IllumiNatives and Native Organizers Alliance: #DebForInterior Town Hall

Indianz.Com > News > IllumiNatives and Native Organizers Alliance: #DebForInterior Town Hall

Monday, February 22, 2021

Indianz.Com

• LIVE at 5PM Eastern: facebook.com/IllumiNativeOrg

With Deb Haaland set for a historic confirmation hearing to be Secretary of the Interior, IllumiNatives and the Native Organizers Alliance will be co-hosting the #DebForInterior Town Hall on Monday evening.

The event takes place virtually at 5pm Eastern. It will bring together Native leaders, activists and allies to discuss the importance of Haaland’s nomination to lead the Department of the Interior, the federal agency with the most trust and treaty responsibilities to tribes and their citizens.

“For the first time in our nation’s history, Native Americans can look upon their federal government and see a cabinet leader who has walked in our shoes, and who understands how her decisions will impact our daily lives,” said Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, one of the participants in the #DebForInterior Town Hall.

“I have no doubt Deb Haaland will do an outstanding job for Indian Country and for all of America,” said Benjamin.

Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna, currently represents New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. If confirmed as Secretary of the Interior, she would be the first Native person to lead the department and the first Native person to serve in a presidential cabinet.

“I’ll be fierce for all of us, for our planet and all of our protected land,” Haaland said when she was introduced as the Interior nominee on December 19, 2020.

“I’m honored and ready to serve,” she said.

Haaland’s confirmation hearing takes place at 9:30am Eastern on Tuesday, before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Between 9am and 12pm Eastern, IllumiNatives and Native Organizers Alliance will lead a #DebForInterior campaign on social media to urge members of the panel, Democrats and Republicans alike, to approve her nomination.

The hearing will be webcast on energy.senate.gov.

Indianz.Com will also be streaming the hearing to Clubhouse, an audio-based platform.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Notice

Hearing to Consider Nomination of the Honorable Debra Haaland to be the Secretary of the Interior (February 23, 2021)

Deb Haaland: Secretary of the Interior Nominee