Past News Items

In September, President Trump announced the successful repatriation of ancestral remains and funerary items from Tribes associated with the Mesa Verde region from Finland. Following that effort, the White House has asked the U.S. Departments of the Interior and State to work together to assist other Native American tribes in the repatriation of any additional cultural items abroad.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of S. 3198, a bill which would permit leasing of Indian lands on all reservations for terms up to a maximum of 99 years, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

Such authority was provided for lands of the Palm Springs Reservation in California by legislation which Congress enacted last year, Mr. Ernst pointed out, and similar bills are pending in Congress which would affect lands of the Navajo Tribe, the Seminoles of Florida and the Torres-Martinez Indians of California.

Promotion of H. Rex Lee, Associate Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to the position of Deputy Commissioner was announced today by Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons, Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Mr. Lee replaces W. Barton Greenwood, who has been Deputy Commissioner since the position was established in 1956, and who is retiring November 1.

PREWITT, N. M. - Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today joined students and community members celebrating the opening of Baca/Dlo'ay azhi Community School, a K-6 facility serving approximately 390 students from the Prewitt and Thoreau communities on the eastern portion of the Navajo Nation reservation in New Mexico.

Ten plans submitted by Indian rancherias in California for distribution of lands and other assets among the individual members under a 1958 law have now been given final approval by the Department of the Interior, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

In total, the plans provide for distributing 904.79 acres among 137 individual Indians.

Six of the plans have also been ratified by referendum vote among the Indians affected and are now being put into effect.

WASHINGTON – President Bush has proposed a $2.3 billion budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for Fiscal Year 2005 that will ensure the continuation of the Interior Department’s Indian trust reorganization and management improvement efforts, maintain the commitment to implementing the No Child Left Behind Act in BIA-funded schools, continue school replacement construction projects, and support law enforcement. The request also includes payments for Indian water and land claims settlements.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior announced today the third set of awards which are being made "in recognition of long and outstanding services in the preservation, encouragement and development of the arts and crafts of the American Indians."

These awards, consisting of certificates of appreciation, are being presented today in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Recipients, and the categories for which they on, include:

WASHINGTON - Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today affirmed his support for efforts by Alaska Natives to preserve their traditional bowhead whaling activity. McCaleb met today with members of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission's (AEWC) on the eve of the delegation's journey to Cambridge, England, where they will defend the whaling rights of their people before the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Award of a $181,400 contract for construction of a new 80-pupil dormitory and additional dining facilities to provide for Indian school children at Ramah, New Mexico, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Completion of the work will make it possible for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to accommodate additional children at the existing Ramah facility while they attend the local public schools under arrangements worked out with the school district. This will also relieve the present overcrowding.