Deb Haaland

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, center, participates in a Not Invisible Act Commission hearing in February 2023. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of the Interior)

Federal commission wants public input on missing and murdered Indigenous people

BY: - July 24, 2023

The South Dakota-based leader of the Native Women’s Society of the Great Plains is encouraging people to provide input during a federal commission’s upcoming hearings on missing and murdered Indigenous people and human trafficking. Carmen O’Leary, Cheyenne River Lakota, of Eagle Butte, is the executive director of the society.  “It is important to our community […]

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland testifies to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on May 2, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Committee livestream screenshot)

Interior secretary under fire at U.S. Senate hearing over oil and gas leases, public lands

BY: - May 2, 2023

Members of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee used a Tuesday hearing on the Interior Department’s fiscal 2024 budget to voice their displeasure with the administration’s energy production policies to Secretary Deb Haaland.  The strongest criticism came from Republicans on the panel, though Chairman Joe Manchin III, a centrist West Virginia Democrat with […]

U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland delivers remarks near the Yellowstone River in 2021. (NPS/Jacob W. Frank, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

U.S. Interior secretary unveils $125 million for local climate projects

BY: - April 21, 2023

BOISE, Idaho — The U.S. Interior Department will send $125 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law to scores of local climate resiliency and conservation projects, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told a group of environmental reporters Friday. Speaking at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference, Haaland promoted several aspects of the Interior Department’s agenda, including […]

On March 21, 2023, President Joe Biden designated Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in southern Nevada. Located at the confluence of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, the national monument protects objects of historic and scientific interest, including its namesake Avi Kwa Ame – or Spirit Mountain – and the surrounding arid valleys and mountain ranges that are historically important and sacred places for several tribal nations. (Courtesy of Department of Interior)

Biden officially designates new monuments in Nevada and Texas at conservation summit

BY: - March 21, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden stressed that his administration’s efforts to conserve the nation’s land and waters are an expression of fundamental American values at the White House Conservation In Action summit Tuesday afternoon.  Biden also announced the designation of two new national monuments in his address, Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in southern Nevada, […]

Seagull Lake in the Boundary Waters. Superior National Forest is home to 20% of all fresh water in the entire national forest system. (Photo by Christina MacGillivray)

Public lands near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters withdrawn from federal mining leases

BY: - January 27, 2023

WASHINGTON — After more than a year of assessment and debate, the U.S. Department of the Interior on Thursday announced the withdrawal of more than 225,000 acres of public lands near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota from federal mine leasing programs.  Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland signed Public Land Order 7917, […]

Members of the Wambli Ska Society perform a Lakota drum song at a ceremony on Sept. 13, 2022, in Pierre to celebrate the launch of a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons liaison within the South Dakota Attorney General's Office. (Courtesy of Attorney General's Office)

At tribal summit, Biden pledges federal commitment to Indian Country

BY: - November 30, 2022

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he is poised to designate Avi Kwa Ame, a sacred site for Native American tribes in southern Nevada, as a national monument that would ensure the preservation of ancestral lands for those 12 tribes.  “I’m committed to protecting this sacred place that is central to the creation […]