
- Details
- By Jenna Kunze
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland arrived in Alaska Apr. 19 for her first official visit to the state since taking office.
On the first day of the week-long trip, Haaland met with Alaska Native leaders and local stakeholders in Anchorage to discuss the more than $138 million available to the state through the federal infrastructure law enacted last November, the Interior Department said. That money, the department added, includes $75 million for Alaskan communities to clean up “orphaned” oil and gas wells, with more funds to clear up a landslide in Denali National Park, reduce the risk of wildfires, revitalize abandoned mine lands, enhance fish migration, protect communities from flooding, and build climate resilience in tribal communities.
Alaska has the highest percentage of Indigenous people of any U.S. state, and almost 40% of the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes are located there.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department could not confirm Haaland’s schedule for the week, but she is expected to visit Fairbanks, Seward, and Utqiagvik on the Arctic coast, a town of 5,000 people that is the hub of the North Slope region.
“Her goal is to come and listen and learn. It is not to announce policy,” Haaland’s communications director, Melissa Schwartz, told the Anchorage Daily News. “It is truly to have listening sessions and roundtable conversations and hear from people about the issues that are important to them.”
More Stories Like This
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee) Appointed to Senate Committee on Indian AffairsAmerican Indian Man Dies in Pennington County Jail
Interior Secretary Haaland to Travel to Australia, Highlight International Climate Partnerships
Deborah Parker and Dr. Samuel Torres on this week’s Native Bidaské
WATCH: Native Bidaské with Domestic Violence Prevention Specialist Kayla Woody Discuss the Dangers of Stalking
12 years of Native News
This month, we celebrate our 12th year of delivering Native News to readers throughout Indian Country and beyond. For the past dozen years, we’ve covered the most important news stories that are usually overlooked by other media. From the protests at Standing Rock and the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM), to the ongoing epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous People (MMIP) and the past-due reckoning related to assimilation, cultural genocide and Indian Boarding Schools.
Our news is free for everyone to read, but it is not free to produce. That’s why we’re asking you to make a donation this month to help support our efforts. Any contribution — big or small — helps. If you’re in a position to do so, we ask you to consider making a recurring donation of $12 per month to help us remain a force for change in Indian Country and to tell the stories that are so often ignored, erased or overlooked.
Donate to Native News Online today and support independent Indigenous journalism. Thank you.