Past News Items

WASHINGTON – This week, Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney issued two separate decisions taking lands into trust for the Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria and the Catawba Indian Nation.

Under Secretary of the Interior Hatfield Chilson today announced preliminary results of the Klamath Indian election in which members of the Oregon tribe were given the opportunity to remain in the tribal organization or withdraw and receive cash payment for their pr0portionate share of the tribal assets.

Of 2,133 members who received ballots in March, 1,649 or 77.3 percent have elected to withdraw and 74 or 3.5 percent have elected to remain. Ballots for 405 or 19 percent of the tribal members have not been received. Five ballots still remain to be validated.

ALBUQUERQUE – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson says the planned construction of the new National Indian Programs Training Center here is part of an ongoing effort to improve the delivery of federal services to Indian country. Assistant Secretary Anderson joined New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility and a separate dedication of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) offices on the Albuquerque site as the Pete V. Domenici Indian Affairs Building.

WASHINGTON – The Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs is announcing a corrected schedule of dates for the upcoming openings of Missing and Murdered Native Americans Cold Case Task Force offices in August.

The correct dates with locations are:

Legislation to lift mineral lease limitations that have hampered the development of Indian tribal lands has been submitted to Congress by the Department of the Interior, Assistant Secretary Roger C. Ernst announced today.

Specifically, the proposed legislation would remove the 10-year limit on nonproducing leases which, Assistant Secretary Ernst said, prevents tribes in some cases from realizing the full benefit of their mineral assets.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today issued a Final Determination in which she declined to acknowledge as an Indian tribe a group known as the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians (CB) from Dudley, Mass.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Tara Katuk Sweeney today announced the establishment of the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration (BTFA) which will report directly to her office. The new BTFA will assume responsibility for financial operations and functions currently performed by the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) effective today.

Of the 31,259 Indian people who have moved away from their reservations to western and Midwestern cities since 1952 with help provided under the relocation services program of the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior, about 70 percent have become self-supporting in their new homes, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons reported today.

“The Department of the Interior has a zero tolerance policy regarding drinking and driving by its employees. In March 2004, the Bureau of Indian Affairs strengthened its policies and procedures that govern its employees’ use of government-owned vehicles and is committed to taking additional measures to ensure that this will not happen again. The Bureau of Indian Affairs extends its deepest condolences to the families of Larry and Rita Beller and Edward and Alice Ramaekers.”

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton announced today approval of a recommendation made by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons for transfer of the Department’s function of approving contracts between attorneys and Indian tribes. Commissioner Emmons recommended that the function be shifted from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Office of the Solicitor of the Department.

The transfer will be effected as soon as the necessary order has been developed and formally approved by the Secretary.