Future US President Joe Biden has nominated Congressman Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior, Biden’s transition team office confirms.

The appointment of the New Mexico State MP as Secretary of the Interior would be of great symbolic value because she is of indigenous descent and because the Department of the Interior is mainly in charge of relations with Native American peoples, and the management of federal land and National parks.

The native voice was instrumental in Biden’s election victory in the southwestern state of Arizona.

Biden also nominated former environmental regulator Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leader Gina McCarthy on Thursday to lead a new task force focused on combating climate change.