By: History.com Editors

2021

Deb Haaland sworn in as first Indigenous cabinet secretary

History.com Editors

Published: March 08, 2024

Last Updated: January 24, 2025

Deb Haaland is sworn in as Secretary of the Interior. She is the first Indigenous person to serve as a cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

Incoming President Joe Biden announced his nomination of Deb Haaland, first-term congresswoman from New Mexico, to serve as Secretary of the Interior on December 17, 2020. Three months later, the Senate confirmed her for the job by a 51-to-40 vote. Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, made history as the first Native American person to oversee the Interior Department.

Created in 1849, the department historically bore responsibility for removing Indigenous people from their ancestral lands. Today, it upholds the government's treaty obligations to 574 federally recognized tribal groups. The department also manages the country's public lands, including 500 million acres—one fifth of the entire nation—and 63 national parks.

How a Camping Trip Created our National Parks

A camping trip in 1903 might be the most influential in history! John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt spent three nights in Yosemite. Muir would convince Roosevelt to protect Yosemite, paving the way for a National Park Service.

In her nominee statement, Haaland pledged to "honor the sovereignty of tribal nations and recognize their part in America’s story." She also emphasized the need for cooperation on conservation and green energy production on public lands, even while " fossil energy does, and will continue, to play a major role in America for years to come." In a statement to NPR, Haaland stressed the need for clean energy: "Climate change is the challenge of our lifetime, and it's imperative that we invest in an equitable, renewable energy economy."

Haaland's appointment was a departure from the legacy of her predecessor under the previous administration, Ryan Zinke. Zinke, who rode to work on a horse, oversaw the deregulation of public lands, including opening up national monuments to oil and gas drilling.

Haaland was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress in 2018. Her journey to congress was an unconventional one. The daughter of  two military veterans, she struggled with addiction and poverty as a young woman. She graduated from college at age 33, and started a salsa canning business to support herself as a single mother before earning her law degree. She became deeply involved in grassroots politics in New Mexico, and served as an organizer, canvasser and chair of the state democratic party before her election to congress in 2018, at the age of 57. As interior secretary, she has shone a spotlight on issues rarely addressed before, including an initiative to understand the legacy of the U.S. government’s troubled Native American boarding schools, and one to pursue justice for missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on March 15th

44 bc

The Ides of March

Julius Caesar, dictator of Rome, is stabbed to death in the Roman Senate house by 60 conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus on March 15. The day later became infamous as the Ides of March.  Caesar, born into the Julii, an ancient but not particularly distinguished Roman aristocratic family, began his […]

1767

Andrew Jackson is born

Future President Andrew Jackson is born in a backwoods region between North and South Carolina to Irish immigrant parents on March 15, 1767. Jackson was essentially an orphan—all but one member of his family were killed during the Revolutionary War—who rose from humble beginnings to become a celebrated soldier and one of the nation’s most […]

1783

George Washington puts an end to the Newburgh Conspiracy

On the morning of March 15, 1783, General George Washington makes a surprise appearance at an assembly of army officers at Newburgh, New York, to calm the growing frustration and distrust they had been openly expressing towards Congress in the previous few weeks. Angry with Congress for failing to honor its promise to pay them […]

1820

Maine enters the Union

As part of the Missouri Compromise between the North and the South, Maine is admitted into the Union as the 23rd state. Administered as a province of Massachusetts since 1647, the entrance of Maine as a free state was agreed to by Southern senators in exchange for the entrance of Missouri as a slave state. […]

1869

Cincinnati Red Stockings become first professional baseball team

On March 15, 1869, Cincinnati attorney Aaron Champion hires former cricket player Harry Wright to organize, manage and play for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, who become the first professional baseball team. The organization of the club comes shortly after the National Association of Baseball Players, which had previously banned the payment of players, allows open professionalism […]

An illustrated team portrait of the Cincinnati Red Stockings baseball team, circa late 1860s

1901

Van Gogh paintings shown in first retrospective exhibit

On March 15, 1901, paintings by the late Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh are shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris in what was the artist’s first retrospective exhibit. The 71 paintings, which captured their subjects in bold brushstrokes and expressive colors, caused a sensation across the art world.  Eleven years before, while living in […]

1917

Czar Nicholas II abdicates Russian throne

During the February Revolution, Czar Nicholas II, ruler of Russia since 1894, is forced to abdicate the throne by the Petrograd insurgents, and a provincial government is installed in his place. Crowned on May 26, 1894, Nicholas was neither trained nor inclined to rule, which did not help the autocracy he sought to preserve in […]

1939

Nazis take Czechoslovakia

Hitler’s forces invade and occupy Czechoslovakia, proving the futility of the Munich Pact, an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Germany’s imperial aims. On September 30, 1938, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact, which sealed the fate of Czechoslovakia, virtually handing it over to Germany […]

Invasion Of Prague By The German Nazi Troops In 1939

1950

Nationalist Chinese forces invade mainland China

In a surprise raid on the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC), military forces of the Nationalist Chinese government on Taiwan invade the mainland and capture the town of Sungmen. Because the United States supported the attack, it resulted in even deeper tensions and animosities between the U.S. and the PRC. In October 1949, the […]

1965

LBJ calls for equal voting rights

On March 15, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson addresses a joint session of Congress to urge the passage of legislation guaranteeing voting rights for all. Using the phrase “we shall overcome,” borrowed from African American leaders struggling for equal rights, Johnson declares that “every American citizen must have an equal right to vote.” Johnson reminds […]

Why the 19th Amendment Did Not Guarantee All Women the Right to Vote

1968

Construction begins on America’s highest vehicle tunnel

On March 15, 1968, construction starts on the north tunnel of the Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial Tunnel on Interstate 70 in Colorado, some 60 miles west of Denver. Located at an elevation of more than 11,000 feet, the project was an engineering marvel and became the world’s highest vehicular tunnel when it was completed in 1979. Four […]

2019

Christchurch, New Zealand mosque attacks

On the afternoon of March 15, 2019, a gunman attacked two different mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand during Friday Prayer, killing 51, wounding 40, and deeply scarring a nation that had, until this point, believed itself to be safe from the scourges of gun violence and far-right terrorism. It was one of the darkest and […]

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Citation Information

Article title
Deb Haaland sworn in as first Indigenous cabinet secretary
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 25, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
January 24, 2025
Original Published Date
March 08, 2024

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