News by Year

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Interior Assistant Secretary ~ Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb and Deputy Assistant Secretary Wayne Smith will meet with tribal leaders on Thursday, January 3, 2002, in Oklahoma City, Okla., at the third in a series of consultation meetings on the Department's plan to improve the management of Indian trust assets. The meeting will be held at the Westin hotel (1 North Broadway) starting at 9:00 a.m. (CST).

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb and Deputy Assistant Secretary Wayne Smith will meet with tribal leaders on Thursday, December 20, 2001, in Minneapolis, Minn., at a second consultation meeting on the Department's plan to improve the management of Indian trust assets. The meeting will be held at the Doubletree Hotel (7901 24th Avenue South) starting at 9:00 a.m. (CST).

(Washington)-- Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will participate in a ground breaking ceremony held by the Muskogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma for a six million dollar office building that will house a Bureau of Indian Affairs regional office. "This project is an example of federal and tribal governments working to ensure needed services continue in a cooperative effort." said Perry Beaver, Principle Chief of the Creek Nation. The ground breaking ceremony will take place in Muskogee, Oklahoma on Friday, December 14, 2001 at 10:00 a.m.

(Washington, DC)--The U.S. Department of the Interiors Office of Indian Affairs headed by Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb will be hosting a National Indian Energy Summit “Indian Energy Resources, Helping to Fuel America’s Needs” at the Adams Mark Hotel in Denver, Colorado on December 6 and 7, 2001.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will be a keynote speaker at the Joint Fall 2001 Tribal Self-Governance Conference with the Department of the Interior and Department of Health and Human Services. The event will be held November 12-16 at the Quinault Indian Nation Resort in Ocean Shores, Wash. Topics of discussion will be self-governance and trust reform.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the Interior Department’s decision to withdraw in its entirety the final rule titled “Acquisition of Title to Land in Trust” that was published on January 16, 2001, citing the need for clear direction and processing standards for land into trust applications. “This action is consistent with the action we took 60 days ago when we asked for comment on the proposed withdrawal of the final rule,” McCaleb said.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – In remarks at the 2001 National Tribal Roads Conference held last week in Albuquerque, N.M, Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb reaffirmed the authority of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, otherwise known as the TEA-21 Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, to develop proposed regulations and a new funding formula for the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Indian Reservation Roads Program, while acceding to the committee’s request for more time to complete its work.

(Washington) - Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb will be the keynote speaker at the U.S. Department of the Interior's opening ceremony of American Indian Heritage Month on November 5, 2001. The celebration will officially begin a month of acknowledgment for the contributions made by American Indians to our country. With recent events in our nation, this year's theme is entitled, "Uniting All Nations Together As One." in honor of American Indians and this nation's commitment to freedom for all people.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Wayne R. Smith will be a guest speaker this Thursday, October 25, on Native America Calling, the national public affairs and news radio call-in program of the Koahnic Broadcast Corporation. He will address the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ role in the Federal Acknowledgment Process. The program will air live starting at 1:00 p.m. (ET).

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the appointment of Wayne R. Smith, 52, as the Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. Mr. Smith is of American Indian heritage, Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux – his mother was born and lived on the Tribe’s reservation in Fort Thompson, S.D., until her graduation from high school. “I welcome Wayne to my team,” McCaleb said. “His extensive Indian gaming, administrative, legal and policy experience will be invaluable as we work to shape Indian Affairs in the 21st century.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will help to distribute more than 500 teddy bears collected by school children in Oklahoma for children in Washington, D.C., personally affected by the September 11 attacks.

