Past News Items

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown is enlisting Indian tribal leaders and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employees as part of an intensive program to combat the sexual abuse of Indian children.

What is it like to be an Indian or Eskimo child? It is part ceremonials and dances and colorful costumes of an era gone by, and it is part school days and rule days, too. It is sometimes life on a ranch, sometimes adventure in the big city, sometimes the life of a fisherman's family, says the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Because nearly all youngsters love stories about American Indians, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs has just published a special picture book, "Indian and Eskimo Children."

Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus announced today that amended interim regulations governing off-reservation treaty fishing rights by Michigan tribes in the waters of Lake Michigan, Superior, Huron and connecting waters have been extended until May 11, 1981·

Secretary Andrus took the action after signing a memorandum of understanding with the involved tribes setting forth tribal-federal regulatory responsibilities for the 1981 and 1982 fishing seasons. The newly executed memorandum is substantially similar to a current memorandum of understanding which expires January 1, 1981.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, today announced that Leonard M. Hill, Area Director for the Sacramento ' Area, has been reassigned as Special Field Representatives for the Southwestern United States.

Hill will be succeeded in the California assignment by William E. Finale, now serving as Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Community Services. The reassignments are to become effective April 7. As Special Field Representative Hill will assist Indian groups in making plans and surveys for community development projects.

A plan to generate more business opportunities for minority owned and particular, Indian owned firms, was announced today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett.

"The Minority Business Enterprise Plan will mean increased business opportunities and encourage development of minority and Indian owned businesses, which is the heart of economic development," Hallett said

WASHINGTON – Earlier this month, Tara Mac Lean Sweeney, a prominent Alaskan leader and acclaimed businesswoman with the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, was sworn in as the Department’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. Sweeney was nominated by President Donald J. Trump in October 2017. Sweeney, a member of the Native Village of Barrow and the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, is the first Alaska Native and only the second woman in history to hold the position.

NEW SUPERINTENDENT AT MESCALERO APACHE RESERVATION--Paul H. Clements, assistant superintendent at the Pima Agency in Arizona since 1964, has been named superintendent of the Mescalero Apache Agency in New Mexico. He fills a post vacated by the transfer last May of Kenneth L. Payton to head the United Pueblos Agency. The new assignment became effective June 26. Clements, a native of Port Townsend, Wash., has since 1948 held various BIA administrative posts -- at the Yakima Agency in Washington; the Umatilla Agency in Oregon; and the Flathead Agency in Montana.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett today announced the appointment of new superintendents for the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Umatilla and Pima Agencies.

William D. Sandoval, a San Juan Pueblo/Navajo Indian, is the superintendent at Umatilla in Pendleton, Oregon. Edmund L. Thompson, an enrolled member of the Pima Tribe, has been selected as the superintendent at Pima in Sacaton, Arizona.

Alaska Daily News: "The White House announced the pick Monday. The reaction on Tuesday bordered on ecstatic"

The Center for Arts of Indian America, a non-profit corporation devoted to the advancement of Indian art, will present a showing of "Contemporary Indian Painting, Sculpture and Crafts" from the collection of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from Wednesday, July,17 through Sept. 6.

The showing will be free to the public in the seventh floor Art Gallery of the Department of Interior building, 18th and C Streets, Monday through Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.