Major Tribe Turns Back On Biden’s American Indian Cabinet Pick As She Runs For Governor
The Sandia Pueblo, a large tribe of American Indians in New Mexico, approved the main opponent of the former interior secretary named Biden, Deb Haaland – Member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe – in the State Democrat primary in 2026.
The approval by the tribe of the District District of the County of Bernalillo, Sam Bregman, is registered on the website of the Bregman campaign. A letter from Governor Felix Chaves de Sandia Pueblo expressed his confidence that the candidate would support tribal sovereignty, water and irrigation that would benefit the tribe, according to Axios. (Related: Biden Admin invoked the “Aboriginal knowledge” to cut the drilling of Alaska, but some tribal leaders are ready for Trump)
Chaves told Axios that Bregman “is the only candidate who has regularly shown and delivered”.
“To say that I am honored and humiliated is an understatement,” said Bregman via a press release that his office sent to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Since my beginnings at the Municipal Council of Albuquerque, where I have created the working group on hatred crimes to protect minority communities, at my work as a prosecutor of the county of Bernalillo, where my office launched the first of its kind to be missing and murdered of indigenous peoples, I have always held the shoulder on the shoulder with our indigenous communities.”
“With a strong collection of early funds and now a historic tribal approval, the Bregman campaign is gaining momentum while it builds a diversified and winning coalition before the 2025 Democratic primary,” added the district prosecutor’s office in the press release.
Haaland, the first secretary of the American Indian cabinet, stressed his actions supporting the Amerindians. She rationalized the examination of tribal water codes and worked to restore “tribal self -determination” and “support tribal sovereignty”, according to a press release in 2022 of her department.
New Mexico celebrations celebrate our culture and her inheritance. I loved spending today alongside friends and the Mora community. ¡What Viva Mora! pic.twitter.com/n6lpowhss
– Deb Haaland (@Debhaalandnm) July 27, 2025
However, the following year, the Navajo Nation Council opposed the massive ban on Haaland on oil and gas drilling at New Mexico. Later, the leader of a group of anti-fossil activists where the works of Haaland’s daughter refused to appear during a conference hearing on the accusations that the militant group had poorly influenced the Haaland fossil fuel restrictions.
The center of the left for American progress called on its conservation policies and those “attacking the treatment of tribal and indigenous peoples in the United States”, while the “historic” interior secretary. The reflection group said that under the direction of Haaland, “the interior department began to approach its colonial and racist history”.
When he was appointed interior secretary for the first time, a tribal member of Sandia Pueblo celebrated Haaland with the declaration that “the Indian country shouted valleys, mountain peaks, which it is time. It is late ”, according to an NPR article. Haaland describes himself as a “thirty-fifth generation of Mexican” and was appointed recipient in 2025 of the prize of the head of the bear standing for courage on Monday.
However, the former interior secretary was criticized for incompetence throughout his mandate. Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley said in 2024 that Haaland “did not know who was in charge of” his own department. When they asked him fundamental questions about a large developing wind farm in Idaho and other energy policies in the Biden administration, Haaland had trouble answering.
Josh Hawley goes from the earth burned on a dei rental:
“Deb Haaland apparently does not know who is in charge of the interior department. Index: it’s supposed to be her.” pic.twitter.com/xvfPrbqquh
– Citizen Free Press (@citizenfreepres) May 2, 2024
The Government Surveillance and Responsibility Group of the Public Trust Government filed an ethical complaint against Haaland in 2023.
While Bregman criticized the Republicans in his campaign video, he also castigated “Democrats in Washington” to be “weak, ineffective and accomplice of all this madness” while showing images of recent demonstrations. Bregman also declared in his video that “the intolerance of the radical left which had divided [the Democratic] party. “
The Sandia Pueblo tribe reserve covers 22,877 acres, while the tribe employs more than 2,000 Indian and non -Indian residents of Albuquerque, according to The tribe website. The tribe also manages one of the largest casinos in New Mexico, according to Axios.
Haaland announced its race in February and has the support of a tribe recognized by the federal government, the Jemez Pueblo, according to its website.
Haaland, who was used for the 2019 to 2021 congress, approved the Democratic Senator of the New Mexico Ben Ray Luján as well as the three members of the delegation of the State Chamber. The Democratic Senator of New Mexico, Martin Heinrich, member of his party within the Senate Committee for Energy and Natural Resources, is the only member of the State Congress to have refused to approve the Haaland.
The former mayor of Las Cruces, Ken Miyagishima, announced his candidacy for the democratic primary of the governor of New Mexico in 2026 in May, making the primary a race for three.
The Democratic Governor of New Mexico, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, is prevented from presenting himself to a re-election to a third term due to the limits of the mandate.
Bregman was previously president of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. His son, Alex Bregman, is a third basic player in the major baseball league for the Boston Red Sox.
The Sandia Pueblo tribe refused to comment on the DCNF. The Haaland campaign did not immediately respond to the DCNF comments.
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