Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In keeping with President Obama’s commitment to empowering tribal nations and strengthening their economies, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that he has approved land leasing regulations from the Makah Indian Tribe and the Squaxin Island Tribe in Washington State pursuant to the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership (or HEARTH) Act.

Paul W. Hand, Special Assistant at Palm Springs, Calif., to the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Director for the Sacramento Area, has been appointed superintendent of the BIA agency at Chinle, Ariz., on the Navajo Indian Reservation. He fills the position vacated by Paul A. Krause, who transferred to the superintendency of the Bureau's Bemidji, Minn., agency last July. The new assignment became effective September 11, 1966.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Advancing President Obama’s ongoing commitment to work with tribal leaders to build strong economies, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today released final regulations that will ensure tribal communities receive all the royalties they are owed from oil production on their lands, reduce administrative costs and provide greater predictability to the oil industry.

NEW SUPERINTENDENT AT MESCALERO APACHE RESERVATION--Paul H. Clements, assistant superintendent at the Pima Agency in Arizona since 1964, has been named superintendent of the Mescalero Apache Agency in New Mexico. He fills a post vacated by the transfer last May of Kenneth L. Payton to head the United Pueblos Agency. The new assignment became effective June 26. Clements, a native of Port Townsend, Wash., has since 1948 held various BIA administrative posts -- at the Yakima Agency in Washington; the Umatilla Agency in Oregon; and the Flathead Agency in Montana.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

The Department of the Interior has amended existing Federal Regulations governing preparation of tribal rolls and enrollment appeals, to implement preparation of rolls for the Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska, a current activity of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The amendments to Title 25, Code of Federal Regulations, Parts 41 and 42, became effective upon publication in the Federal Register June 1, 1966. They establish qualifications for enrollment in the Tlingit and Haida Tribes and set a June 30, 1967 deadline for filing applications.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – In a speech this morning to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar described the progress being made in a comprehensive agenda to reform, restructure and rebuild federal relations with Indian Country.

Secretary Salazar outlined a broad range of efforts underway to restore integrity in U.S. government relations with American Indian and Alaska Native leaders, fulfill trust responsibilities to tribal members, and to work cooperatively to build stronger economies and safer tribal communities.

The Department of the Interior today announced the award of a $3,859,000 contract for construction of a new 18-classroom school facility at Sanostee, on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Justice Services (OJS) Division of Drug Enforcement (DDE) worked in successful cooperation with the Caddo County Okla. Sheriff’s Office, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics (OBN), and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to halt a drug operation discovered by a lease holder looking for lost livestock. The land being leased is a Kiowa tribal member’s allotment near Carnegie, Okla.

When the first year's operations under the War on Poverty were summed up recently, the record showed that Indian reservation communities were among the most responsive of all groups to the self-help challenges of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.