Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today called attention to the proposed roll of the Ottawa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma which was published in the Federal Register March 21, 1958.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today issued a Final Determination in which she declined to acknowledge as an Indian tribe a group known as the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe of Indians headquartered in Trumbull, Conn. The Golden Hill Paugussett petitioning group did not demonstrate that it meets all seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment as an Indian tribe under Part 83 of Title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations, “Procedures for Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe.”

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Katuk Sweeney today announced she has approved two fee-to-trust applications submitted by The Chickasaw Nation for casino resorts in and near the Oklahoma cities of Ardmore and Kingston, respectively.

The Department of the Interior announced today it has submitted to Congress proposals for legislation that would end Federal trusteeship and supervision 0ver two small Indian reservations in western Washington.

The reservations affected are Lower Elwha embracing 372 acres in Clallam County near Port Angeles and Shoalwater Bay which comprises 334.75 acres in Pacific County southwest of Hoquiam. There are about 80 Indians in the Lower Elwha group and 11 residing on the Shoalwater Bay Reservation.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will address the May 14 commencement ceremony for the 2003-2004 graduates of Haskell Indian Nations University, a Bureau of Indian Affairs operated post-secondary institution located in Lawrence, Kan. Anderson, himself the son of Haskell alumni, is very proud and honored to be with the students at this important event in their lives. For 120 years Haskell Indian Nations University has educated generations of Indian students from tribes around the country.

Award of a $3,079,459 contract for construction of school facilities that will provide for 719 additional Indian children at the Chinle School on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Special Trustee Ross O. Swimmer today announced four tribal consultation sessions that will be held to discuss issues relating to the participation of the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) in the Department of the Interior consolidation of all real estate appraisal functions. The consultations will be held on September 24,2003, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and on October 28,2003, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Formal notice of the consultations will be published in the Federal Register later this week.

Sales of timber from lands belonging to Indian tribes and individual Indians brought the owners an income of $10,937,485 in the fiscal year 1959, or 17 percent more than the amount in 1958, Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett announced today.

The volume of timber cut under contract on Indian lands was 551 million board feet, an increase of 98 million board feet over the 1958 total.

SELLS, Ariz. – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that President Bush has requested $1.4 million for Fiscal Year 2005 to support border security efforts of the Tohono O’odham Nation, whose reservation in southern Arizona shares a 75-mile border with Mexico. The President’s request will help the tribe address law enforcement border issues on the Tohono O’Odham Nation reservation as part of the administration’s efforts to improve homeland security in Indian Country.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today announced the Department has submitted to Congress proposed legislation that would advance the date for Federal purchase of the 15,000-acre marsh on the Klamath Indian Reservation in Oregon.

Under existing law the marsh is scheduled to be purchased on April 1, 1961, and set aside as a National Wildlife Refuge. The Department's proposed legislation would provide for the purchase to take place on the earliest date after September 30, 1959, that duck stamp money is available to pay the purchase price.