Past News Items

The Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida, which once sent all its messages by runner, soon will become landlord for a plant that will be the world's largest manufacturer of electronic connectors for the telecommunication industry.

The Tribe today took part in ceremonies for the new plant at its Hollywood, Fla., reservation. The facility will be operated by Amphenol Corporation of Chicago. The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs served as the liaison agency that brought the Seminole Tribe and the company together.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced a sweeping reform of federal surface leasing regulations for American Indian lands that will streamline the approval process for home ownership, expedite economic development and spur renewable energy development in Indian Country.

Federal supervision over the 600-acre Quartz Valley Indian Rancheria in California has ended, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Located in Siskiyou County, the rancheria is owned in common by 49 American Indians descendants of Karok, Shasta and Upper Klamath Indian groups. Termination of Federal responsibility is in accordance with the California Rancheria Act of 1958 as amended in 1964.

The Quartz Valley area is the 32nd Indian land parcel in California to be relieved of Federal trusteeship.

Washington, D.C.— On Thursday, September 29, 2011, the United States Department of the Interior (DOI) Solicitor Hilary Tompkins, Deputy Associate Secretary Meghan Conklin, and Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs for Policy and Economic Development Jodi Gillette, will attend the fifth regional government-to-government tribal consultation regarding the Trust Land Consolidation component of the Cobell Settlement.

BACKGROUND ON COBELL SETTLEMENT:

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today that Harley G. Little, a Creek Indian, has been appointed Superintendent of the Okmulgee Agency, Oklahoma.

Little, 47, has been Tribal Operations Officer in the BIA's Area Office at Muskogee, Oklahoma. He succeeds Linus Gwinn who has retired after 13 years as Superintendent at Okmulgee.

Little attended Bacone Junior College, earned a B.A. in History and Education at Northeastern State, Tahlequah, Oklahoma and a Masters in Guidance and Education from the University of Oklahoma at Norman.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced $1,483,632 in grants to assist American Indian tribes, Alaska native villages, and museums with implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Of this amount, $1,422,515 is going to 19 recipients for consultation/documentation projects, and $61,117 is going to five repatriation projects.

Work is progressing on plans for the all-Indian halftime program during the Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys National Football League Game in Washington November 27, according to Dr. Louis W. Ballard, Director of Music Programs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Dr. Ballard said he has received applications from more than 600 Indian high school musicians to participate in the halftime show. He said a series of competitions will be held in various parts of the country to select the 150 young musicians who will make up the marching band.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today joined First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House kitchen garden for the planting of the Three Sisters—corn, beans, and squash—a traditional indigenous agricultural method of planting. This activity comes a week after the launch of Let’s Move! in Indian Country (LMIC) and continues to push the message of leading active and healthy lifestyles in Indian Country.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus today announced two top Indian Affairs appointments in the Department of the Interior.

George Vincent Goodwin, Jr., a member of the White Earth Chippewa Tribe now a Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Director at Minneapolis, was named Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, and Thomas w. Fredericks, a member of the Mandan-Hidatsa Tribe, was appointed Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today issued a final determination not to acknowledge the petitioner known as the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation (Petitioner #84A) as an Indian tribe. This petitioner, located in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., has 1,940 members.