Past News Items

Bureau of Indian Affairs officials from Washington, D.C., will be meeting September 14-17 with Alaska State officials and Alaska Native representatives to discuss a proposed transfer of as many as 20 BIA-operated village schools to state operation in the 1982-83 school year. The Bureau currently operates 39 elementary village schools serving approximately 2,100 students.

Coming to Alaska will be Interior's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Roy H. Sampsel and the BIA's Director of Indian Education Programs Earl Barlow.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Eight federally recognized tribes will collectively receive nearly $2.5 million in grant awards from the U.S. Departments of Education and Interior to bolster their educational programs and advance self-determination goals through the development of academically rigorous and culturally relevant programs.

John C. Dibbern, a career BIA employee and former university professor, is slated to head Bureau activities in connection with Missouri River Basin development, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash has announced.

With headquarters in Billings, Mont., Dibbern will head a staff of economist, soil scientists, and engineers engaged in continuing studies to protect the interests of Indian landowners in the multi-State Missouri Basin area.

Federal, State and Tribal leaders met in Washington on May 6 and 7 to seek solutions to problems concerning the fishery in the northern Great Lakes off Michigan's coastlines.

The group, composed of representatives of the Secretary of the Interior, Michigan Governor's Office and Michigan Department of Natural Resources and leaders of the Bay Mills, Grand Traverse and Sault Ste. Marie Tribes, issued the following statement:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, December 3, 2014, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, Deputy Secretary Mike Connor and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn will join President Obama, other cabinet Secretaries and leaders from the 566 federally recognized tribes at the 2014 Annual White House Tribal Nations Conference.

Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the storm-stricken areas of Arizona, where snow depths, up to 79 inches are reported, said today everything humanly possible is being done for the affected Indians and their livestock.

Similarly, the Public Health Service's Division of Indian Health reported its staff in the storm area participating in rescue work and alert to possible heavy demands on personnel and facilities in the storm aftermath.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Thomas W. Fredericks announced today that proposed regulations governing business practices on Indian reservations were published January 6 in the Federal Register.

WASHINGTON, DC – Following Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell’s recent visit with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Mike Connor today announced that more than $8.3 million in purchase offers have been mailed to nearly 2,100 individual landowners with fractional interests on that reservation.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall said today that recent weeks had brought "heartening examples of solid economic gains for American Indians as the result of a determination to put tribal resources and energies to work for the benefit of all."

Udall approved plans last week for a multi-million dollar forest product complex on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon that will create 250 jobs for Indians and bring about $2 million in annual revenues to the tribe.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons will leave Washington, D.C., September 5, for a trip to the major Indian areas of Oklahoma. He is acting under broad instructions from President Eisenhower.