ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is making her first official trip to her home state Tuesday to meet with Indigenous leaders, following her confirmation to the cabinet of President Joe Biden.
The agenda includes a conversation about the coronavirus pandemic and the devastating effects it has had on tribal nations across New Mexico — where Native Americans make up more than 10% of the population — and elsewhere.
A member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo and the first Native American to lead a Cabinet department, Haaland also is expected to highlight the federal government’s latest covid-19 relief package. Democrats have billed the money set aside for Native American communities as the country’s largest, single investment in Indian Country.
About $20 billion will go to tribal governments to help them keep combating the virus and to stabilize community safety-net programs.
More than $2.3 billion is specifically dedicated to covid-19 testing, tracing and vaccination efforts, while $600 million will go toward health facilities construction and sanitation programs.
Another $420 million will boost mental and behavioral health programs, and $140 million will be tapped for tribal technology improvements and tele-health access.
The package also includes money for housing projects, the expansion of broadband access, other infrastructure and educational programs.
Tribal governors also met recently with U.S. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, when he toured a vaccination clinic at Santo Domingo Pueblo in northern New Mexico. They told him that the federal Indian Health Service has been chronically underfunded and that the pandemic helped to bring to light to systemic problems such as access to health care and other basic services.
The All Pueblo Council of Governors is made up of tribal leaders from 20 New Mexico pueblos and an Indigenous community near El Paso, Texas.
The group advocates on behalf of Native American issues, ranging from educational equity within public schools to limiting oil and gas development in areas considered sacred.
