The left-wing environmental group that employs Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's daughter is standing in solidarity with Hamas, with the group praising Hamas's terrorists as "martyrs" who are working to advance the "global indigenous struggle."
Pueblo Action Alliance, a green group that has employed Haaland's daughter since at least 2020, released an Oct. 24 statement accusing the United States and Israel of "ethnic cleansing and genocide" as part of a "Western colonial agenda." The group in its statement also blamed Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israeli "apartheid" and praised Hamas "martyrs" for working to "liberate" so-called indigenous peoples.
"Martyrs of the struggle will live in perpetuity as the global indigenous struggle stands together to liberate ourselves," the statement reads. "We will continue to lay our cornmeal on the earth, exhale our smoke into prayers, and place feathers for the family and children who are forever changed… We stand with Palestine forever."
The group's statement comes as Biden administration officials spew anti-Israel rhetoric and undermine the administration's support for the Jewish state. State Department employee Sylvia Yacoub, for example, has taken to X, formerly Twitter, to bash President Joe Biden's support for Israel and accuse the Jewish state of "genocide." Haaland has not commented on Hamas's terror attack.
Neither Pueblo Action Alliance nor Haaland responded to requests for comment.
Haaland has long faced criticism for her ties to Pueblo Action Alliance. Haaland in 2021 met with the group's executive director, who bragged about the meeting and referred to Haaland as "Auntie Deb."
Haaland's daughter also represented the group on a December lobbying trip, during which she urged federal lawmakers to prohibit oil and gas production on federal land around a national park in New Mexico. Haaland months later moved to block oil and gas leasing in the area for two decades, prompting a congressional investigation led by Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee. U.S. ethics rules forbid Executive Branch employees from "using their position for the private gain of family members."
While the Pueblo Action Alliance works to end oil and gas production—as well as "imperial capitalism"—it is also known for its anti-Israel activism. In a string of 2020 Facebook posts, the group compared the "Palestinian resistance" to the "indigenous liberation movement" in the United States, which it referred to as "Amerikkka."
"Having solidarity with other indigenous peoples who experience genocide, displacement, relocation, xenophobia, oppression, racism and other isms is important for the liberation of all colonized people who live in settler states," the group said in one post.
"International solidarity is the way in which we come together … to create a place free from capitalism, free from patriarchy, free from white supremacy," it said in another.
Some indigenous people, however, have sparred with Haaland and Pueblo Action Alliance.
After the group successfully pushed Haaland to ban oil and gas leases around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, members of the Navajo Nation disrupted an event that would have seen Haaland speak at the park in celebration of the ban. Haaland was instead forced to change locations after Native American landowners blocked her entry into the area, telling the Biden appointee to "go home" and stop "trespassing." Haaland said the demonstration "wasn't ideal."