Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin will observe Earth Day 2003 during a visit she will make to the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) on April 23 at 2:20 p.m.(local time) to view its new Science and Technology Building and reforestation project. SIPI is a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) funded, two-year institution located in Albuquerque, N.M., that provides general education, business, science and technical instruction at the associate degree and certificate levels for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

The Department of the Interior today announced the adoption of regulations governing distribution of a judgment fund awarded to the Cherokee Indians of Oklahoma by the Indian Claims Commission.

Under legislation recently passed by Congress the persons eligible to share in the funds are those whose names appear on the final Cherokee roll of March 4, 1907, and their heirs or legatees as determined under the laws of succession and testacy of the State of residence of the decedent on the date of his death. No names will be added to the roll.

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin will visit New Mexico on Tuesday, February 4, 2003, to inspect two Bureau of Indian Affairs-operated schools – Wingate High School in Ft. Wingate, N.M., and Baca Community School in Prewitt, N.M. – that are on the Bureau’s list of schools slated for replacement within the next few years.

The broad and growing interest of American Indians in education for their children is graphically revealed in a recent survey by the Bureau of Indian Affairs showing Indian participation on 284 local school boards and 414 parent teacher associations throughout the country, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Included in the number of Indian participants are four school board chairmen in the Montana-Wyoming area and a president of a public school PTA in the Arizona-New Mexico area.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the Interior Department’s decision to withdraw in its entirety the final rule titled “Acquisition of Title to Land in Trust” that was published on January 16, 2001, citing the need for clear direction and processing standards for land into trust applications. “This action is consistent with the action we took 60 days ago when we asked for comment on the proposed withdrawal of the final rule,” McCaleb said.

The Navajo Indian Irrigation Project and the initial stage of the San Juan-Chama Reclamation Project, authorized in a bill passed by the Congress and signed into law by the President, will provide economic assistance to the Navajo Indians and will enable New Mexico to put to use a major portion of the water of the Upper Colorado River system to which it is entitled under two interstate compacts.

WASHINGTON - Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced his selection of Jeanette Hanna, currently Director of Planning, Budget and Management Support for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), as his choice to be the new director of the Bureau's Eastern Oklahoma Regional Office located in Muscogee, Okla. The appointment is effectively immediately.

Award of a $868,653 contract for construction of school facilities to accommodate 188 Indian children not now in school at Dilcon, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation was reported today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for construction of a 7-classroom structure with a multipurpose room, a 128-pupil dormitory, a kitchen and dining room, employees' quarters, a bus garage, and a storage and utility building.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb and Deputy Assistant Secretary Wayne Smith will meet with tribal leaders on Thursday, January 10, 2002 in Rapid City, S.D., at the fourth in a series of consultation meetings on the Department’s plan to improve the management of Indian trust assets. The meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn Rushmore Plaza (505 N. 5th St.) starting at 9:00 a.m. (MST).

Assignment of an Indian Bureau economic development officer to work with the Miccosukee Seminole Indians living along the Tamiami Trail in Florida on plans for improving their economic and social status was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

The man chosen for the assignment is Reginald C. Miller, a veteran of 23 years' service with the Bureau, who recently completed a survey of the Miccosukees' situation and prospects at Secretary Udall's request.