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NY – It’s a victory for the first Americans, the originals. It is an appointment with a high symbolic value, and also with important political consequences. Joe Biden has appointed a woman native American (At some point they would have called her “American Indian”, native or indigenous) for the position of Minister of the Interior in her executive cabinet. Deb Haaland, if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first member of a native tribe or ethnic group to hold this position.
Twice as important to their parents, because in the United States the Ministry of the Interior does not deal with the police and public order (which is the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security), but with the management of natural resources, forest heritage, national parks and reserves. That is the habitat of which the “natives” were once the only residents, before colonization.
Crucial decisions like drilling permits to extract oil and gas go through the Ministry of the Interior. Often in the past, the interests of Big Oil and the fossil energy business have trampled on the rights of indigenous tribes, who have been assigned reserves and territories in some of the most beautiful natural areas and (al less partly) virgins.
Haaland, currently an elected member of a New Mexico constituency, belongs to the Pueblo of Laguna ethnic group. In electing her, Biden makes a very popular gesture with American Indians, environmentalists and on the left of his party.
However, it is a politically risky gesture, because Haaland resigns his parliamentary mandate and frees a seat in the House, where the majority of the Democratic Party dwindled in the last elections.
