Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty
“I am honored to join those runners,” Haaland, 60, wrote in anop-ed forTheBoston Globeon the eve of race day. “My feet will pound the ancestral homelands of the Massachusett, the Mashpee Wampanoag, and the Pawtucket people and will follow in the footsteps of Indigenous runners who have participated in this race over its 125-year history.”
“The Secretary was proud to have completed the race under her personal goal,” a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior tells PEOPLE. “She is grateful to the marathon organizers and the entire city of Boston who worked so diligently for a smooth and exciting race. Running on Indigenous Peoples' Day made the experience even more impactful.”
Along the route, Haaland encountered Rep. Katherine Clark, the assistant speaker of the House who represents a Massachusetts district.
“Look who I found at mile 17,” Clark wrote on Twitter.
Haaland, thefirst Native American to hold a cabinet-level positionin any presidency, wrote in herGlobeop-ed about winners of the famed, 26.2-mile race who are Indigenous.
She also discussed how running is part of the cultural history of Indigenous people.
“I started running about 20 years ago. Along the way to running my first marathon, I began to think deeply about the story of my people who have used running not only to get places but to preserve their traditions and culture,” Haaland wrote.
“In the days of my ancestors, runners ran from house to house and village to village to spread news. In the high desert, runners kept watch for spring floods, alerting villagers and sprinting to the fields to capture water for that year’s crops,” she continued. “Native American runners saved lives during the tragedies of colonization. Now, traditional foot races in our Pueblo villages honor those who were strong and fast. I run because my ancestors gave me this ability.”
On Twitter, Haaland reflected on the rich traditions and resilience of Indigenous peoples in the U.S., recognizing their communities as “the first stewards of this land.”
PresidentJoe Bidenis the first to issue a proclamationdeclaring every Oct. 11 Indigenous Peoples' Dayas a way to “honor America’s first inhabitants and the Tribal Nations that continue to thrive today.”
“This administration made a commitment to honor our country’s promises to Indigenous communities. It’s part of our Build Back Better Agenda to embed equity and inclusion into everything that we do. Across the administration, we are ensuring that tribal governments, organizations, and advocates are consulted in policies that impact all of Indian Country,” Haaland wrote in her op-ed.
She went on: “I’m proud to be part of an administration that recognizes and trusts that my life experiences can inform policy-making in an effort to correct the mistakes of the past and help to create a future our ancestors would be proud of.”
source: people.com
