For Immediate Release — February 19, 2025
Native advocates condemn Interior Secretary’s suggestion
New York, NY — Newly-confirmed Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum (R-ND) addressed the National Congress of American Indians last week, telling the attendees: “If we’re going to pay down the $36 trillion dollar debt, then we gotta figure out a way to not just focus on our liabilities — that’s the $36 trillion — but we got a bunch of assets. We might have $100 trillion in assets. Those assets are out there in public lands… I’m talking about the fact that we have 500 million acres of land that are in public hands that were put away for the benefit and use of the American public.” The following statement from Judith LeBlanc (Caddo), executive director of Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund, can be quoted in full or in part.
“I would remind Secretary Burgum that all federal lands are the ancestral homelands of our sovereign Tribal nations. As with so many issues like climate change or federal budget cuts, Native peoples are once again being asked to pay the highest price for the actions of non-Indigenous leaders in office who are driving a far right plan to dismantle the government and default on our treaties.
The notion that the nation’s debt — driven up by the far right and their tax giveaways to the wealthiest corporations and billionaires — must be addressed by developing federal public lands that hold great significance to Native peoples is offensive.
As Native peoples, we don’t view our lands, waters, and natural resources in terms of dollar signs. Our connection to the health of our natural surroundings and the well-being of humanity is deeply intertwined, and our ability to practice our cultures depends on the land. For decades, fossil fuel extraction and development on federal lands has been done without the consent of Native peoples. This is in violation of the rights of sovereign Tribal nations.
It is the right of sovereign nations to determine the future and use of our lands. Enacting a policy of seizing federal lands for development violates the federal government’s obligation to consult and coordinate with our Tribal nations on land management.
Secretary Burgum’s proposal puts Native lands and the very future of all natural resources at risk of the kind of destruction and over-development that we’ve seen before.
In Indian Country, we must be vigilant to the potential threat to all Tribal lands, many of which are held in federal trust. Does this administration see these lands as another opportunity for development? We cannot allow the federal government to balance its checkbook on the backs of our people, the original inhabitants of this country.”
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