Assistant Secretary McCaleb served as the Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation at the time the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced he has issued a Notice of Final Determination whereby he declined to acknowledge that the Duwamish Tribal Organization of Burien, Wash., (petition #25) exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced he has issued a Notice of Proposed Finding whereby he proposes to decline to acknowledge that the Nipmuc Nation headquartered in Sutton, Mass., (petition #69A) exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced he has issued a Notice of Proposed Finding whereby he proposes to decline to acknowledge that the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians of Dudley, Mass., (petition #68B) exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the appointment of Robert D. Ecoffey, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, as its lead law enforcement officer. As director of the Bureau’s Office of Law Enforcement Services, Ecoffey will oversee a 750-person department that provides uniformed police services, detention operations and criminal investigations of alleged or suspected violations of major federal criminal laws in Indian Country.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will be a guest speaker today on Native America Calling, the national public affairs and news radio program on the American Indian Radio on Satellite (AIROS) and National Public Radio networks. He will address Indian Country’s response to calls for rescue and recovery support following last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

(WASHINGTON) – Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today praised Indian Country’s outstanding generosity as our nation rebounds from this week’s tragic terrorist attack.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of innocent people lost or injured by this act of enormous horror,” McCaleb said. “An attack on America is an attack on Indian Country. I am gratified, but hardly surprised, that so many tribes have quickly offered support to the victims and their loved ones.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) The Bureau of Indian Affairs is a major sponsor of the American Indian/Alaska Native Tourism Association’s 2001 American Indian Tourism Conference, which will take place Sept. 9-12 in Bismarck, N.D. Over 700 people representing the 558 federally recognized tribes in the United States as well as tribes from Canada are expected to attend the conference, which is the largest of its kind in the country. The theme for this year’s event is “Preserving our past, sharing our future.”

(TULSA, Okla.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb was named last night as the 2001 Native American Newsmaker of the Year by the Native American Times, Oklahoma’s largest Indian-owned newspaper. McCaleb received the newsmaker award during the Oklahoma Native American Business Development Center awards banquet at the Gilcrease Museum here. The center holds the annual awards ceremony to recognize individuals and companies from the Oklahoma Indian business community.

(CHICHILTAH, N.M.) – With the click of a mouse by Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb, the Chichiltah/Jones Ranch Community School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs facility located in Chichiltah, N.M., today officially opened its portal to the Internet. His action also successfully completed the BIA’s four-year effort to bring all of its schools online.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announces that it has lifted a moratorium that has been in effect since 1997, on the sale of chat from the Tar Creek Superfund site located in northeastern Oklahoma. The lifting of the moratorium will lead the way to assist with the clean up of the area and provide a financial gain for the Indian landowners. Chat has commercial value, even though it is mine waste. It resembles a fine gravel and can be used for a variety of purposes, including fill material, road bedding, and aggregate in concrete and asphalt.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will complete the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ effort to connect its 185-school system to the Internet, known as Access Native America, when he brings Chichiltah/Jones Ranch Community School in Chichiltah, N.M., online this Thursday, August 23. Chichiltah/Jones Ranch Community School, located on the Navajo reservation, is a K-8 boarding and day school serving 206 students.

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service has awarded one of the largest tribal contracts in history to a 100% owned American Indian business. The $100 million contract, awarded to Wyandotte NetTel, offers telecommunications and information technology products and services to the federal government.

In today’s ceremony in Washington, D.C., executives from Wyandotte NetTel, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Minerals Management Service, and the Small Business Administration celebrated the contract agreement.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The Department of the Interior will hold a signing ceremony tomorrow for a $100 million contract between GovWorks, the Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) franchise fund, and Wyandotte NetTel, an American Indian telecommunications and information technology firm owned by the Wyandotte Nation in Wyandotte, Okla. Wyandotte NetTel will provide telecom and information technology products and services to the federal government.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb today announced two separate actions concerning the final rule titled “Acquisition of Title to Land in Trust.” One action further extends the effective date of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) final rule on placing lands into trust that were published on January 16, 2001.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb today issued a proposed finding to decline to acknowledge the Ohlone/Costanoan Muwekma Tribe, also known as the “Muwekma Tribe,” the 400-member group based in San Jose, Calif. The Assistant Secretary found that the petitioner did not meet three of the seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgement under 25 CFR Part 83, thereby automatically resulting in a proposed negative finding.

Thank you, Neal. Last Wednesday, Neal made his first appearance at the Senate Indian Affairs Committee since he was confirmed as Assistant Secretary.

Neal talked with Senators about tribal governance practices, economic development and education. That was expected – that’s his job.

It’s what happened after his testimony that took Washington by surprise. He could have driven back to his BIA office – and returned phone calls and other tasks.

