Features Interview with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland
Premieres Friday, August 27 at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT
Airs During NBC News and MSNBC’s Week-Long ‘The Vanished’ Series
August 23, 2021 – On Friday’s all-new Dateline NBC, NBC News’ Andrea Canning will report on the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, how jurisdictional rules between tribal and non-tribal law enforcement can leave families alone in their search for answers, and on the growing movement demanding change. The one-hour special, The Secrets of Spirit Lake, airs Friday, August 27 at 10pm ET/9 pm CT.
The program features Canning’s sit-down interview with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve in a presidential Cabinet. Haaland tells Dateline that tackling the rise of missing and murdered Indigenous women is a priority, explaining: “This is a crisis that’s been happening in our country since colonization, and it’s very, very deep. And so I’m grateful that we’re seeing some action on it right now.”
Click here to watch the exchange. The transcript is below.
Canning also speaks with Lissa Yellow Bird, an advocate and investigator who helps solve cases, about how Yellow Bird’s search for answers in the disappearance of her niece, Carla Yellow Bird, exposed cracks in law enforcement.
The special is part of NBC News’ week-long The Vanished series, featuring in-depth and exclusive coverage on missing and murdered Indigenous women. Reports will air across TODAY, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, NBC News NOW, NBCNews.com and MSNBC.
The series will include NBC News correspondent Morgan Radford’s report on the difficulties one Indigenous family is facing as they search for their three-year-old child and NBC News correspondent Maura Barrett‘s interviews with grassroots organizers who are using their voice and social media platforms to push for change. Additionally, NBC News correspondent Antonia Hylton meets survivors of Holy Childhood, a Michigan boarding school accused of abusing Native American children for decades. She examines why these schools are now reckoning with their traumatic legacy.
The Vanished will also feature NBC News reporter Graham Lee Brewer’s interview with Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson about a new state task force on missing and murdered Indigenous women, exploring how shortfalls in both data collection and resources can hamper this work.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland speaks with ‘Dateline’ this Friday.
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Andrea Canning Voice Over: The Department of the Interior, the agency that oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is now run by a Native American.
Canning: When Indigenous women look at you, what do you hope they see?
Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland: I’ve lived that life and I want their voices to be represented here.
Canning Voice Over: Tackling the missing and murdered Indigenous women’s crisis is a priority for Secretary Haaland.
Secretary Haaland: This is a crisis that’s been happening in our country since colonization, and it’s very, very deep. And so I’m grateful that we’re seeing some action on it right now.
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For More Information:
Dominique Cuce
NBC News
Dateline NBC is the longest-running series in NBC primetime history and will enter its 30th season in September. Dateline is anchored by Lester Holt and features correspondents Andrea Canning, Josh Mankiewicz, Natalie Morales, Keith Morrison and Dennis Murphy. Airing Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT, Dateline reaches more than 17 million people every week through its broadcast, and millions more through its social media platforms and podcasts. Additionally, Dateline closed out the 2020-2021 primetime season as the #1 Friday newsmagazine. David Corvo is the senior executive producer, and Liz Cole is the executive producer.
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