Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross swimmer departs Sunday on a 15- day trip to Indian Country that has him visiting 26 Indian reservations and meeting with more than 125 Indian tribes.
"Since I was sworn in about six months ago, I have spent most of my time in Washington involved in putting my ·staff together and working on administrative matters. This trip will be the first opportunity I have to get out and visit with many Indian tribal governments and talk with them about the issues in Indian Country," Swimmer said.
He will be visiting Indian reservations and tribes in the states of New Mexico, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska.
Swimmer's first meeting will be June 9 in Ruidoso, N.M., with the Mescalero tribal council. Later in the day he will meet in Albuquerque with the Colorado Utes, the All Indian Pueblo Council, Jicarilla Apache and Navajo Ramah tribes. The evening of June 9 he will be in San Diego, California for a dinner meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agency superintendents from the Sacramento area office.
Following are the additional dates and places Swimmer will be visiting: June 10, San Diego and visits to the Indian reservations of Viejas, Barona, Mesa Grande, Santa Ysabel, La Jolla, Rincon, Pala and Pechanga and meetings with the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association. Travel to Reno for meeting with the Western Nevada tribal leaders.
June 11, Visit the Pyramid Lake reservation, travel to Sacramento for meeting with BIA employees and meet with the Northern California Agency BIA employees in Arcata; meet with Northern California tribal leaders in Arcata. June 12, Travel to Portland, Oregon for meeting with BIA employees; meet with tribal leaders from Oregon, Washington and Idaho in the Portland area office and travel to Yakima reservation.
