I have mentioned Deb Haaland and her heroic work on behalf of US Tribes and Tribal people on a few blog posts—not enough praise, I’m sure, but I try. But now, as President Biden leaves the stage and the world begins to assess his impact on US history and politics, and, indeed, on world affairs, I think it is a good time to acknowledge what he has done for Tribes and Tribal people.
I have not been a fan of all Biden policies and appointments, but on this one I am sure. Biden has been good for Indians. I get Native support in this from “Native News Online,” a wonderful chronicle of what is happening in Indian country (free to subscribe; just google it). Editor-publisher Levi Rickert lists a number of Biden appointments, judicial nominations, and policy statements, and declares Biden “the best president for Native Americans in history.” That’s powerful words, and especially powerful Native words.
Deb Haaland, the first Native cabinet secretary, runs the Department of the Interior, which is home to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She came to national attention when she jumped on the Boarding School issue, demanded a quick assessment of cemeteries; she is still involved with a “healing tour,” visiting cemeteries and meeting with school survivors and descendants, pushing for more research into the past.
National Parks are also in Interior, and Haaland hired Umatilla Chuck Sams to be the National Parks Director. Other Natives are sprinkled in her department and, indeed, throughout the national government. In his piece in Indian Country Online, Levi Rickert pointed to the number of judicial appointments that have gone to Indians, and reminded us of another first: Lifetime chief of the Mohegan Tribe, Lynn Malerba, is the first Native American to serve as Treasurer of the United States and leads the newly established Office of Tribal and Native Affairs. Isn’t it sweet, the signature on your dollar bills will soon be an Indian’s!
More recently, after Biden had retreated from the presidential race, as if to punctuate his work in Indian Country, Native News Online highlighted his latest action:
“This week, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that returns 1,600 acres of land back to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. The land was illegally seized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 50 years ago.
“The bipartisan ‘Winnebago Land Transfer Act’ introduced by U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) honors The Treaty of 1865, which established the Winnebago Reservation in northeastern Nebraska along the Missouri River. But westward shifts in the river moved the boundaries of the reservation, and portions of tribal land ended up in Iowa.
“In 1970, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers condemned land on both the Nebraska and Iowa sides of the river for a proposed recreation project. The Corps filed eminent domain proceedings to acquire both tracts of land, which began the tribe’s five-decade fight for their territory back.
“Winnebago Tribal chairwoman Victoria Kitcheyan called the landback a ‘truly historic moment’ for the tribe.”
We think of government and settler outrages against Native Americans as way back, nineteenth century for sure, with its boarding schools, Allotment Act, “Codes of Indian Offences,” and Indian Wars. The takeover of Indian lands by the Corps of Engineers happened only yesterday, in 1970. I wonder if the appointment of Jaime Pinkham as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, in which “he assists in establishing policy direction and supervision over the Department of the Army functions relating to all aspect of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works program” had anything to do with the Winnebego landback.
In any case, President Biden has been good for Indian Country. Indians and Indian affairs are not headline news—except in Indian Country; one can hope that these appointments and policy decisions will go well beyond his one term as president.
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Photo: Garan Coons/Winnebago Tribe Of Nebraska