Past News Items

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ada E. Deer said today the President's fiscal year 1995 budget request of $2.24 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) continues the shift of resources from the BIA to Indian tribes and strengthens the foundation established last year by President Clinton and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to fulfill the federal Indian trust responsibility and the creation of a government-to-government partnership.

A complete do-it-yourself house planning service has been packaged by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs to accelerate "mutual help" housing projects on Indian reservations, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown today told a U.S. Senate committee that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is moving to implement a plan to resolve problems in management of the $2 billion Indian trust fund. "The plan will guide BIA to high levels of service excellence for our customers, the tribal and individual Indian trust account owners," Brown said in testimony prepared for the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.

New school facilities in 17 Indian communities of eight States are being opened this fall by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

They include 11 new schools and three additions to existing schools--enough to accommodate nearly 6,000 students, mostly in the elementary grades. Three dormitories, built to house more than 1,300 Indian youths who live too far away for commuting, also were completed in time for the fall season.

Forty-three Indian tribal leaders and officials of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will meet January 27-29 at Washington, D.C.'s Dulles Airport to finalize a report to the Secretary of the Interior on the reorganization of the BIA.

Appointment of Clyde W. Pensoneau as superintendent of the Hopi Agency, Keams Canyon, Arizona, was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash. The assignment is a recall for Pensoneau, who served as superintendent at Hopi from 1954 to 1956. Increasing economic development and education activities on the Hopi Reservation "demand a superintendent with intimate knowledge of Hopi affairs," Nash said.

The new appointee will take over January 3, 1965, succeeding Herman O'Harra, "who is retiring after 33 years of Federal service.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today that he is directing the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) to issue a renewable 5-year permit for the Kayenta coal mine on Indian land in northeastern Arizona Lujan will defer a permit decision on the adjoining Black Mesa mine pending the analysis of additional information on water resource impacts In addition Lujan has ordered a study of alternatives to the use of the existing slurry-pipeline to transport coal

The Department of the Interior today announced award of a $2,131,000 contract to construct a dormitory facility which will enable 152 children from remote portions of Alaska to attend the State Regional High School built by the State of Alaska at Nome.

An agreement between the State of Alaska and Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs provided that the State would build the instructional facility and the Bureau would provide a dormitory. It is expected that later the state will add a second dormitory and expand the instructional space.

The Department of the Interior today signed a contract with Security Pacific National Bank of Los Angeles to strengthen internal management and administration of more than $1.8 billion in Indian trust funds.

"This contract will provide better management of resources belonging to individual Indians and tribes," Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel said at a contract signing ceremony in his office. "And the federal government will save almost $3 million over a five-year period in costs of administering trust funds

The Department of the Interior today approved four road construction contracts Which are expected to improve economic and educational opportunities for Indians on four reservations in South Dakota.

Totaling $708,346, the contracts will make possible better school bus service, better marketing of farm and ranch products, and better access for tourists, and new jobs for Indian workmen during the coming year, Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs said.