Past News Items

On September 1, 2020, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) approved the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas’ (Tribe) Part 3 Business Leases, Chapter 27 Leasing Code under the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership Act of 2012 (HEARTH Act). With this approval, the Tribe is authorized to enter into business leases without further BIA approval.

Selection of Edward F. Edzards, a career employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as a new superintendent of the Pierre Agency, supervising the Bureau's operations on the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Reservations in South Dakota, effective August 19, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Edzards has been in charge of the Bureau's Cheyenne and Arapaho area field office (formerly designated as a sub-agency since 1955. For six years before that he worked for the Bureau as a farm management supervisor at Pawnee, Clinton and Concho, all in western Oklahoma.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation (Tribes), The Montana Power Company (MPC), PPL Montana (PPLM), Trout Unlimited (TU), and the U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) announce that they have reached an agreement to settle the Montana Power Company v. FERC lawsuit, currently pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

On July 10, all Branch of Wildland Fire Management staff attended a Stress Management and Resilience Training (SMART) in Boise, ID. The training was designed to give staff a deeper understanding into how to support regions and agencies with dealing with serious incidents while giving staff skills to manage stressful work environments.

Job opportunities for American Indians in careers involving the land and its resources are discussed in "Careers for Indians in
Agriculture," a new eight-page leaflet just published by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Aimed primarily at interesting high school students in furthering their education, the leaflet may be obtained from the Bureau of
Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20242 or any Indian agency without cost.

WASHINGTON - Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development - Indian Affairs George T. Skibine today congratulated the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe on the grand opening of the Cheyenne River Reservation Achievement Center in Eagle Butte, S.D. The Center was established with support from the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED), Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) and Wal-Mart Stores. Skibine was represented at the Sept. 18 opening by IEED Division of Economic Development Chief Jack Stevens.

The Dog Head Fire was first reported on June 14, 2016 in the Manzano Mountains on the Cibola National Forest in New Mexico. The fire burned for six days, had an extended six-mile crown fire, and threatened residences around the community of Chilili, New Mexico, and Pueblo of Isleta Tribal lands in central New Mexico that are adjacent to the forest. More than 11,000 acres of Federal lands and 6,600 acres of private lands were ravaged, along with 12 residences and 44 minor structures that were damaged or destroyed. However, the Pueblo of Isleta experienced limited damage to their Tribal lands as a result of a combination of fuels management treatments that had been completed more than a decade earlier.

The Department of the Interior today announced the selection of three new superintendents for Indian agencies in Minnesota, Montana and Washington.

At the Minnesota Agency in Bemidji, Herman P. Mittelholz, superintendent of the Turtle Mountain Agency in North Dakota since 1957, will succeed W. Wendell Palmer who retired May 13. No successor has been designated for Turtle Mountain.

Department of Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover will be the keynote speaker at the 1999 American Indian Tourism Conference, "Preserving our Past Sharing Our Future" on Friday, August 20, 1999 in Albuquerque, NM.

The North Star Fire started on the Colville Reservation August 13. Prolonged hot weather, dry conditions and sustained winds created perfect conditions for large fire growth. Over the course of the 57-day fire, only one minor structure was burned, despite frequent evacuations, road closures and severe fire behavior. While just over 28,000 acres of the Colville Reservation burned, the total size of the fire was over 217,000 acres and cost roughly $48 million to put out. It was Washington State’s largest fire in 2015.