A VOICE LIKE MINE

The long road that led to a life in politics.

In 2018, Haaland was elected as one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress (along with Sharice Davids), and in 2021, she was appointed by President Joe Biden as Secretary of the Interior—making her the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history. Now, she is running to become governor of New Mexico. Her chatty, pragmatic memoir describes a life that would not at first seem to be aimed in the direction of political power. Referring to herself as “a thirty-fifth generation New Mexican,” Haaland was raised by a civil servant mother who was a member of the Turquoise Clan of Laguna Pueblo and a U.S. Marine father who was a third-generation Norwegian immigrant whose “idea of a good time was rowing a small boat on the Great Dismal Swamp.” Like most military families, hers relocated frequently during her childhood. After she graduated high school, she worked for 10 years at a bakery, becoming an expert cake decorator, and drank to excess. Newly sober, she enrolled in college at age 28, raised a daughter as a single mother, and went on to attend law school, then worked on a grassroots level in New Mexico politics. She also ran marathons on a regular basis before running for Congress under the slogan, “Congress Has Never Heard a Voice Like Mine.” Peppering her memoir with recipes such as Red Chile Beans for Frito Pies, a dish she uses to connect with others, Haaland stresses the importance of going door to door to meet constituents. Though Haaland makes her opinion of President Donald Trump clear—calling him “a selfish, angry man”—the memoir mostly steers clear of partisan politics, instead emphasizing the point that “people with real, lived experience should have opportunities to serve.”

A convincing and down-to-earth account of a remarkably varied life.