Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced the addition of Wizipan Garriott, Tracie Stevens and Paul Tsosie to his immediate staff and senior policy team. They will support the Assistant Secretary as he moves forward in carrying out Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s Indian education and law enforcement initiatives, distributing Recovery Act funds to Indian Country, and overseeing Indian Affairs bureaus, offices and programs.

American Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut year 'round events that help non-Native Americans appreciate the unusual contributions of those whose home this was before the arrival of the Europeans are now listed in "American Indian Calendar 1974" available from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402 for 65 cents.

An analysis of how States and Indian tribes can develop coal mine reclamation plans to comply with provisions of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 is available from the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining (OSM).

"This guide is intended to assist coal-producing States and Indian tribes in preparing their coal mine reclamation programs so that they can qualify to receive funds for reclaiming their abandoned mine land," said Walter N. Heine, OSM Director.

WASHINGTON – Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development – Indian Affairs George T. Skibine today offered praise for the installation and activation of the first large-scale wind turbine to be located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The turbine, which is owned by radio station KILI-FM and was funded in part by the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, was activated at a noontime ceremony yesterday in Porcupine, S.D.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today called passage of the Indian Financing Act of 1974 "a giant step toward viable Indian reservation communities that will be a credit to this Nation." The law, signed by President Richard M. Nixon April 12:

1. Consolidates existing Indian revolving loan funds already administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and authorizes the appropriation of an additional $50,000,000 for the consolidated fund from which direct Federal loans will be made to Indian organizations and individuals.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus said today that Burnett Construction Company of Durango, Colo., has been awarded a $4.5 million contract by the Bureau of Reclamation for construction of 40 miles of collector drains on the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project near Farmington, N.M.

The contract is for work on the 10,000-acre Block No.2 of the 110,000- acre project.

On Thursday, February 12, 2009, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will testify before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on his views and priorities on American Indian issues. The full committee hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room SD 628.

Who: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar

What: Secretary Salazar’s testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee

When: 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

The Department of the Interior announced today that amendments by Alaska Natives to enrollment applications filed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act will be considered on appeal if received by the Enrollment Coordinator in Anchorage, Alaska, by August 15, 1973.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today asked Secretary of Defense Neil F. McElroy to help speed Army payments of money to Indians for land which the Federal Government took for reservoir projects.

The money is owed to three Indian groups in North Dakota and South Dakota. It totals $7,623,888 for 73,500 acres of land taken for two different projects.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today issued a final determination not to acknowledge the petitioner known as the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of Abenakis of Vermont as an Indian tribe. This petitioner, located in Franklin County in northwestern Vermont, has 1,171 members with enrollment files completed to the petitioner’s satisfaction.