Stewart Udall Inaugurates Interior Secretaries Speaker Series at CU

By Amanda Leigh Haag

“Rock Star.” “Dashing.”

Not the usual way one would describe a self-confessed farm boy with the southwestern high desert in his blood. But that’s exactly how colleagues characterized the charismatic former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Lee Udall when he spoke Sept. 24 at the University of Colorado’s Glenn Miller Ballroom. Udall opened the 2003-2004 series on the role of Secretaries of the Interior in shaping the American West. The event was hosted by The Center of the American West in partnership with The Nature Conservancy.

Udall spoke to a packed auditorium about his 1961-1969 terms as secretary during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and his role as champion of the American environmental movement. He humbly credited his vision and success to “leadership coming up from the grass roots” and “a country that was ready for it.”

Laced throughout Udall’s acknowledgement of his landmark environmental legislation was an impassioned gratitude for the “wonderful bipartisan politics” of the 1960s. Udall is known for initiating the Clean Air Act and the Wilderness Act, among other pieces of landmark environmental legislation, and for valiantly withdrawing mining and homesteading claims to protect Native American rights.

Dressed sharply with a classic bolo tie, 83-year-old Udall’s appearance and his down-to-earth demeanor reflected his Western heritage. Charles Wilkinson, co-founder of The Center of the American West, aptly quoted Udall as he introduced him by saying, “When you grow up in a small farming town and you raise your own food, you’re close to the ground and close to the animals.”

Udall later reflected on being a “Depression kid,” brought up on the principle that “the country’s better off when the community is more important than the individual.” These all-American values shaped his politics and his dedication to the environmental movement, according to Udall.

Interior Secretary Udall with President Kennedy. (Photo courtesy of the Stewart Lee Udall Collection, University of Arizona.)

Throughout the evening, Udall credited his legislative success to the political climate of the 1960s, during which he had an open slate to work with. Kennedy, preoccupied with the Cold War, handed full rein to Udall to manage natural resources.

Udall discredited the assumption that legislation must come from the “top down” in order to command action in government, at least during his terms. “Did the initiative come from the government? It came from the streets. They just burst in my door, and that was a wonderful time,” he said.

Udall’s repeated praise of the utopian bipartisan politics of the 1960s contrasted sharply with his opinion of the rise of partisan opposition that followed. In a question-and-answer session afterward, Udall reflected on the current state of polarized politics and its obstruction to environmental legislation. He asked solemnly, “Do you hear the words ‘Leave behind a legacy’ much today?”

Quoting the “Ask not” inaugural address of President Kennedy, Udall pointed out that the theme of Congress today is “What tax breaks can we get?” not “Is it good for the country, the people?”

But with character living up to his celebrated introduction, Udall ended on an optimistic note, imploring the younger generation to “just demand action” and to “ask what you can do for your community.”

Amanda Haag is a master’s student in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado and a student associate of the university’s Carbon, Climate and Society Initiative.