(WASHINGTON) – Interior Secretary Gale Norton, accompanied by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb, will be the keynote speaker at the National Indian School Board Association’s 2001 Summer Institute conference on Tuesday, July 24, at 8:30 a.m. (PST) at the Doubletree Jantzen Beach Hotel in Portland, Ore.

WASHINGTON - The new Interior officials confirmed by the Senate last week will be sworn-in by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton at a ceremony tomorrow, July 17, at 1:15 p.m. The ceremony will take place outside on the Department’s rooftop terrace.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb will appear on C-SPAN’s live nationwide public affairs call-in program “Washington Journal” on Sunday, July 15, 2001, at 9:15 a.m. (EDT). He will be speaking on contemporary American Indian issues, tribal economic development, education and his goal of shaping the Bureau of Indian Affairs into a 21st century service agency responsive to the agency’s customers: federally recognized tribes and American Indians and Alaska Natives.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Neal A. McCaleb, a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and President Bush’s nominee for Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, was sworn into office July 4, 2001, on the occasion of America’s 225th birthday. “I’m ready, willing and enthusiastic about starting in my new role,” McCaleb said.

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Gale Norton today lauded the U.S. Senate’s action late Friday confirming Neal A. McCaleb as Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs. “I want to thank the Senate for expeditiously approving Neal McCaleb’s confirmation, “ she said, “As an important member of my team, Neal’s solid leadership, management skills and experience will serve well the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Country and our Nation.”

NORTHERN NEW MEXICO: Under sunny skies, tribal leaders from the Taos, Picuris and Tesuque Pueblos met with Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb to discuss a number of different road projects the Bureau of lndian Affairs has implemented this year. The visit by the Assistant Secretary fulfills a promise to make these road projects a priority in the Southwest Region by providing the necessary resources to overcome past problems associated with private contractors and Bureau employees.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Polacca Day School located in Polacca, Ariz., on the Hopi reservation.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Department of the Interior Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs James H. McDivitt will give the keynote address next week at an event commemorating federal law enforcement officers who have given their lives while on duty in Indian Country. The Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial will be held May 3, 2001 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in conjunction with the U.S.

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton today praised President Bush’s intention to nominate Neal A. McCaleb to serve as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. The announcement is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate, once the official nomination is made by the President.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Wingate Elementary School Dormitory located in Ft. Wingate, N.M.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Santa Fe Indian School located in Santa Fe, N.M.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Holbrook Dormitory located in Holbrook, Ariz., on the Navajo reservation.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Polacca Day School located in Polacca, Ariz., on the Hopi reservation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Ojibwa Indian School located in Belcourt, N.D.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Paschal Sherman Indian School located in Omak, Wash., on the Colville Indian Reservation.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush has proposed a $2.2 billion budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Fiscal Year 2002 that includes an increase of $65.9 million over the FY2001 appropriation. The increase will strengthen the commitment to replace, maintain and operate Indian schools, reform trust management, and ensure public safety in Indian Country. In addition, the request calls for increases in spending on Indian water and land claims settlements.

Department of the Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs James H. McDivitt today announced his approval of an application to take into trust a 55-acre parcel of land located in Hudson, Wisconsin, for three Federally-recognized Indian Tribes for gaming purposes after determining it would be in the best interest of the Tribes without being detrimental to the surrounding community.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has issued a final determination to acknowledge the Duwamish Tribal Organization, hereafter referred to as the Duwamish of Renton, Washington, as existing as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. The Duwamish first filed a letter of intent to petition for Federal acknowledgement on June 7, 1977.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) today issued a proposed finding for Federal acknowledgement of The Nipmuc Nation headquartered in Sutton, Massachusetts, saying the Nation (petitioner) meets the seven criteria for Federal acknowledgement under 25 CFR Part 83. The positive proposed finding states that the petitioner exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law and meets the requirements for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Gover has reaffirmed the federal trust relationship between the United States and the King Salmon Tribe and the Shoonaq’ Tribe in Alaska and the Lower Lake Rancheria in California after finding that their government-to-government relationship with the U.S. has never been severed.