fbpx
facebook app symbol  twitter  linkedin  instagram 1
Donate Get Newsletter
Donate Get Newsletter
 

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s Mother Mary E. Toya Passed Away on Saturday

Details

The mother of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Mary E. Toya, passed away on Saturday. The cause of death and her age was not released in the statement issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Born in Winslow, Ariz. in 1935, to Antonio Toya (Jemez) and Helen Toya (Laguna), Mary Toya was born in a train boxcar. In her youth, she played the snare drum in the Santa Fe Indian Band and traveled to Washington, D.C. for the first time to play the 1953 inauguration of President Dwight Eisenhower.

Want more Native News? Get the free daily newsletter today.

She served in the U.S. Navy. After her military service, Toya spent 25-years working the Indian Education at the Bureau of Indian Affairs where she was a teacher’s aide, secretary, and later, office manager for the superintendent of schools in Albuquerque, N.M.

“We celebrate Mary Toya’s long life and are grateful for her 25 years of service to Native students as a member of the Interior team within Indian Affairs,” Melissa Schwartz, an Interior Department spokesperson said in a statement.

“Mary spoke Keres, raised her children in a Pueblo household and passed traditional wisdom down to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Schwartz said. “Her legacy will live on in Secretary Haaland, all of her relatives and the countless Native people she inspired.”

In January 2019, Toya travelled to Washington, D.C. to see her daughter Deb Haaland, a Democrat, sworn into the U.S. Congress, representing New Mexico’s first congressional district. Haaland, along with Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS), became the first two Native American women to ever serve in Congress.

Haaland was nominated by then President-elect Joe Biden to be the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior last December. During her confirmation hearing, Haaland referenced her mother serving in the U.S. Navy. Toya was too ill to travel to Washington to see her daughter sworn in as the first ever Native American to serve in a secretarial post within a presidential cabinet.

Haaland’s father, David D. Haaland passed away in 2005.

 

More Stories Like This

Potential First Native American Federal Judge in Oklahoma Advances Toward Senate Confirmation
Photos from the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit
Native News Weekly (December 10, 2023): D.C. Briefs
December 10th is the 75th Human Rights Day
Vice President Harris Addresses Indian Boarding Schools at the White House Tribal Nations Summit

 
In a world filled with inaccurate narratives about Native Americans, we spotlight the overlooked, unheard and underrepresented stories that are often overlooked by the mainstream media. Our journalism is free for all to read, but it is not free to produce. Your donation provides the much-needed financial support for us to produce inclusive Indigenous journalism that inspires, informs and uplifts Native Americans. Thank you for being a force behind our work. Together, we are rewriting the narrative.
 
About The Author
Native News Online Staff
Author: Native News Online StaffEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Native News Online is one of the most-read publications covering Indian Country and the news that matters to American Indians, Alaska Natives and other Indigenous people. Reach out to us at [email protected].