Past News Items

In a newly released report, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt charged each Interior Department office and bureau with identifying policies and procedures that protect and conserve Indian resources. The report, entitled Protection of Indian Trust Resources Procedures, outlines how each Interior Department bureau and office will integrate trust protection practices and policies into daily activities.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the establishment of new Bureau of Indian Affairs area offices at Window Rock, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

An administrative staff to serve both new offices will remain in Gallup, New Mexico and some of the personnel assigned to Window Rock will continue to have headquarters there.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ada E. Deer today announced that the Bureau of lndian Affairs will assume the operations of law enforcement for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma effective immediately for a period of approximately two months. This period will allow the Nation to resolve internal difficulties which have recently developed.

The Department of the Interior today announced its endorsement of proposed Federal legislation that would permit the leasing of Indian lands on the Fort Mojave Reservation in Arizona, California, and Nevada for periods up to a maximum of 99 years.

Under present law the maximum term permitted for such leases is 25 years, with an option to renew for an additional 25 years.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan met today with South Carolina Governor Carroll Campbell, Senator Strom Thurmond and representatives from the offices of Senator Ernest Hollings and Congressman John Spratt to discuss the terms of the Catawba \ Indian land settlement.

"This appears to be an excellent settlement proposal, and I will do whatever I can to gain the support of the Administration for it," Lujan said. "All parties to this historic agreement are to be congratulated for their hard work."

A Navajo Indian medicine man will demonstrate the sacred art of sandpainting for visitors to the Interior Department I s Art Gallery beginning October 12.

Fred Stevens, a Navajo medicine man from the Indian Reservation at Lupton, Arizona will create sand paintings used in Navajo religious-healing ceremonies. He will appear in connection with the Gilbert Maxwell Collection of Navajo Weaving now being displayed at the gallery.

Strengthening local tribal programs, Indian education, and critical infrastructure projects are among the key components of the Fiscal Year 1998 Bureau of Indian Affairs' $1.73-billion budget request.

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced steps are being taken to implement a ,new law which
provides for payment to the Southern Paiute Indians for lands taken from them in 1860. Regulations are being amended to permit
preparation of a tribal roll.

An Act of October 17, 1968, authorized the distribution of funds derived from a judgment by the Indian Claims Commission,
and directed the Department to prepare a roll to serve as a basis for paying the money.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today met with leaders of six Indian tribes to recognize "a new chapter giving form and substance to the concept of tribal self-determination." Lujan welcomed the tribal leaders to his office for a ceremony recognizing agreements that give them greatly increased authority in the budgeting and spending of federal funds for Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) programs.

A 10-man delegation, headed by the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, and including three other Indians and two Interior Department officers, has been named to represent the United States at the Fifth Quadrennial Conference of the Inter-American Indian Institute to be held in Quito, Ecuador October 19-25.