new stories that hadn’t been told,” said the 19th National Park Service Director.
In a tearful speech, Haaland reflected on all the department has accomplished. She highlighted the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, prioritizing tribal sovereignty, protection of sacred sites, increasing access to the outdoors for everyone, updating infrastructure, and addressing climate change.
“I’m going to be honest, I had no idea what these last four years had in store when I got to the department,” Haaland said. “I didn’t know the sheer breadth of what we’d accomplished or how we’d deliver many billions of dollars to the American people. I just knew that alongside every leader and team player here, that this work was urgent and necessary. So I started with honesty, and now I’ll be blunt: the future is uncertain.”
President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. His administration will bring in a whole new set of energy development goals, and new leadership that will set the priorities for the next four years.
Despite the uncertainty of the future, Haaland said the legacy and work of the Biden administration will continue long past his tenure.
“I know that so much of this work will endure because of the power of our partnership,” she said.
Haaland ended her speech by thanking the over 70,000 federal employees that made all of her accomplishments possible.
“No one at any one point in time has accomplished anything alone, not in 1150 A.D. when the odds my ancestors faced were significant, not four years ago when the challenges our communities grappled with were immense but changeable, not when I took on this job and inherited a team that would make any leader envious, and not today, when the work goes on in more ways than one,” Haaland said as her throat tightened with emotion.
“Dawaa’e. Thank you all for being my colleagues. I love every single one of you.”
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