Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on CNN's Rick Santorum's recent comments: “Native American history truly is American history"
Published
Citation From a May 5, 2021, interview published at HuffPost
JENNIFER BENDERY (SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER): As you are a Native American in the highest level of government, I'm really curious to hear your take on this. Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum made some comments about indigenous peoples and culture. He had this to say about the history of America and the role of white European colonizers to a group of young conservatives recently. He said, "We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans, but, candidly, there isn't much Native American culture in American culture." I am curious what your response is to comments like that from a former United States senator.
DEB HAALAND (INTERIOR SECRETARY): Sure, well, of course, it's unfortunate, right? It's unfortunate that - first of all, that, perhaps, we haven't done a good job of educating Americans about Indian history, because Native American history truly is American history. And when we think about the influence that Native Americans have had on the forming of the United States, right? The U.S. Constitution is based on the Iroquois Confederacy. The Native Americans from tribes here in this country have some of the oldest democracies in the world. And so I feel very strongly that -- I mean, I could probably suggest a few pieces of reading for the senator that would, kinda sort of, help him to branch out on his knowledge of American history. And so hopefully, he'll take a second look.