Deb Haaland
Appearances
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
The Department of the Interior.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
At the Department of the Interior, we manage millions and millions of acres of all of our public lands under the National Park Service, the Wildlife Refuges, the Bureau of Land Management. We protect and preserve our nation's cultural heritage, and we uphold the trust and treaty obligations of our country's 574 federally recognized Indian tribes.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
So, my ancestors from Chaco Canyon, it's now Chaco Culture National Historical Park, migrated from that area and from other areas, too. Bears Ears, Mesa Verde, all over the Southwest, to what is now New Mexico. Um, in, like, 1280.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
So, um, what I... One time, I just, for the heck of it, took out my calculator and searched how many years in a generation, and then I calculated it out, and it came out to 35.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Yes, yes. The department that I now lead once had the job of working to assimilate Indians, moving Native Americans out of their communities, away from their families to assimilate them into mainstream society.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
And one of the ways they did that was to essentially steal children from their mothers, fathers, families, communities, and ship them off, sometimes thousands of miles away from their homes, to attend Indian boarding schools. And so when I got to the department, we thought about what can we do to make a difference in the future of our native communities across the country.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
One of the ways was to be honest about our country's history. It's a history that not a lot of people, not a lot of Americans realize, right? When they think of boarding school, they think about sending their kids to a really nice East Coast boarding school. This was a place where they cut their hair, burned their clothes.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Punished for speaking their native languages and they couldn't practice their cultures or traditions. And they were forced to eat food that they weren't used to, right? Traditional food is important, right? Of course, yeah. where you are geographically in the United States. And so we wanted to bring attention to that. We wrote two reports.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Our team researched, you know, they read 103 million pages of documents to put these reports together. And then we set out across the country and did what we call the road to healing. And we heard directly from descendants and actual survivors of the boarding school, the Indian boarding schools. And that's going to be an oral history at some point. We're working on that now.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Yes. So don't be afraid to ask. OK, because that's how you learn.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
I love that.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
So one of the ways, for me, it's healing, right? We have this generational trauma, and you can look that up and get the definition for it. Generational trauma, it's handed down through the generations. You kind of are affected by what happened to your great grandparents at some of these schools. And it's first acknowledging what happened. And that was an acknowledgement by President Biden.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
He made a formal acknowledgement and apology in Arizona on Indian land and apologized for these atrocities that happened to the children way back then. But it's also ensuring that people don't ever forget. You learn the history, you don't forget it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
And so that's what we're doing with our oral history project, making sure that folks have the opportunity to hear directly from those survivors and know what it was like.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Absolutely. Yes, you should. You know, we should be humble in the way we lead our lives. And when you're wrong, you should apologize, of course.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Well, I think that came from when I ran my congressional campaign. And so it's, yes, I mean, Tell people what you're about, right? Tell people what they're voting for, not what they're voting against. So it's caring about people. It's showing them what you want to do for them. That's all on the campaign side. On this side of the table, working as a federal employee,
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
It's it's yes, it's being vulnerable. It's it's really appreciating. It's it's admitting that, you know, you're not the end all be all. I lead the Department of the Interior, but I have sixty five thousand federal employees, public servants every day come to work ready to dedicate their careers to the American people. And so I give them the credit as much as I can.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Sure. Well, of course, we are responsible, and we are moving forward with the transition, right? I knew you were going to say that. It's helping. President Biden wants a transition that is calm and collected and all of that. So we're going to do our best to make sure that whoever comes into the Department of the Interior knows what we're working on.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
You know, we can tell them what's meant a lot to us and how we've managed the department. But don't forget, there will still be 65,000 career staff there who don't leave when I leave. And they will continue to do the really wonderful work that they have been doing for decades and decades.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Yes, well, it's, you know, for centuries, Native Americans have used blankets to, you know, look, when you bring a new baby home from the, you know, from the hospital, or even if you have your child, you wrap it in a blanket, right? A blanket is something that's comforting. It's something that's meaningful. And that's the way that Native Americans can show that they care about you.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Yeah, you wrap yourself in the blanket.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Yeah, there it is. That's great.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Well, that is it's a Native American owned business. And so I like to, you know, solicit businesses that that I can like that. And yes, the president was very grateful for that. I had it in monogrammed and it said Joe Biden champion for Indian country.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
So, well, I love running. Yes. And we went to visit on an official visit to Canyon de Chelly. It's in Arizona. It's a joint management between the National Park Service and the Navajo Nation. And one of our tour guides told us about this race. And as soon as I got in the car, I said, we need to run that. And so it's a lottery. That gives us a little bit of an insight into your mindset, too.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
I applied for the race. I got in, believe it or not. And so then, of course, I had to, you know, I have a little bit of an entourage when I travel. So I some of my security detail and staff had to run with me.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
No, one of them ran 17 miles up, and the other one ran 17 miles back with me.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
I did.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
It was actually a broken leg.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
I had those hiking poles, so that was helpful. Yeah.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
No, they weren't helpful at the time. I slipped on a rock. Isn't that strange? It was just a freak accident. But my choices were to walk down. Take a helicopter, like, dangle on the outside of the helicopter with the thing, I think. Or get eight staff away from their jobs to carry me down in a chair. And all I thought about was the headlines, right?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Secretary Haaland, you know, takes eight staff away from their jobs to carry her down the mountain in a chair. So I decided to walk.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
No, I'm not actually in school. I'm working to finish my master's thesis that I kind of put on hold for a long time. So I'm going to finish that.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
It's about native food, actually.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Yes. I wanted to show that at Laguna, our traditional foods are the same as they were. before we migrated, stew and bread. It might be different forms, right? I may not grow my corn personally, but when I cook it together the way that my ancestors did, we consider it traditional.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
So I don't know about Native American quote-unquote philosophy, but I'll tell you some words that I live by.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
Some words I live by every single day. My auntie, God rest her soul, Auntie Anne, she was the kindest human being you would ever meet, and her advice to me was be nice to everyone. Be nice to everyone. Be nice to people you don't particularly care about, because that's what you should radiate out to people, right? Be kind to animals. Be kind to... Just be kind.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
America's "Hot Felon" Obsession and the Fox Nation Patriot Awards
And I feel like sometimes kindness might be in short supply in our country right now, but if we all followed my aunt's advice, then we might be better off.