Past News Items

WASHINGTON – As part of the Obama Administration’s all of the above approach to American energy, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today approved a 350-megawatt solar energy project on tribal trust land of the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians (Tribe) in Clark County, Nevada. The project marks a milestone as the first-ever, utility-scale solar project approved for development on tribal lands, and is one of the many steps the administration has taken to help strengthen tribal communities.

Members of a Task Force appointed in December 1977 to prepare recommendations on the restructuring of the Bureau of Indian Affairs presented their final report to Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus today.

The report will be published in the Federal Register and distributed to Indian tribes and organizations for connect through June 30, 1978.

Award of a $130,590.00 contract for construction of additions to Beclabito Indian School near Shiprock; New Mexico, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

W. H. Elliott of Albuquerque, New Mexico was the successful bidder. Four higher bids, ranging from $136,992.00 to $175,561.00, were received.

WASHINGTON –– The White House hosted its first ever lacrosse clinic today on the South Lawn featuring some of the nation’s best lacrosse players showcasing the health benefits of the nation’s fastest growing sport to 100 youth as part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! in Indian Country (LMIC) initiative.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has received petitions from forty Indian groups seeking to be acknowledged by the Federal Government as Indian tribes. A list of the forty groups, from 21 states, is being published in the Federal Register as required by regulations made effective October 2, 1978. These regulations establish the procedures for establishing that an American Indian group exists as an American Indian Tribe.

Award of contracts for architectural and engineering services on three proposed school enlargement projects to accommodate 1,187 additional children on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and New Mexico was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The largest of the three jobs involves an expansion of the Indian school at Leupp, Ariz., from its present capacity of 67 students to 697. The $60,000 architectural-engineering contract on this was awarded to Scholer and Fuller, Associate Architects, Tucson, Ariz.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk will offer remarks at the Society of American Indian Government Employees (SAIGE) 8th Annual National Training Conference being held June 13-17, 2011, at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa in Catoosa, Okla. He will speak during the lunch period on Wednesday, June 15.

A plan for the use and distribution of more than $400,000 awarded to the Pillager Bands of Chippewa Indians by the Indian Claims Commission was published in the Federal Register on May 27, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson said today.

The Award represents additional compensation for some 814,000 acres of land in west central Minnesota cede to the United States under the treaty of August 21, 1847.

Chippewa descendants of the Pillager Bands are now affiliated with either the Leech Lake Reservation of the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota.

To enable the Navajo Tribe to expand its industrial development program, Under Secretary Hatfield Chilson has signed an order transferring 75 acres of the Coconino National Forest, near Flagstaff, Arizona, to the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The withdrawal was arranged by the Department's Bureau of Land Management.

DURANT, OKLA. — The fifth government-to-government tribal consultation regarding the draft report on Indian Affairs Administrative Organizational Assessment and Bureau of Indian Affairs/ Bureau of Indian Education streamlining plans starts Thursday, May 10, 2012 at the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Okla. The two-day consultation is the fifth of seven that will take place around the country in Arizona, Florida, South Dakota, Washington, California and Alaska. The first was held in Miami on April 12 and 13, 2012.