Haaland gives tribes a voice in Western water fights

摘要

President-elect Joe Biden's selection of Rep. Deb Haaland to lead the Interior Department will give tribes a seatat the table on water management, an area where Native American advocates say they have long been ignored.If confirmed by the Senate, the New Mexico Democrat will have an outsize influence on a wide range of waterissues - from access to supplies to dam management."Her perspective as a Pueblo Indigenous person understands that water is a multiuse resource - not just for oiland gas, not just for agriculture, but culturally, spiritually and ceremonially, it's a resource that we identify," saidJulia Bernal of the Pueblo Action Alliance in New Mexico. "That voice is important to shift the paradigm."