Past News Items

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett reported today that 119 Indian children were placed for adoption during 1967 through the Indian Adoption Project. The program is sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America.

The number of children placed in 1967 almost doubled that of the previous year and compares with a total of 400 children placed during the nine years of the cooperative project program.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Ken Smith, and Federal Highway Administrator Ray A. Barnhart today signed a working agreement on the use of $375 million of Federal highway funds for Indian reservations.

The agreement outlines procedures for the approval of projects, provision of technical assistance, application of Indian preference in hiring, certification standards and other details.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs John Tahsuda spoke today of the courage and sacrifices of Indian Country’s fallen police officers during the 27th Annual Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service, which was held on the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers campus in Artesia, N.M.

Opportunities for developers and investors to grow along with America's rapidly expanding recreational industry are being offered by the Cochiti Indian Tribe of New Mexico, which has concession rights on what will be the biggest lake in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area.

When the Cochiti Dam is completed across the Rio Grande, 50 miles north of Albuquerque, in 1970, it will create a 2,300 acre-lake in the midst of some of the Southwest's most scenic and historic country.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett has named Jose "Abe" Zuni acting director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Juneau, Alaska area office. His appointment is effective immediately.

Zuni, a member of the Isleta Pueblo, is a 31-year veteran in the BIA. Since September of 1979 he has been the Bureau's Management Improvement Liaison Officer, stationed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has previously served as Director of the Office of Administration in Washington, D. C. and held other top management positions in the Bureau.

PHOENIX, Ariz. – The Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have approved an extension lease for the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) which enables operation of the coal-fired power plant to continue through December 22, 2019. Without the extension, activities to retire the plant would be required to begin in the coming year.

A $125,049 contract for grading and surfacing roads on the Uintah and Ouray I Reservation in Utah was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Improvements will include a five-mile stretch of Route 7 which provides access to picturesque Uintah Canyon and a seven-mile section of Route 17, from Neola toward Big Springs.

Better roads will open an exceptionally scenic area for which the Uintah and Ouray Tribe has recreational development plans.

Proposed regulations governing mining and mineral development on Indian lands are being published in the Federal Register, Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Thomas W. Fredericks said today.

WASHINGTON – A team comprised of Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) students won the grand prize of $5,000 and the a Gold Mars Trophy for the physical competition at the 2017 NASASwarmathon held at the Kennedy Space Center. The Swarmathon is a robotics programming challenge administered under a cooperative agreement between the NASA Minority University Research and Education Program and The University of New Mexico.

Owen D. Morken, 57, a native of Minnesota who has served in the Bureau of Indian Affairs almost 30 years, has been appointed Area Director for the Bureau at Minneapolis, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced.

Morken's appointment is effective October 6.

He succeeds Glenn R. Landb1Qom, who has been Area Director since January, 1966 and who will transfer to a position in the Division of Economic Development of the Bureau in Washington.