Title
Honoring and congratulating Deb Haaland on the occasion of her becoming the 54th United States Secretary of the Interior and the first Native American woman to lead a cabinet-level department, particularly one that is existential for Native tribes and people.
Body
WHEREAS, Debra Anne Haaland is an enrolled member of the Laguna Pueblo, an indigenous American tribe who have lived in what is now New Mexico since the 1200s, cementing her claim as a "35th generation New Mexican," and, as of her swearing in as the 54th Secretary of Interior on March 18th of this year, became the first Native American woman to be confirmed by the Senate to lead a cabinet-level agency; and
WHEREAS, Born in Arizona in 1960, Secretary Haaland is the daughter of a military family - she and her four siblings accompanied her mother, Mary Toya, also of the Laguna Pueblo, who served in the Navy, and her father, Major John David "Dutch" Haaland, a decorated officer in the Marine Corps, to postings around the country before settling in Albuquerque to be near her family, in time for Deb to graduate from high school there; and
WHEREAS, Secretary Haaland then worked in a local bakery before, at the age of 28, enrolling in the University of New Mexico, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1994; and
WHEREAS, Four days after graduating, Secretary Haaland gave birth to her daughter, Som?h, for whom she would provide as a single mother by starting a salsa company, although she sometimes did not earn enough money to afford housing, relying on friends for shelter, and on food stamps for sustenance; and
WHEREAS, Secretary Haaland is over thirty-years sober and public about her alcohol addiction, having expressed thanks for the love and support of her family and community to overcome "that terrible time in [her] life," which has grounded her concern about the addiction on a personal as well as national level; and
WHEREAS, By 2006, Secretary Haaland had earned her Juri...
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