This week, high hopes for Deb Haaland—the congresswoman from New Mexico and citizen of the Laguna Pueblo who could make history as the first Indigenous person to ever serve as Secretary of the Interior for the United States. First things first, though: she still needs to be confirmed by the U-S Senate. Although committee hearings have wrapped up, a vote has yet to be held.

But amidst all the excitement over her potential appointment, some have struck a more cautious tone about what it may—or may not—make possible. That includes Nick Martin, a staff writer at The New Republic and author of the recent piece, “Deb Haaland’s Ascent and the Complicated Legacy of Native Representation.”

In this episode, Martin joins host/producer Rick Harp and roundtable regular Candis Callison to discuss why he thinks even “[some]one as capable as Haaland [confronts] an unfortunate truth… [that] whenever Native people have occupied positions of great power within [the] colonial machine [they’ve either left] embittered or transition[ed] themselves into an active participant in the grand American tradition of treaty-breaking and excuse-making.”

// CREDITS: This episode was edited by Stephanie Wood. Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.