Past News Items

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Branch of Wildland Fire Management is pleased to announce and welcome Rachael Larson to its team as the Branch Director for Budget and Planning.

Appointment of George A. Boyce, superintendent of the 2,000-pupil Intermountain Indian boarding school at Brigham, Utah, to develop a new instruction program in Indian arts and crafts at Santa Fe, New Mexico, was announced today by the Department of the Interior. The appointment will be effective August 6.

Surrounded by more than 35 Cowlitz Indians from the State of Washington, Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Kevin Gover today signed the final determination to federally acknowledge their tribe. With 1,482 members, the tribe is located in southwestern Washington state. Historically its villages ranged a distance of 60 miles from the source to the mouth of the Cowlitz River, with an important center at the well-known landmark of the Cowlitz Indian Mission.

During the first week in October, the BIA, Branch of Wildland Fire Management, hosted Fire 101 Training. The training is the first of its kind and is designed to introduce payment team members and regional budget staff to business authorities, agreements, and procurement methods that bind the interagency incident business community together.

Appointment of Leonard O. Lay, relocation specialist of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Minneapolis, Minn., as superintendent of the Bureau's Turtle Mountain Agency at Belcourt, North Dakota, effective July 9, was announced today by the Department of the Interior. He succeeds Herman P. Mittelholtz who was recently named superintendent of the Minnesota Indian Agency, Bemidji, Minn.

In an effort to close solid waste dumps located on tribal lands and help tribes develop alternative solid waste management options, the National Tribal Solid Waste Interagency Workgroup is seeking proposals from tribes for solid waste projects. The workgroup, representing 8 federal agencies, provides funding for tribes to assist with solid waste management and closing open dumps. There are over 1,100 open dumps on Tribal lands in the United States. The deadline for submitting a pre-proposal is November 19, 1999, with the final proposal due February 25, 2000.

The Branch of Wildland Fire Management will be hosting its first annual Student Intern Orientation and Training June 7 and 8th. Twenty-three students studying Forestry, Wildfire and Range Management from across Indian Country will come to the National Interagency Fire Center to kick off their student internships under the Bureau of Indian Affairs Pathways, Student Internship Program.

Award of five contracts totaling $878,597 for road and bridge construction on three Indian reservations in South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contracts are for road and bridge construction work on the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations.

The Department of the Interior will publish final regulations to deal with Indian gaming compact negotiations between States and Tribes when Tribes have exhausted other federal judicial remedies. A final rule has been sent to the Federal Register for publication. The new regulation will only apply in cases where Tribes and States have been unable to voluntarily negotiate Class III gaming compacts and where States otherwise allow Class III gaming activities and when States assert immunity from lawsuits to resolve the dispute.

Reappointment of Waldo E. McIntosh, Tulsa, Okla., as principal chief of the Creek Indian Tribe of Oklahoma for a two-year term starting October 6, 1963, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

A former lumber dealer and descendant of a long line of prominent Creek leaders, Mr. McIntosh has been principal chief the past two years. His reappointment was recommended by a recent unanimous vote of the Creek Indian Council.