Past News Items

Education and training programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs benefited an increasing number of Indians of all ages during the fiscal year 1959, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton said today in releasing the Department1s annual report.

Adult vocational training under Indian Bureau contracts with trade schools throughout the country was furnished to 1,547 Indians during the year. This contrasted with 376 trainees in 195B, the first year of the Bureau's adult vocational training program.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will hold a series of tribal consultation meetings on the realignment of the regional and agency offices in 8 of its 12 regions. The meetings will take place October 27-30 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, to assure continued conservation management of the 750,000 -acres Klamath Indian Forest in Oregon and thus protect one of the Nation’s most valuable ponderosa pine stands from the threat of destruction, has asked Congress to amend the 1954 Act which now provides for an end of Federal Trusteeship of the Klamath Reservation by August 1960.

WASHINGTON - Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will bring his message about the benefits of positive thinking and making healthy life choices to an assembly of students, parents, faculty and staff at Sequoyah High School, a contract school for grades 9-12 operated by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. It is the ninth school in a series of visits Anderson plans to make to BIA field offices and education facilities during his administration.

Appointment of Dale M. Baldwin as Superintendent of the Fort Peck Indian Agency, Poplar, Montana, succeeding David Paul Weston, was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Baldwin has been with the Bureau since 1949 and for the past two years has served as program officer in the Washington office. Mr. Weston has been at Fort Peck since 1957 and is transferring to the Washington office as program officer. Both moves will be effective November 14.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson and Special Trustee for American Indians Ross O. Swimmer testified jointly today before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on the Interior Department’s trust initiatives for the 21st century and the successful implementation of Secretary Gale Norton’s Comprehensive Trust Management Plan.

The Department of the Interior today announced the retirement of one Indian Bureau agency superintendent and the transfer of two others in a related series of moves.

WASHINGTON - Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today issued a proposed finding to decline to acknowledge a Derby, Conn., group, the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, as an Indian tribe.

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress a proposal for legislation that would add nearly 350,000 acres to the land holdings of 18 Indian tribes or communities in 9 States, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

WASHINGTON – Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced his strategic plan for bringing transparency, responsiveness and resources to the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) Federal acknowledgment process under 25 CFR Part 83.