Past News Items

LAGUNA, NM – On Wednesday, December 11, as part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to strengthen education for Native youth, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn will visit New Mexico to tour a Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) tribally controlled grant school located on the Pueblo of Laguna reservation.

A plan for the use of approximately $500,000 awarded to the Navajo Tribe by the Indian Claims Commission was published in the Federal Register, December 23, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The award represents additional payment for certain reserves of helium-bearing gas.

According to the plan, approved by Congress and made effective November 17, 1975, the funds will be used for scholarship grants and other educational purposes as designated by the Navajo Tribal Council.

National headquarters for the Indian Bureau's relocation program, involving guidance and help for Indian workers and their families seeking to establish new homes away from the reservations, will be moved on August 1 from Washington, D. c., to Denver, Colo. Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.

Charles F. Miller, Chief of the Bureau’s Branch of Relocation for the past two years, will continue to direct the program from Denver. However, Charles B. Rovin, Assistant Chief of the Branch, will remain in Washington as a liaison with the Bureau's Central Office.

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services will offer the next in its series of training sessions for tribal court personnel on Aug. 6-9, 2013, in Philadelphia, Miss., with presentations that focus on domestic violence.

Richard C. Whitesell, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,, has been named Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Flathead Agency at Ronan, Montana, Assistant Secretary Forrest J. Gerard announced today. Whitesell's appointment will be effective November 6.

Whitesell has been Assistant Area Director for Community Services in the BIA's Phoenix, Arizona office for the past year. He was the Education Program Administrator at the Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota from 1971 to 1976 and at the Riverside: School in Oklahoma 1969-71.

The proposed rule of the Northwestern Band of Shoshone Indians one of the three participant groups which will share a $15.7 million judgment awarded the tribe by the Indian Claims Commission and being distributed pursuant to the Act of December 18, 1971 was published in the Federal Register May 17, 1972. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce made the announcement today. Regulations to govern preparation of the roll were published April 21, 1972.

The Department of the Interior (Department) is considering whether to propose an administrative rule that would comprehensively update 25 CFR part 140 (Licensed Indian Traders) in an effort to modernize the implementation of the Indian Trader statutes consistent with the Federal policies of Tribal self-determination and self-governance. The current regulations were promulgated in 1957 and have not been comprehensively updated since 1965.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that the Oglala Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota has been given approximately 1,600 acres of excess Government land within the reservation boundaries. Notice of the transfer, under the Federal Property and Administration Services Act as amended earlier this year, is being published in the Federal Register.

Title to the land will be held by the Secretary of the Interior in trust for the tribe.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced four personnel changes in the Bureau of Indian Affairs as part of the general reorganization of the agency, which has been proceeding for several months.

The transfers follow:

Raymond H. Bitney, superintendent, Western Washington, Everett, Wash., to same post at Menominee Agency, Neopit, Wisconsin, Effective June 6.

Melvin L. Robertson, superintendent, Northern Idaho, Lapwai, Idaho, replaces Bitney. Effective May 23.

Frell M. Owl, superintendent, Red Lake, Minn., replaces Robertson. Effective May 23.

ANCHORAGE, AK – In recognition of the long history of strong support from Alaska state, tribal and congressional leaders, and in resolution of an official request for a name change pending for 40 years, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced that the highest mountain in the United States and North America, formerly known as Mount McKinley, will be officially given the traditional Koyukon Athabascan name of Denali.