A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Deb Haaland's roots in New Mexico go back well beyond the founding of this country.
DEB HAALAND: My ancestors, you know, the Pueblo Indians were the first - essentially the first inhabitants of New Mexico and other parts of the Southwest.
MARTÍNEZ: Haaland counts with a few first of her own. In 2018, she became one of the first two Native women elected to Congress, alongside Representative Sharice Davids of Kansas. A few years later, then-President Joe Biden nominated Haaland to lead the Department of Interior, making her the country's first Native American cabinet secretary. Now, she's arguing her case to voters in New Mexico as she hopes to become the country's first Native American woman to be elected governor. I recently spoke with Deb Haaland about her new memoir, "A Voice Like Mine," and in it she looks back at the winding road from working at a bakery in Albuquerque to a life in politics.
HAALAND: I wasn't raised to be a public servant. Maybe a public servant like my parents were, right? My dad was a Marine. My mom worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She was a civil servant. But I just thought of running for office all on my own. And (laughter) so I, you know, want to...
MARTÍNEZ: But there had to be something that pushed you, that pushed you toward that, like...
HAALAND: Well...
MARTÍNEZ: ...Yeah, this is something I got to do.
HAALAND: Well, I mean, in 2014, I ran for lieutenant governor in New Mexico, and it was a terrible year for Democrats. We lost in the general election, but after that, it made me want to run for state party chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico so I could help us to get back on track.
MARTÍNEZ: So you're one of the first Native American women elected to Congress. Do you feel that pressure when you think about what you've been able to do and what you want to continue to do in public service?
HAALAND: It is kind of scary, and I feel like it's kind of my job to help people to recognize that they can do things, right? Yes, you can do it. You can do this. You can run for office. You know, we have more of a voice than we've ever had, but the struggle is real, and we need to keep doing that. That's why I'm saying we need more voices at the table. We need more voices at the decision-making table.
MARTÍNEZ: When you led the Department of Interior, you did focus on things such as restricting drilling and moving away from leasing public land just for pure extraction. Your successor in the Interior Department, Doug Burgum, is the opposite - increasing oil, natural gas and mineral leasing on public lands. What does it mean, though, for the United States' natural resources if the policies that manage them shift that much depending on who's in the White House?
HAALAND: Well, it's sad because when you see what they've done, working to suppress clean energy projects and so forth, clean energy increases folks' opportunities for energy, right? And I'll give you an example. When I was secretary, we put a lot of funding toward solar energy in a place like the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona. Many of those homes never had electricity. We can have a diversified energy portfolio if we will work hard to move our clean energy forward, as well. And that's something that this administration is really working to hamper, and I just don't think that helps communities.
MARTÍNEZ: Is there any way to have an ideology-free approach to manage federal lands?
HAALAND: I mean, I think that's what - I mean, I think that's what we tried to do. We brought people to the table and talked to them before we made decisions. We were able to get a lot of our clean energy projects across the finish line because we really had people at the table and listened to them.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, one of the things I saw in the book is your recipe for green chili chicken pozole. I know that food and cooking are a big part of your life. Why that recipe in particular? And I think you had other recipes in there, too.
HAALAND: Sure, sure. So the green chili chicken pozole I started making when I was in law school. I just, you know, thought up the recipe myself, and I would make it, and we'd sell it by the bowl in the...
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, wow.
HAALAND: ...Forum of UNM School of Law. And so that's why I included it there because it was a favorite of the law students in the class of 2006.
MARTÍNEZ: So - OK, I was wondering about that because I know that you run - you run marathons. First of all, are you still running? I know that you're technically running for governor of New Mexico, but I'm saying, are you actually hitting the road, either the...
HAALAND: Yes.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Pavement or the...
HAALAND: I am. You know, not as often as I'd like.
MARTÍNEZ: OK.
HAALAND: But I love running. It's especially great if I can, you know, go to the foothills of the Sandias or the Bosque Trail in Albuquerque. And yeah, it's very peaceful, right? You see a lot of - you hear a lot of birds early in the morning, and it's just lovely.
MARTÍNEZ: You know, America is 250 years old, and for much of that time, Native Americans have fought for land, sovereignty and rights. And as you've mentioned in the book, you are a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo tribe of New Mexico. So wondering, Secretary, how do you reflect on the complicated legacy between the United States and Native tribes?
HAALAND: Yeah. Our country is all ancestral homelands of Native Americans, of Indigenous people, indigenous to North America. And we love our land, and we celebrate it every day, right? We don't need an anniversary - 250th anniversary to celebrate. We - our - the bones of our ancestors are buried here. You know, we have an obligation to those ancestors. So, you know, when I think about the 250th anniversary of the United States, I think that sometimes we've regressed in the way we're supposed to treat people. And so I hope that in our own individual capacities that we recognize what our obligation is as a United States citizen is to care for our land, is to care for each other. And that's what I will - that's likely how I will try to celebrate the 250th anniversary.
MARTÍNEZ: That is former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. She's the author of "A Voice Like Mine." Thank you very much for joining us.
HAALAND: Thank you so much for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOMMY GUERRERO'S "SUN RAYS LIKE STILTS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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