News by Year

Fort Apache Agency has a long legacy of prescribed burning treatments dating back to the 1950’s. From 1950 to 1970, more than 300,000 acres were treated on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, primarily for hazardous fuel reduction. During the 1980s, 347,778 acres were treated and during the 1990s, 197,257 acres were treated with prescribed fire.

During the first week in October, the BIA, Branch of Wildland Fire Management, hosted Fire 101 Training. The training is the first of its kind and is designed to introduce payment team members and regional budget staff to business authorities, agreements, and procurement methods that bind the interagency incident business community together.

Providing helicopter support and transport services to programs within Indian Affairs is an important function of the Branch of Wildland Fire Management’s Aviation Program, especially when it comes to transporting personnel and equipment to the Supai Village. Located eight miles below the rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Department of Agriculture considers it to be one of the most remote villages in the nation; only mules, hikers or helicopters can access it. It is home to the Havasu Baaja, People of the Blue Green Waters, also known as the Havasupai Tribe.

After more than forty years of service to the Bureau of Indian Affairs wildland fire management community, long-time dispatcher, mentor, friend and colleague, Frank Bedonie, announces his retirement.

Alaska Daily News: "The White House announced the pick Monday. The reaction on Tuesday bordered on ecstatic"

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Branch of Wildland Fire Management is proud to introduce Mr. Jared Jajola, the Branch’s first wildland firefighter to graduate from the Office of Trust Services (OTS) Student Internship Program. Jajola earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies from Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado in May, 2017, ending four years of college education.

On October 10, 13 large fires ignited across California. These fires, driven by wickedly high winds (some places, over 70 mph) ripped through whole communities at a rate rarely seen across the state. Within the first couple days of starting, the fires overwhelmed state and county responders, burning over 6,000 homes and structures and forcing evacuations of whole towns. Sadly, they also claimed the lives of several dozen people with over 200 still unaccounted for.

The Dog Head Fire was first reported on June 14, 2016 in the Manzano Mountains on the Cibola National Forest in New Mexico. The fire burned for six days, had an extended six-mile crown fire, and threatened residences around the community of Chilili, New Mexico, and Pueblo of Isleta Tribal lands in central New Mexico that are adjacent to the forest. More than 11,000 acres of Federal lands and 6,600 acres of private lands were ravaged, along with 12 residences and 44 minor structures that were damaged or destroyed. However, the Pueblo of Isleta experienced limited damage to their Tribal lands as a result of a combination of fuels management treatments that had been completed more than a decade earlier.

WASHINGTON, D.C. | U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is confirmed to attend the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) 2017 Mid Year Conference & Marketplace (Mid Year) at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut held from Monday, June 12 to Thursday, June 15, 2017.

In Indian Country, remote rural agencies are often challenged with limited access to computers or the internet. This limited access to technology often leads to routine, hard-to-fill vacancies. In 2016 the BIA Branch of Wildland Fire Management invested $193,000 to hire four human resource assistants to address these challenges.

The Department of the Interior (Department) is considering whether to propose an administrative rule that would comprehensively update 25 CFR part 140 (Licensed Indian Traders) in an effort to modernize the implementation of the Indian Trader statutes consistent with the Federal policies of Tribal self-determination and self-governance. The current regulations were promulgated in 1957 and have not been comprehensively updated since 1965.

Seminole Tribe of Florida is witnessing tremendous landscape changes taking place across their landscapes that have endangered their cultural practices and ways of life. Now, using a combination of fire and water, ecological and cultural balance is slowly returning.

The Navajo Interagency Hotshots were recognized for their dedication and foresight to being fully prepared to deal with medical emergencies in the field by starting (and continuing) their own EMS training program (since 2011) and for putting that emergency medical training into practice in August 2014 when two interagency hotshot crew (IHC) members were struck by a log rolling down a hill on the South Cle Elem Ridge fire in Washington State.

It is often said by bureau and non-bureau employees that Bureau of Indian Affairs is different. While working in and for Indian Country presents its unique set of challenges and rewards, when it comes to Interagency Standards for Fire and Aviation Operations, better known as the “Red Book,” BIA is now not-so-different.

WASHINGTON – As part of President Obama’s Generation Indigenous (“Gen-I”) initiative to remove barriers to success for Native American youth, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S.