In Native American culture, eagles are the ultimate symbol of wisdom, courage, and power. So you’ll kindly pardon the interruption when U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who had just hopped on Zoom for this interview from her Washington, D.C., office, is suddenly stopped mid-sentence by her concerned communications director, who had heard a chirping coming from her computer. “Allie, can I pause you for one second? The secretary has a camera that watches eagles, and they’re making noises.” To which Haaland replies: “The new eagles are getting ready to fledge, so I’m watching every day to see them take their first flight.” They are nesting on the campus of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. “It’ll be an exciting day,” she says.
Read the entire article here
These photos!
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Being the First – and the Futurehttps://t.co/4WrvA1T2pB pic.twitter.com/pzVsBZTFWh
— Ofirah Yheskel (@ofirahy) June 24, 2021
The cover gave me chills.
Open thread
Mike in NC
Very cool. Of course the Orange Clown wanted her to “go back where she came from”, the crowd pleaser at all of his sickening hate rallies.
SiubhanDuinne
Stunning! And I love that Secy. Haaland puts an interview on hold to check out fledging eaglets. That’s just so perfect. I continue to be impressed with the team President Biden is building to tackle the myriad issues this country faces, and I love the diversity of backgrounds and experiences and areas of expertise.
randal m sexton
Chills me too! Damn! Fierce Piercing gaze – –
Betty
Beautiful pictures. So nice to see a Native American get that kind of respect.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
speaking of badass women, Megan Rapinoe is the July covergirl for Harper’s Bazaar (photo)
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in NC: It’s my job to harsh everyone’s mellow around here and make everyone feel terrible. So you’re going to have to get your own gimmick and schtick.
Ruckus
When I was a small boy, OK buckle up we are going on the way back machine, we use to take car trips with the entire family. I was 5 or 5 and we took a trip to Canada. I believe that I wore my favorite shirt which had totem poles on it pretty much every day. As we are driving along, remember no freeways so you got to see all the local sights we saw a tourist stop, a shop with Indian stuff to buy and totem poles being made out front. I haven’t forgotten than in well over 60 yrs and still remember than shirt as well. For me the highlight of the trip, even though it wasn’t the only one. To actually see people that could make things like totem poles and did, was just one of many things that told me that being human was a great thing, and while my language wasn’t there yet the concept of don’t fuck it up was. Any one that can show that to a 5-6 yr old is good in my book.
Mike in NC
A few years ago we actually spotted a bald eagle in a tree close to our back yard. I think I even got a photo. Amazing.
Kattails
The blue on red is definitely it. Awesome image. I’d buy it just for the cover. Still so excited to see diversity coming to the fore at long last.
@Adam L Silverman: Hey, always good to have a spare around in case you’re busy. I mean that’s how the royals do it, dontchaknow.
Omnes Omnibus
Bald eagles have made a huge comeback in Wisconsin. I frequently see them around our cabin, and it is not really a surprise to see them further afield. Once I even saw one in a tree in downtown Madison – he kind of freaked me out because he was in a small tree no more that 8′ off the ground. Eagles are big.
TaMara (HFG)
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Agreed!
Mousebumples
@Omnes Omnibus: Saw one flying at a coookout in Wisconsin last summer. Such a magestic sight.
Love Secretary Haaland. Such an amazing woman and story. I love that she’s watching out for our valued national parks and animals. ?
Adam L Silverman
I give everyone the most American thing ever!
Suzanne
One of the coolest things we’ve done in Pittsburgh is go to the National Aviary (did y’all know we have one?!). They have an Andean Condor. MFer is fucken enormous.
Eagles are rad. Glad they’re making a comeback.
SiubhanDuinne
I’m on Team Eagle. Have great affection for Ben Franklin, but just as glad his championing of the turkey as national emblem failed.
StringOnAStick
@Suzanne: We had an Andean Condor fly overhead, maybe 25′ above us; the prehistoric part of your brain makes you duck. It was huge! I’ve been around a lot of eagles and was up close to watch one during intake at a raptor rehabilitation facility, so I’m familiar with the concept of “big birds” but that condor blew me away.
Emma from Miami
She looks like a great Queen. She knows what needs to be done, and she will see it done.
NotMax
A few degrees of separation obligatory?
:)
Kattails
Now you’ve all prodded a memory of standing on one of the wooded, rocky points on the Maine coast, looking out over the bay. Sudden noise to my left, and a bald eagle cruised past about 25 feet away and pretty much at eye level. What a treat.
Peale
@Adam L Silverman: probably would be happier getting a Filet O Fish than an egg sandwich though.
Quiltingfool
@Mike in NC: We had a bald eagle hanging around a month or so ago. We live about 10 miles or so from the lake (of the Ozarks), but this eagle seemed content to dine on roadkill offerings. I used to think eagles only lived close to water, as they ate fish, but I found that they don’t seem to be picky eaters. They are much more common in Missouri now than they were when I was a kid.
Also, we now have armadillos! And they dig big holes in the yard, which, in addition to large chert rocks that reappear every spring, makes mowing grass dee-lite-full.//
Wapiti
We were hiking at Pinnacles Nat’l Monument nearish San Jose and came across a fledgling condor and his human minder. The minder had a super-soaker to spritz the bird if it got too close to humans.
Elie
Like WOW —
Her photos speak for themselves — Her power combined with deep spirituality and reverence for nature.
Nothing more to say —
NotMax
OT. Sign of the social distancing times.
What showed up in the mailbox today? A hand addressed envelope of junk mail (to Neighbor instead of Occupant), inside of which was a printed (using a handwriting font) letter touting the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
rikyrah
So regal??
Wapiti
@NotMax: I’ve gotten a couple of those in the last year. It’s part and parcel of their beliefs; they need to spread the Word and if they can’t do it in person, they’ll spend money on stamps.
WaterGirl
I am tempted to add Badass Women as a rotating tag!
Thanks for this, TaMara.
Soprano2
@Quiltingfool: We have bald eagles here in the winter, they live around Springfield Lake. We have armadillos, too. When I was a kid they lived in Texas; you would have been shocked to see one here. It’s a sure sign of climate change that they can live through our winters now.
Jay
https://www.alaskapublic.org/2021/06/22/haaland-orders-investigation-of-suffering-and-burials-at-bia-boarding-schools/
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6078375
741 possible unmarked graves, one “school”,…..
Kent
It is always impressive how when given a chance, people can rise to the occasion. Haaland was kind of a minor back bencher in the minority party 3 years ago. Now she is probably the most powerful Native American in all of US history, overseeing the most consequential agency in the American west. And doing an absolute badass job of it.
She does not look like a person to be fucked with. We will eventually have a showdown between Haaland and the DOI versus a motley band of MAGA dipshits probably run by one of the Bundy spawn like Ammon Bundy who is now running for ID governor. I like her odds.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Eagles look like they’re endangered.
They just fired their coach, they just had a really bad season, and their quarterback situation is shaky.
SteverinoCT
@SiubhanDuinne: Way late to the party, but in defense of Ben, in context he made that pitch in a letter to his daughter, and he was pulling her leg. Such a sense of humor!
dexwood
Great photo of mrs. dexwood’s cousin.
TaMara (HFG)
@dexwood: There’s a story there and we may need to hear it. <3
Anyway
Her posture and bearing — regal…
trollhattan
Two things:
Friend who works at Interior and had experienced life under Zinke-Bernhardt said that Haaland’s address to the department after she took office was like having an enormous weight lifted. She’s very inspired by the new director and does not currently hate her jerb.
It’s exactly six shopping months until Christmas.
You’re welcome.