Past News Items

The Department of the Interior has announced its support of Federal legislation providing for an exchange of lands between the United States and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe of southwestern Colorado in connection with the construction of the Navajo Dam and Reservoir unit of the Colorado River Storage Project.

Some 707.5 acres of Southern Ute tribal land are needed for the reservoir project, the Department explained, and the tribe has expressed a desire to exchange this acreage for public land instead of selling it for cash.

"The approval of these compacts helps bring to a close a long and difficult phase in the implementation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. For twelve years the Tribal governments of California have diligently moved forward, through some extremely difficult and trying times to secure their rights of self-determination through Tribal government gaming. Today, they have redeemed their rights.

"The resolution of this issue demonstrates that the political process works when people of foresight, and good will resolve themselves to finding a solution.

Indian children in three Bureau of Indian Affairs schools will be given special education services and assistance next school year with the help of funding by the Office of Education.

Schools in which the programs will be initiated include Wahpeton Indian School, Wahpeton, N.D.; Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Ariz. and Intermountain School, Brigham City, Utah.

The three programs are intended to establish guidelines for Similar, future operations in other Bureau schools, where they are applicable.

Robert Abbey will hold a news media teleconference regarding domestic oil and gas production on public and Tribal lands.

Credentialed media may also participate in the teleconference media roundtable by telephone by dialing 1-888-972-9240 and entering the access code INTERIOR.

Award of four contracts totaling $269,949.50 for surfacing work on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservation roads in South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Santa Clara Day School in the Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico, will play host as the featured site in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Net Day 1999. Santa Clara Day School and18 other BIA funded schools from eastern Maine to Washington's Olympic Peninsula will celebrate their accomplishments, as well as their connection to each other through the Internet, as part of the Four Directions Project.

The Department of the Interior today announced the selection of Robert D. Holtz, Indian Bureau area director at Minneapolis since 1955, to head the Bureau's area office at Portland, Oregon, effective May 1. He replaces Don C. Foster who retires April 14 after 26 years with the Bureau and seven years as area director at Portland.

In his new post Holtz will supervise all Indian Bureau operations in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. His successor at Minneapolis has not yet been named.

After several hearings about the need for more police on Tribal lands and the severe need for school construction and repair funds in Indian Country, the Senate Subcommittee on Interior Appropriations cut the President Clinton's request to fund the needs of the American Indian people for law enforcement and school construction by more than $140 million.