Past News Items

The Department of the Interior today announced its support of proposed Federal legislation providing for distribution of a jl1dgment fund totaling nearly $12 million recovered by the Cherokee Indian Tribe of Oklahoma.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb and Deputy Assistant Secretary Wayne Smith will meet with tribal leaders on Thursday, December 20, 2001, in Minneapolis, Minn., at a second consultation meeting on the Department's plan to improve the management of Indian trust assets. The meeting will be held at the Doubletree Hotel (7901 24th Avenue South) starting at 9:00 a.m. (CST).

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that Paul Jones, Tribal Chairman of the Navajo Indians, has agreed to enter into negotiation looking toward the exchange of nearly 300,000 acres of tribal land surrounding Rainbow Bridge National Monument in Utah for public domain lands.

Secretary Udall said: “The acreage lying south and west of Navajo Mountain comprises one of the magnificent scenic areas outside the National Park System." Rainbow Bridge has long been the focal point of interest in this fantastically eroded red sandstone country.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) The Bureau of Indian Affairs is a major sponsor of the American Indian/Alaska Native Tourism Association’s 2001 American Indian Tourism Conference, which will take place Sept. 9-12 in Bismarck, N.D. Over 700 people representing the 558 federally recognized tribes in the United States as well as tribes from Canada are expected to attend the conference, which is the largest of its kind in the country. The theme for this year’s event is “Preserving our past, sharing our future.”

The lead agency coordinating the federal response to COVID-19 is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Office of Emergency Management (OEM) are supporting this by planning and implementing DOI’s response.

The three top officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs--Commissioner Philleo Nash, Deputy Commissioner John O. Crow, and Associate Commissioner James E. Officer--will travel extensively through Indian areas of Oklahoma, consulting with Indian leaders and visiting Indian families in their homes, during the week starting March 4, the Department of the Interior announced today.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will meet with tribal leaders on Friday, February 1, 2002 in Arlington, Va., at the seventh in a series of consultation meetings on the Department’s plan to improve the management of Indian trust assets. He will be joined by Wayne R. Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs and Ross O. Swimmer, Director, Office of Indian Trust Transition. The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City Hotel (2799 Jefferson Davis Highway) starting at 9:00 a.m. EST.

Philleo Nash, former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, today took the oath of office as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior auditorium. He succeeds Glenn L. Emmons who resigned effective January 20.

Nash, 51, has had a career in government service, private business and higher education.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Department of the Interior Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs James H. McDivitt will give the keynote address next week at an event commemorating federal law enforcement officers who have given their lives while on duty in Indian Country. The Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial will be held May 3, 2001 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in conjunction with the U.S.

Prospects for full development of the mineral resources of the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona are now better than ever, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall reported today.