The First Native American Congresswoman in US History Could be Elected This Year
Haaland comes from a working-class family. Her father served in the Vietnam War and was awarded the Silver Star for saving the lives of six men in a 1967 firefight. She grew up a military brat, attending 13 public schools before graduating from Highland High in southeast Albuquerque, New Mexico. At 15, she took a job at a bakery; every day after school and on into her twenties, Haaland decorated cakes. At 28, she enrolled at the University of New Mexico, and put herself through undergrad and law school on student loans and food stamps. (I work at 350.org, whose affiliate 350 Action has endorsed Haaland.)
“When I think about my roots as a Native woman and how I was raised by my parents and my grandparents, my values were formed pretty much when I was born,” Haaland told me. “I didn’t just decide last year where on the spectrum I was falling.”
Somah Haaland, Deb’s daughter, remembers her mother’s first campaign well. The Haalands were living in a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica, California. Deb was taking classes at UCLA. Somah was in first grade and participated in after school drama lessons at the Santa Monica Playhouse. When the theatre lost its funding, Haaland launched a campaign to save the playhouse, canvassing the community with six-year-old Somah in tow. The Haalands prevailed and the playhouse still operates today; Somah went on to major in theatre at the University of New Mexico.
Haaland is running an unabashedly progressive campaign. She supports universal healthcare, tuition-free college, gun reform and a woman’s right to choose. In a nod to Standing Rock, Haaland uses #MniWiconi, Lakota for “Water is Life,” in her platform and calls for fossil fuels to be kept in the ground and for a transition to a 100% renewable energy economy.
“I felt I could be an effective voice for people like me: a single mom with student loans,” Haaland told me. “If I can fight to make people’s lives better and make the role of government one where it actually lives up to its obligation to our citizens, that’s what I want to do.”
Jordan and Haaland are part of a rising class of Native women professionals. Nicole Willis of the Cayuse and Walla Walla tribes, a political consultant who worked on the Obama and Sanders campaigns, has watched this slow build over the last decade. When Willis attended law school in the mid 2000s, Native women outnumbered their male counterparts in the Native American Law Students Association 6 to 1. “Even though we were the vast majority, we held fewer leadership roles,” Willis said. “Now we are seeing more Native people step forward and particularly Native women step forward.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-first-native-american-congresswoman-in-us-history-could-be-elected-this-year/
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has!
Deb Haaland is fierce. She’s a tough lady. She is Donald Trump’s worse nightmare. Her story is our story.
https://debforcongress.com/
Mahalo, RSF
