In Historic Move, Biden To Pick Native American Rep. Haaland As Interior Secretary

In a historic first, President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate Rep. Deb Haaland to lead the Department of the Interior, a source familiar with the decision told NPR's Franco Ordoñez.

If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, would be the country's first Native American Cabinet secretary. Fittingly, she'd do so as head of the agency responsible for not only managing the nation's public lands but also honoring its treaties with the Indigenous people from whom those lands were taken.

"She understands at a very real level — at a generational level, in her case going back 30 generations — what it is to care for American lands," says Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities.

Haaland's nomination is a win for tribal governments, environmental groups and some progressive lawmakers who had been lobbying for the New Mexico lawmaker to lead the Department of the Interior. Her fellow House Natural Resources Committee member and rumored Interior candidate, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., wrote a letter to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus recommending Haaland for the post.