President Joe Biden delivers remarks alongside Interior Secretary Deb Haaland during a Cabinet Meeting at the White House in Washington on June 06, 2023. President Biden spoke on the U.S. economy and the bipartisan deal to raise the debt limit. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Lawmakers are digging deeper into U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s connections to far-left organizations and causes.
A House committee wrote to Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA), a group opposed to hydrocarbon development near Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The organization has counted Ms. Haaland’s “nonbinary” daughter, Somah Haaland, among its workers.
The committee’s investigation concerns, among other things, possible conflicts of interest between the PAA and the secretary. Lawmakers are also looking into her connections to the Venceremos Brigade, a U.S.-based group that sends young activists to communist Cuba in solidarity with its revolution.
A PAA blog post, “Solidarity with Cuba,” outlined a trip by members of the group to the island country with the brigade in 2019. Committee members want to know who in the PAA went on a July 2019 trip to Cuba, and they also want to know of any PAA-related documents involving Cuba or other foreign entities, according to their latest letter.
Then-Cuban President Fidel Castro speaks from a podium to the people of Camaguey, Cuba, about the "Triumph of the Cuban Revolution" against the forces of dictator Fulgencio Batista, on Jan. 4, 1959. Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The lawmakers gave a deadline of Nov. 21 for the PAA to respond.
“PAA frequently touts their close relationship with Secretary Haaland,” committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), and other lawmakers wrote. As evidence, the letter cites a PAA Instagram post from early January 2021 with an image of Ms. Haaland shortly before she was appointed to her current role, with a caption beginning, “Greetings, relatives.” The interior secretary is a member of the Laguna Pueblo nation.
In a July 2020 Facebook post, PAA described Somah Haaland, the secretary’s daughter, as “a huge help and vital person” in its mutual aid efforts. In December 2022, she came to Congress to oppose oil and gas drilling near the Chaco Canyon as a PAA representative, according to statements from WildEarth Guardians and the Sierra Club.
In November 2021, her mother and others in the Biden administration announced their plan to consider banning drilling on public lands within a 10-mile radius of the canyon. She instituted a 20-year ban on it in June over the objections of Navajo Nation leaders who have oil and gas allotments in that zone.
Great Kiva Plaza of the Chaco Canyon. Saravask via wikimedia commons
That came after multiple days of climate protests in Washington during October 2021, in which PAA participated. In Instagram posts of photos taken from those protests, Somah Haaland is seen highlighting a statue of Andrew Jackson defaced with the words “Expect Us” in red graffiti.
The Federalist has reported that footage that it obtained from the American Accountability Foundation appears to show the younger Haaland at a protest that stormed the Government Accountability Office. Other protests during that eventful week included a breach of the Interior Department that resulted in multiple injuries.
Climate activists at a protest on Capitol Hill, Washington, on Oct. 15, 2021. Alex Wong/Getty Images
The House Natural Resources Committee’s Nov. 2 letter to Julia Bernal, the PAA’s executive director, is just the latest inquiry from the committee as it probes the Interior secretary’s links to the organization.
The committee sent letters in June and October to the elder Haaland seeking documents that could shed light on her involvement with PAA.
In addition to partnering with the Venceremos Brigade, the PAA’s webpage on “local solidarity” affiliates it with the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, with the stated mission of “the total liberation and unification of the African continent under scientific socialism.”
The Epoch Times contacted the PAA for comment but didn’t receive a reply by press time.
Nathan Worcester
Author
Nathan Worcester covers national politics for The Epoch Times and has also focused on energy and the environment. Nathan has written about everything from fusion energy and ESG to national and international politics. He lives and works in Chicago. Nathan can be reached at [email protected].
