Past News Items

It is a great pleasure to be with you today. I bring greetings from Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce.

The Department of the Interior, on behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, accepts with great pride the contract for the first Army Junior ROTC unit ever installed at an all-Indian high school.

Fort Sill Indian School, I am sure, is justly proud of this achievement and honor. The staff of this fine institution is aware of the importance ROTC can play in the life of this country.

American Indians are attacking on all fronts in the war against poverty, with youth programs leading the field, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall said today.

RED VALLEY, Ariz. – On the heels of President Obama’s State of the Union address where he committed to focusing on challenges and opportunities that will impact America for generations to come – including in Indian Country – U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced $45 million to build the last previously identified Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) school construction projects.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Public Land Management Harrison Loesch today called for accelerated road construction on Indian reservations; stepped-up assistance to improve public land development roads and trails, improvement of national park roads, roadways, and trails; and highway development in the Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa. He testified before the Senate Public Works Subcommittee on Roads.

The Department of the Interior said today a petition from the combined tribal councils of the Ute Mountain and Southern Ute Indian Tribes that the Bureau of Indian Affairs split up the Consolidated Ute Agency at Ignacio, Colo., into the Ute Mountain Agency, Towaoc, Colo., and the Southern Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo., has been approved.

No additional funds or employees will be needed to accomplish the changes. The division into two separate agencies will give both of the Ute tribes better service, Bureau of Indian Affairs officials said. The change was made effective December 29.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Justice Services (OJS) in collaboration with the United States Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s Office District of Montana, and the Montana Department of Justice will hold the third of its 2014 tribal court trial advocacy training sessions for tribal court personnel on May 19-22 in Helena, Montana.

The March 29, 1972, deadline for filing enrollment applications for members of the Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians has been extended to June 27, 1972, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today.

The roll is being established to determine Pembina Chippewa Indians eligible to share in awards totaling $237,127.82 in land claims funds pursuant to the Act of July 29, 1971 (85 Stat. 158).

The award of a $397,375 contract for the construction of a 200-man Job Corps Conservation Center on the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It will be one of nine such centers to be operated on Indian reservations as part of the massive program of job training and education for unemployed youth being conducted under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today the award of an initial $36,000 contract to the United Southeastern Tribes, Inc. for the establishment of an Employment Assistance Destination Services Center at Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The awarding of this contract is in keeping with the Commissioner's new thrust to encourage tribal groups to undertake services normally rendered by BIA. The USET, headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, consists of representatives from the Seminole, Miccosukee, Choctaw and Cherokee Indian tribes.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today directed the Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs and Office of Territories to make family planning services available in their social services programs.

The service will be on an entirely voluntary basis. It is in line with the May 25, 1965, report of the National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences. The study described the growth of U. S. population as a serious obstacle to the realization of many goals of society and one which puts the nation's general prosperity out of reach of millions of its citizens.