Dem Tapped to Run Interior Smeared Covington Students
Rep. Deb Haaland accused Covington students of hate and intolerance Rep. Deb Haaland (D., N.M.) / Getty Images
December 17, 2020 4:48 PM
President-elect Joe Biden announced he will nominate a New Mexico Democrat who smeared students from Covington Catholic High School last year to lead the Department of the Interior.
Rep. Deb Haaland (D., N.M.), a freshman congresswoman and one of two Native-American women in Congress, accused the high school students of hate and intolerance in January 2019 after a selectively edited video clip of an encounter between pro-life student activists and counterprotesters in Washington, D.C., went viral.
When I arrived for my first Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremony in 2016, I was greeted and warmly embraced by Marty, a person of mixed tribal ancestry. He had long black hair and wore a T-shirt that read “Veteran’s Sweat Lodge.” When, earlier, I had contacted him and asked about attending a ceremony, I worried that I might not be welcome as a White man. I also had concerns that my status as an anthropologist, with the field’s long and problematic history with Indigenous people, might make some uncomfortable. He assured me that any veteran with a PTSD diagnosis was welcome a criterion I meet.