Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Paschal Sherman Indian School located in Omak, Wash., on the Colville Indian Reservation.

A group of young American Indian and Eskimo trainees in electronics who have prepared themselves for defense and communications jobs in their home State of Alaska under the adult vocational training program of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will visit President Kennedy at the White House at 9:45 a.m. August 2 during the course of a two-day visit to the Nation's Capital, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Effective April 2000, all remaining Individual Indian Monies (IIM) trust fund accounts have been converted to a new, automated Trust Fund Accounting System (TFAS). The implementation of this new accounting system at all BIA Regional Offices marks the completion of a significant component of the Secretary of the Interior’s Trust Management Improvement Project. TFAS is the responsibility of the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST).

New programs instituted by the Department of the Interior during 1961 to stem inroads on vital natural resources by this Nation's explosive growth were outlined today in the Department's annual report entitled "Resources for Tomorrow."

"Because so much of what is happening inside America today is drowned out by the clamor of an embattled world, “Secretary Stewart t. Udall writes in the report, is only recently that we have become aware of a growing internal crisis which deeply affects the lives of all Americans."

WASHINGTON – As part of its efforts to improve and reform the management of the Indian trust for the benefit of all Indians, the Department of the Interior has revised existing—and drafted new—federal Indian trust regulations to implement the American Indian Probate Reform Act (AIPRA) and the Fiduciary Trust Model. The Department held an initial comment period on the first drafts of new regulations from January through April of this year. After incorporating comments, the proposed AIPRA regulations will be published in the Federal Register in coming weeks.

The Department of the Interior today announced the revocation of a provision in Federal regulations which for many years has limited the appearance of professional attorneys before courts of Indian offenses on Indian reservations.

Courts of Indian offenses are organized and staffed by Indian tribal groups under regulations promulgated by the Secretary of the Interior. Fifteen such courts are now in operation.

Ten athletes from the Riverside Indian School, Anadarko, OK were chosen to participate in the 1999 World Summer Games, a sport festival organized by Special Olympics International taking place June 25, thru July 4, 1999. Riverside Indian School is a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding facility open nationally to American Indian children. These athletes, plus two coaches, qualified by competing in the Special Olympics Oklahoma 1997 Winter Sports Festival where they won the senior boys' level 3-basketball division.

The Department of the Interior today announced its opposition to legislation now pending in Congress (S. 381) which would provide for Federal subsidies to States to finance the costs of law enforcement on Indian reservations.

A Tribal-State gaming compact between the Pala Band of Mission Indians and the State of California was approved Saturday, April 25, by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover and will take effect when the notice is published in the Federal Register. "I want to stress that this compact applies only to the future gaming operation of the Pala Band of Mission Indians," said Assistant Secretary Gover. "The terms and conditions of this compact are binding only on the State and the Pala Band.

The five-man task force now studying the organization and programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a series of meetings with Indian tribal representatives at seven key points throughout the western half of the country starting March 20, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.