Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason today announced that the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) has approved a $140,000 grant to the Pueblo of Laguna Utility Authority to study the feasibility of having the PLUA provide affordable electricity service throughout the tribe’s lands in west-central New Mexico. The Pueblo of Laguna is located approximately 45 miles west of the city of Albuquerque.

ANADARKO, Okla. – Today, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Katuk Sweeney praised the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Anadarko Agency for deploying the first Tribal Access Program (TAP) biometric/biographic kiosk workstation. The TAP kiosk will help process finger and palm prints, take mugshots, and access data with the national crime information databases to better ensure the safety of children in foster care.

Proposed amendments to the Federal regulations governing the oil and gas leasing of land owned by Indian tribes or individual Indians were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The purpose of the amendments is to permit overriding royalties or payments out of production on oil and gas leases on Indian lands. Such royalties or payments are those paid to a lessee when a lease is assigned and are in addition to the royalties or payments paid to the lessor.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Director W. Patrick Ragsdale today announced that the BIA Winnebago (Nebr.) Agency Fire and Fuels Management Group was honored March 7 at the Department of the Interior National Fire Center’s 2006 National Fire Plan Awards ceremony held in Phoenix, Ariz. National Fire Plan awards are given annually in recognition of outstanding accomplishments related to the implementation of the Department’s National Fire Plan (NFP).

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney today announced that she has approved the probate code of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in California. The Department of the Interior’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) will now apply the code when probating trust or restricted lands within the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation.

Codes such as Agua Caliente’s allow tribes to determine how trust or restricted assets within their reservations pass to heirs upon an individual’s death.

Award of a $51,000 contract for water catchment-storage units on the Hualapai Indian Reservation in northern Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract covers construction of six steel stock water tanks with a capacity of 50,000 gallons each, and six catchment areas lined with asphalt mats.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has awarded $196,735 to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon for a due diligence study for the Warm Springs Biomass Demonstration Project, an effort by the tribes to enhance an existing biomass electrical generating plant located on the reservation.

WASHINGTON – The Trump Administration announced today that the U.S. Department of Interior’s Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) has approved National Tribal Broadband Grant (NTBG) program grants to 23 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and two Navajo Nation communities to study the feasibility of developing or extending broadband services in their areas.

A $116,373.90 contract for construction work on 5.603 miles of road on the Soboba and Pechanga Indian Reservations in Riverside County, California, has been awarded to the Hubbs Equipment Co., P.O. Box 17; Colton, California, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The Hubbs bid was the lowest of sixteen received. The others ranged from $117,597.05 to $159,761.00. Bids were opened by the Bureau of Public Roads.

(DENVER) - Interior's Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Aurene Martin announced today that Secretary Gale A. Norton approved $1,088,000 in federal Save America's Treasures grants to help protect and preserve the nation's American Indian cultural heritage. Martin made the announcement at a meeting today at a national Indian education summit in Denver, Colo. The meeting, "Learn Today, Lead Tomorrow: Accountability for Results," is sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education Programs.