Natalie Landreth, newly named deputy solicitor for land at the Department of Interior, is a resident of Alaska, where she has been a litigant for liberal causes, such as last year successfully fighting to weaken Alaska’s voting procedures, through the elimination of witness signatures on ballots.
Landreth has also fought against Alaska Native Corporations being able to receive CARES Act relief funds.
She spent 17 years at the Native American Rights Fund, where she represented Tribes and Native Americans in treaty rights, public lands, aboriginal rights, and other land cases. A member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and a Harvard Law graduate, she will now provide legal counsel on public land use, natural resource management and land protection for the Biden Administration’s Department of Interior.
Still to be named is a much-sought-after political appointment of Special Assistant for Alaska Affairs, a position that is based in Anchorage for the Department of Interior. During the Obama Administration, the position was held by Pat Pourchot, a former member of the Gov. Tony Knowles Administration, and Steve Wackowski, who served during the Trump Administration and had previously worked for Sen. Ted Stevens.
