Past News Items

Leo J. O'Connor, an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Yankton Agency at Wagner, South Dakota. Acting Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs Martin E. Seneca, Jr. said that O'Connor's appointment was effective December 3, 1978.

O'Connor has been the Agency Administrative Officer. From 1971 to 1976 he held various positions with the tribe. He was the acting tribal chairman, executive director of the tribal development program and director of the business and claims committee.

President Nixon's special message to the Congress on Indian Affairs is a "positive and historic statement that should do much to give the Indian people lives of dignity and self-determination." Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce said today.

Commissioner Bruce said the president, in his message of July 8, ensured that steps will be taken to increase Indian control of Indian affairs while reaffirming and strengthening the historic legal and moral obligations of the federal government.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today took action on two tribal gaming applications from tribes in Michigan and New York.

The Assistant Secretary approved a proposed gaming facility in Marquette County, Mich., determining it would be in the best interest of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and would not be detrimental to the surrounding community.

Assistant Secretary Forrest J. Gerard today announced that Deputy Assistant Secretary George V. Goodwin, Jr., will return to his native Minnesota to work with his Tribe.

"Mr. Goodwin has outstanding experience and leadership qualities" stated Gerard, "and he has been a vigorous advocate for the Indian interest. The focus of his work in our administration has been the improvement of the management systems and structure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in order that: the agency might be fully responsive to the unique and pressing needs of the Indian tribes."

Transfer of more than 10,000 acres of land and about 30 buildings at the Southwestern Sheep Breeding Laboratory, Fort Wingate, N. Mex., from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today applauded the Senate’s confirmation of Kevin K. Washburn, a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, to serve as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior. The Senate confirmed Washburn’s nomination, which President Obama announced in early August, by unanimous consent last night.

Assistant Secretary Forrest J. Gerard announced today actions in the ongoing effort to organize and improve the management systems and structure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

A few weeks ago, on the busy Colorado river reservation near, Parker, Ariz., Sam Lockshin, President of Prest-Wheel, Inc., turned the keys to his firm’s branch plant over to two Colorado River Indians: Vincent Scott, superintendent and Myron Murdock, production planning manager.

It’s the first time that non-Indian businessman have transformed total management responsibilities to their Indian employees. People who watch such things believe it may be a trend in the making.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today congratulated four Bureau of Indian Affairs employees who have received one of the U.S. Attorney General’s highest awards for their work investigating the death of an American Indian teenager on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming last year.

The BIA Office of Justice Services employees, together with 11 U.S. Department of Justice employees and a Seminole tribal police officer, were honored at a departmental ceremony held October 19, 2011, at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

A draft environmental impact statement considering the consequences of transferring certain public lands to the Navajo Tribe under the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act, P.L. 93-531, is now available.

According to a notice published in the Federal Register August 18, single copies of the statement may be obtained from the Flagstaff Administrative Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, P.O. Box 1889, Flagstaff, Arizona 86002.