Past News Items

Sidney L. Mills, an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, has been named Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Albuquerque area, Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today. Mills was formerly Executive Assistant to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Gerard also announced the appointment of Roland Johnson as Deputy Director of the Albuquerque area. Johnson, a former tribal operations officer in the area office, has been on leave from BIA to serve as the Governor of the Pueblo of Laguna.

Conservation of timber resources on the Klamath Indian Reservation of south central Oregon is "of primary importance to the economy of the area and to the welfare of the public generally", Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton said today in commenting on S. 2047, a bill that provides for Federal acquisition of all Klamath tribal lands.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald “Del” Laverdure today participated with the White House Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs Jodi Gillette to moderate a panel of leaders from across Indian Country in celebration of the contributions made to the First Lady’s Let’s Move! in Indian Country (LMIC) initiative. The event, in honor of the one-year anniversary of the program’s launch, was streamed online at www.WhiteHouse.gov/live.

Martin E. Seneca, Jr., is returning to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as Director of Trust Responsibilities, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

Seneca was formerly Trust Responsibilities Director from May, 1974 to November, 1976. He has most recently been with the Federal Energy Agency as Assistant General Counsel for Conservation and Deputy Assistant Administrator for Conservation and Environment.

Seminole Indians of Florida will have an opportunity in the near future to vote on the ratification of a proposed tribal constitution and tribal corporate charter under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Department of the Interior announced today.

WASHINGTON – In a keynote address to tribal leaders attending the National Congress of American Indians 2011 Mid-Year Conference in Milwaukee, Wis., Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today described the progress being made in a comprehensive agenda to restore integrity in U.S. government relations with American Indian and Alaska Native leaders, fulfill trust responsibilities to tribal members, and to work cooperatively to build stronger economies and safer tribal communities.

The BIA's Portland Area Office had a communications seminar October 12-13, at Kahneeta Lodge on the Warm Springs reservation. Representatives from the Northwest tribes and agencies talked with journalists and other media experts about ways and whys of improving Indian communications and public relations.

Most of the participants, an informal survey showed, thought some good things happened.

Don Sider from Time Magazine's Washington, D. C. bureau talked knowledgeable bout Indians' problems in getting accurate and adequate coverage in non-Indian publications.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of legislation extending the life of the tribal government of Oklahoma’s Osage Indians until 1984, it was announced today.

The principal function of the Osage tribal government, which is scheduled to expire in 1959 under existing law is to participate with the Secretary of the Interior in the execution of leases for development and extraction of the minerals that were reserved to the Tribe in Osage County, Oklahoma, under 1906 legislation.

WASHINGTON – On Friday, April 27, 2012, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will be joined by Crow Tribe Apsáalooke Nation Chairman Cedric Black Eagle and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer for the signing of a Crow Tribe-Montana Water Rights Compact. The compact seeks to resolve more than three decades of controversy, ensure safe drinking water for the reservation, and provide for the rehabilitation of the Crow Irrigation Project. The ceremony will take place at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.

Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe has directed the State Director of the Bureau of Land Management's Alaska Office to reserve rights-of-way for the transportation of Federally-owned energy, fuel and other natural resources across lands being transferred to Alaska Natives and Native corporations under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Under the Act, more than 40 million acres of Federal land will be conveyed to Alaska Natives and Native corporations.