Past News Items

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced that final regulations to implement the provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (P.L. 95- 608) are being published in the Federal Register.

The Act deals with the proper care of Indian children needing adoptive or foster home care. Its main objective is to restrict .the placement of Indian children by non-Indian social agencies in non-Indian homes and environments.

WASHINGTON – A graduation ceremony for members comprising the inaugural class of a federally supported pilot project to train American Indians in the commercial building trade will be held December 19, 2008, near the city of Chicago.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of Martin E. Seneca, Jr., 32, to be Director of Trust Responsibilities, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C., effective May 12, 1974. His post is the second of five directorships - top jobs within the bureau of Indian Affairs - to be filled.

Proposed regulations effecting major developments and changes in the administration of Bureau of Indian Affairs education programs were published May 22 in the Federal Register, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Rick Lavis said today.

The regulations implement certain provisions of Title XI of the Education Amendments Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-561); and, the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-471).

WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED), in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), has launched a website to create a web-based clearinghouse of environmental information that will support American Indian and Alaska Native traditional and renewable energy resource development.

Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton has assured representatives of the Indian tribe that the Interior Department is committed to finding “a practicable way'' to deliver which the tribe is entitled as recognized in a 1965 agreement, involving construction of the Central Utah Project.

In a statement released in Washington today, Secretary Morton said the Department intends to carry out terms of the water agreement "with all possible dispatch," and that he has ordered the Bureau of Reclamation to expedite its feasibility report on phases of the Central Utah Project.

Regulations governing the preparation of a roll of lineal descendants of Michigan and Indiana Potawatomi Indians eligible to share in a judgment award of more than $6 million are being published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

The award, granted by the Indian Claims Commission, is compensation for lands in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan ceded to the United States by the Potawatomi Tribe and Nation of Indians during the treaty making period of 1795 to 1833.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman met Tuesday with officials from several Southern California tribes impacted by the Poomacha, Witch and Harris fires that have raged across thousands of acres of their reservations over the past week. The tribal leaders were attending a multi-agency coordination meeting of federal and state agencies organized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Rincon Indian Reservation, one of the most severely impacted communities. Artman visited some of the burned areas on the Rincon reservation.

The Department of the Interior today announced proposed new procedures applicable to probating of Indian estates. The new procedures would apply where a tribe holds a statutory option to buy the interests of designated beneficiaries. The new procedures are being published in the Federal Register as proposed and interested parties are given 30 days to comment.

A series of public hearings on the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 have been scheduled throughout the United States in early March, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The hearings will be conducted by the National American Indian Court Judges Association and the National Congress of American Indians, under contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.