Past News Items

Barney Old Coyote, a Crow Indian and career civil servant, has been appointed coordinator of the youth conservation camps for the Job Corps and related antipoverty programs of the Department, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan said today the confirmation of Carl J. Kunasek of Arizona as Commissioner of the Office of Navajo &Hopi Relocation signals the beginning of the final phase in settling the century-old land dispute between the two Indian tribes. President Bush nominated Kunasek and the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on May 22, 1990, after a hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.

Transfer of Howard F. Johnson from the position of superintendent, Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Mont., to the comparable position at Osage Agency, Pawhuska, Okla., effective February 15, was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Johnson, superintendent of the Blackfeet Agency for the past five and a half years, succeeds Thomas H. Dodge, who recently retired. A successor for Johnson at Blackfeet Agency has not yet been selected.

On October 11, 1995, the Labor Health and Human Services Committee will consider an amendment introduced by Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) in Section 30 of the Labor, Health, and Human Services Bill (S. 1221) that will prohibit the Legal Services Corporation from providing legal assistance to Indians, Indian tribes, Native Hawaiians, or Native Hawaiian organizations with respect to litigation that "may effect or infringe on the property rights of another person."

The Tyonek Indians of Alaska, with a population of about 200 persons, have accepted oil and gas lease bids totaling almost $11 million for some 8,500 acres of their reservation, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The council members of the tiny village of Tyonek will decide this week whether to accept bids for oil and gas leases on 20 tracts comprising the remainder of their reservation of some 26,000 acres, the Bureau of Indian Affairs lid. The Bureau acts as trustee for the Tyonek people.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer today awarded contracts to three firms that will act as model business development centers to create jobs for Indian tribes and individuals.

The three corporations, selected from 21 applicants, are the United Indian Development Association (UIDA) of El Monte, California; The Rensselaerville Institute of Rensselaerville, New York, and the Fairbanks Native Association (FNA) of Fairbanks, Alaska

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of Federal legislation authorizing long-term leasing of lands on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Reservation and the Papago Reservation, both in Arizona.

The Department of the Interior announced today that it will deny requests to take off-reservation Indian lands into trust status for the purpose of establishing bingo or other gaming enterprises which do not conform with state and local laws. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer said, "We do not oppose tribal bingo operations on established reservations, but we do not think it is desirable -- or in the tribes' best interests -- to establish small, satellite bingo reservations in or near urban areas.

A Federal appellate court decision is expected to bring additional bids in a competitive sale of oil and gas leases on May 6 in Alaska for 31 tracts of Indian land comprising the 26,000-acre Tyonek Reserve (Moquawkie Reservation) near; Cook Inlet, the Department of the Interior announced today.

All royalties and bonuses from the sale of rights will go to the Tyonek Indians.

The sale was scheduled for May 6 two months ago, but a court appeal then pending had caused some prospective bidders to be reluctant about competing.

President Bill Clinton today announced his intention to nominate Ada Deer, an educator and former chair of the Menominee Nation of Wisconsin, to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs. The appointment, subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate, will make her the first woman to serve as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.