Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney announced today that the Department of the Interior has signed agreements with the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana, and the Santee Sioux Nation of the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska to guide implementation of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations at each of these reservations.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, will be honored as “Indian of the Year" during special ceremonies July 16 at the annual Indian Exposition at Anadarko, Okla.

The first Indian to head the Bureau in 97 years, Bennett is a member of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin. He was a career employee of the Bureau, with 29 years of service, before being appointed Commissioner by President Johnson on March 18, 1966.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Thomas W. Fredericks today said he was pleased to accept the Overall Plan of Operation for the Osage Tribal Education Committee of Oklahoma

To date, the committee has approved 209 applications for grants totaling $61,900. Fredericks said scholarships for the 1980-81 school year are expected to exceed the 1980 total and will help more than 300 Osage students to meet the cost of higher education.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke today thanked President Trump for signing a Presidential Emergency Declaration for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which was hard hit by Hurricane Irma last week. The tribe made its request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as soon as it was able to do so. This is the first such declaration ever approved for a tribal nation according to FEMA.

Two contracts totaling $3.7 million for Indian family residential training programs in California and New Mexico have been renewed for 1968, Robert Lo Bennett, Commissioner of Indian of Affairs, announced.

The two programs, operated at deactivated Air Force bases, give Indians the academic, vocational and urban life training they need to live and work effectively in modern society, Bennett said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has published eligibility criteria and application procedures for Indian tribes interested in participating in the Tribal Managers Corps program, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett said today.

WASHINGTON - Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts, who leads the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, today announced the Department’s decision to place a 1.08-acre land parcel owned by the Craig Tribal Association, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in the City of Craig, Alaska, into federal Indian trust status.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced three appointments to high-level positions in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and said the appointments were "key steps in making the Bureau more responsive to the needs of the Indian people."

Named to the top-level posts under Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert LaFollette Bennett were:

-- Theodore W. Taylor, a career civil servant, to be Deputy Commissioner. Taylor has been Assistant to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution since 1959, and is a veteran of Interior and BIA service.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus today announced the Justice Department will not seek offsets against future monetary awards in Indian claims cases f or federal monies paid out under the Indian Self-Determination Act

"I was concerned that the tribes not be made reluctant to take over the responsibilities for many of the programs in operation on their land," said Andrus. "The provisions of the Indian Self-Determination Act easily could be frustrated if the trade-off for self-determination is a cloud over pending tribal claims."

WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior issued the following statement regarding Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: