Past News Items

Full independence from Federal supervision is being extended to an Indian Tribal group in the United States for the first time since 1909 under terms of a proclamation signed by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay, it, was announced today.

The affiliated Alabama and Coushatta Tribes of Polk County, Texas, under terms of the proclamation, will be removed effective July 1, from the scope of all Federal laws specially applicable to Indians.

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WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced the second competition for students attending high schools and tribal colleges funded by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) that will promote careers in the fields of green and renewable energy. This year’s competition will be looking for designs of a conversion process that will change biomass into diesel fuel.

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Edmund Manydeeds, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, has been named Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Great Lakes Agency at Ashland, Wisconsin, Acting Commissioner Raymond v. Butler announced today.

Manydeeds has been at the agency since 1960 and has been the Acting Superintendent the past year.

A World War II veteran, Manydeeds earned both a B.S. and M.S. in Education at North State College, South Dakota.

Manydeeds, 55, began working with the BIA in 1948 as a teacher at the Cheyenne River Agency, South Dakota.

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Alonzo T. Spang, 38, director of Indian Studies Program and assistant professor at the University of Montana and a member of r the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe has been named superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquartered at Lame Deer, Mont. He will assume the post within the coming month.

Spang replaces John White, who has taken the position of Commonly Development Officer in the Billings Area Office of the Bureau.

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WASHINGTON, DC – On February 15, 2013, President Obama will welcome to the White House the recipients of the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian honor.

“It is my distinguished honor to award these individuals the 2012 Citizens Medal for their commitment to public service,” said President Obama. “Their selflessness and courage inspire us all to look for opportunities to better serve our communities and our country.”

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Elsie A. Begaii, a Bureau of Indian Affairs' employee at Window Rock, Arizona, has been chosen to receive the Department of Interior's "Woman of the Month" award. Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs Harley Frankel will present Mrs. Begaii with a commemorative plaque and certificate on March 21 in Washington, DC.

Mrs. Begaii, a member of the Navajo Tribe, has worked 27 years with the Bureau. She is the Assistant Employment Assistance Officer for the Navajo Area Office.

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Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton today announced the appointment of William. L. Rogers of San Marine, Calif., as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, a new position created to bring operations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs closer to the Secretariat of the Department of the Interior.

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WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that he has taken steps to address the change in accreditation status of the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), a Bureau of Indian Education post secondary institution of higher learning in Albuquerque, N.M., by its accrediting organization, the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

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A public hearing to receive comments on the environmental impact of proposed uranium mining on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation in Montezuma County, Colorado, has been scheduled for April 30. The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' agency conference room in Towaoc, Colorado.

Notice of the availability of a draft environmental impact statement, prepared by the Department of the Interior, was published in the Federal Register March 28. Notice of the hearing was published March 31.

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Raymond Lightfoot, 54, Assistant Area Director for the Minneapolis Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was named Area Director for the Minneapolis Area Office today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce.

An enrolled member of the Michigan Band of Chippewa Indians, Lightfoot replaces Owen D. Morken, who retired in January 1971.

Lightfoot was born at Fort Thompson, S. Dak. After he completed a course in Business Administration at Nettleton College, Sioux Falls, S. Dak., Lightfoot, joined the Bureau in 1937.

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