A single mother who overcame alcoholism, poverty and prejudice to become one of the United States' first Native American congresswomen, Deb Haaland capped a remarkable rise on Monday local time with her confirmation as Joe Biden's Interior secretary.
Ms Haaland was confirmed by a vote of 51-40 to the position of Secretary of the Interior, overseeing a massive agency responsible for roughly one-fifth of land in the United States - including its many tribal reservations.
Ms Haaland, 60, already made history in 2018 when she became one of the first two Native American women elected to US Congress.
"Rep Haaland's confirmation represents a gigantic step forward in creating a government that represents the full richness and diversity of this country because Native Americans were for far too long neglected at the cabinet level and in so many other places," the Senate majority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said ahead of the vote.
Ms Haaland's appointment was backed by a petition signed by some 120 tribal representatives, who urged Mr Biden to make history by picking the congresswoman.
When her name first began to circulate for the position, Ms Haaland noted she thought it was time for the world to start listening to indigenous communities regarding climate change and the environment.
Ms Haaland, who hails from New Mexico's Laguna Pueblo tribe and once started a company that made salsa dip to support herself and her young daughter as she struggled through law school, won reelection to a second term in Congress from the southwestern US state late last year.
A file photo of Deb Haaland from 2019. Source: Getty
Born in Winslow, Arizona, where her grandfather worked on the railroad as part of a federal government policy of "cultural assimilation" for Native Americans, Debra Anne Haaland comes from a military family.
Her father JD "Dutch" Haaland was a decorated Marine and her mother Mary served in the Navy.
The family moved a lot, as many American military families do. Ms Haaland says she attended 13 different schools.
But the customs and traditions of the Laguna Pueblo provided stability in her youth.
Ms Haaland spent summers with her grandparents, first in Winslow and later in New Mexico, where she helped them water the fields and bake bread in a house without running water.
Rashida Tlaib and Deb Haaland look up to the gallery before Nancy Pelosi is sworn as House Speaker at the US Capitol in Washington, January, 2019. Source: AAP
She has remained active in her tribe, and once served as the chairwoman of the Laguna Development Corporation Board of Directors, responsible for its three casinos on the reservation.
Ms Haaland, who has spoken publicly about quitting drinking more than 30 years ago, made ends meet while in law school with the help of student loans and food stamps.
'My ancestors sacrificed a tremendous amount'
After failing the bar exam by a hair, Ms Haaland launched herself into politics, working her way up in the local Democratic Party.
She started in the trenches as a volunteer for John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004 - making endless cold calls to rally Native Americans to vote.
Since then, she has not stopped campaigning: She worked full-time for Barack Obama, and on dozens of local and state campaigns. She ran for lieutenant governor and served one term as the state party chair.
In November 2018, running on a progressive agenda including the use of clean energy, health care for all and immigration reform, she won election to represent New Mexico's 1st congressional district.
In doing so she became the first Native American woman elected to Congress, along with Sharice Davids of Kansas.
Since then she has frequently spoken out for minorities, the poor and Native Americans.
Ms Haaland saluted the decision this July by Washington's NFL team to drop its "Redskins" name - a word widely criticised as a racist slur against Native Americans.
She has spearheaded legislation to tackle the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, and fought for extra funding for Native American communities badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
"My ancestors have sacrificed a tremendous amount to keep my customs and traditions for me," she said during her first Congress run.
"So I want to make sure that I am bringing that perspective to the table in anything I do."
Before Ms Haaland, the only other Native American to serve in a US administration was Charles Curtis, Herbert Hoover's vice president between 1929 and 1933, who liked to say he was "one-eighth Kaw Indian and 100 per cent Republican."
