The Biden administration has chosen Anchorage attorney Natalie Landreth for a high-ranking job in the Interior department.
Landreth has worked for the Native American Rights Fund for 17 years. She’s worked to protect Native voting rights. Last year, she successfully challenged the state’s requirement that mail-in ballots have witness signatures, the most common reason such ballots hadn’t been counted. Landreth also worked to develop tribal jurisdiction in Alaska.
Her new job will be deputy solicitor for lands. The job entails providing legal counsel on public land use, natural resource management and land protection.
Landreth is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. The Biden administration’s announcement says her ancestors survived the Trail of Tears, when the federal government forcibly removed tens of thousands of Native Americans from their land.
RELATED: Should Division of Elections count ballots without a witness signature? Judge to decide Monday.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
