For Native Americans, Rep. Haaland's nomination as interior secretary signals a new start

Salazar was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate, although how easily Biden will see his nominations advance will depend, in part, on which party wins the Senate races in Georgia."This is a hard job," Salazar said, adding that Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii once told him that of all the Cabinet positions, "the Interior is the most important because you are the custodian of America's natural resources and custodian of America's heritage."Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, pushed for House Democratic leadership to endorse Haaland's nomination and set aside concerns about potentially losing another House seat after Biden earlier tapped Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana to be a White House senior adviser.He said he hopes the Republican senators will give Haaland a chance during the nomination process."The fact that she's not coming in with Zinke's or Bernhardt's agendas, that she brings a whole different and more inclusive perspective into how that agency functions, I think that's going to be one area of opposition," Grijalva said.He added that the list of issues for Haaland to tackle is long and includes ensuring tribal and urban Native communities get access to federal funding, particularly as the coronavirus pandemic ravages Native American populations at a disproportionate rate; protecting wildlife refuges from oil and gas drilling; and investigating the growing number of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women.Having Haaland at the helm would be "substantive," Grijalva said, after "the history of the Interior has been one that has been anti-Indian in every sense of the word." The agency has a record of dislocating Indigenous people in the United States.Lynn Scarlett, a former acting interior secretary who was appointed by President George W.