Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney is proud to announce that the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) awarded business development grants totaling $727,229 to 21 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. Over half of the awards are for proposed or existing projects located in Opportunity Zones.

With the retirement of Kenneth A. Marmon as superintendent of the Seminole Indian Agency, Dania, Fla.; on May 31, Virgil N. Harrington will take over full responsibilities of the position, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Since last January Mr. Harrington has been sharing the responsibilities jointly with Mr. Marmon, who retires after 35 years of service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON – Special Agents Craig Janis and Mario Redlegs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Law Enforcement Services (OLES) were recognized today by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) for their efforts that helped lead to the eradication of a major marijuana cultivation site last year on the Yakama Nation Indian Reservation in Washington State.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney announced today that she has approved two long-standing land-into-trust applications from The Osage Nation in Oklahoma for its casino projects in the cities of Bartlesville and Pawhuska. The applications were first submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 2014 and 2016, respectively.

Award of contracts totaling about $217,000 for remodeling kitchens and dining facilities at Indian schools at Pierre and Flandreau, South Dakota, and Wahpeton, North Dakota, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

E. J. Pfeiffer Construction Company of Aberdeen, South Dakota, was awarded the job at Pierre on its bid of $63,798. The successful bidder on the work at Flandreau was H. L. Grohne Company, Decatur, Illinois, with a bid of $89,000. The $63,880 contract at Wahpeton was awarded to Comstock Construction Company, Wahpeton, North Dakota.

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Dave Anderson today formally signed an agreement with leaders of the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico that will resolve the tribe’s water rights claims in the Little Colorado River Basin of Arizona without harming other water users.

Washington, D.C. – For the second year in a row, a coalition of federal agencies are working together to address the issue of how to close the digital divide and increase internet access in Indian Country. This year, the Interior Department and the Institute of Museum and Library Services are partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Service and the U.S.

The withdrawal of 1,393 acres of public lands in New Mexico for scientific research by New Mexico’s A. &M. College with a special provision protecting the traditional right of local Indians to use a portion of the area for religious purposes was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The lands are located in Dona Ana County. They Hill be used by the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts for research on electromagnetism and other subjects.

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton today officially signed the Colorado River Water Delivery Agreement, a landmark pact that begins a new era of cooperation on the river by fulfilling a promise California made more than 70 years ago.

Appointment of Willard W. Beatty, executive vice president of the Save the Children Federation of Norwalk, Connecticut, as a member of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior, was announced today by Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst.

Dr. Beatty was appointed to fill the unexpired term of James W. Young, Pena Blanca, New Mexico, who recently resigned. The term expires July 6, 1960.