Past News Items

A draft environmental impact statement on a proposal to surface mine Crow Indian and State-owned coal from more than 2,000 acres in south central Montana has been prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, and released for public comment.

The statement, filed with the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), discusses the environmental effects of a proposed expansion of Westmoreland Resources existing Absaloka Coal Mine to 2,151 acres (870 hectares) in Crow Indian Ceded Lands in northern Big Horn County just north of the Crow Indian Reservation.

President Chino, Vice Presidents, and friends. I am especially happy to be here at the 25th Anniversary Convention of the National Congress of American Indians.

TULSA, Okla. — The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs has added an extra session to the Interior Department’s series of listening meetings on sacred sites in Indian Country. A sixth session will be held on Tuesday, September 18, 2012, in Tulsa, Okla. The first five were held last month in Albuquerque, N.M., Billings, Mont., Prior Lake, Minn., Uncasville, Conn., and Portland, Ore.

·Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus and Under Secretary James Joseph reported today that they have reviewed and approved the general principles of a reorganization plan for the administration of Indian affairs.

Andrus and Joseph said that implementation of most major features of the plan, developed by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard, and would begin promptly after analysis of the plan's details.

Gerard's recommendations, which he announced today at the National Congress of American Indians annual convention in Rapid City, South Dakota, include:

Assistance provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to Indian families and individuals voluntarily relocating away from the reservations to metropolitan centers will be much greater in the fiscal year starting July 1 than ever before, Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons announced today.

"Our funds for relocation assistance,” Mr. Emmons said, "have been more than tripled from a level of $1,016,400 available this past year to $3,472,000. This will make it possible for us to broaden the scope and range of our relocation services along lines that we have had in mind for many months.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald E. “Del” Laverdure today announced that, in addition to ongoing efforts by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to address reported child safety and protection deficiencies at the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe in North Dakota, he is sending in a strike team of senior BIA officials from its Central Office to assess and evaluate efforts to improve the Tribe’s social services program. The decision to deploy senior officials to the region came at the urging of U.S. Senator Kent Conrad.

A plan for the use and distribution of approximately $1.4 million awarded to the Creek Nation of Indians by the Indian Claims Commission is being published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today

The award is additional compensation for 1.4 million acres of land in Alabama and Georgia taken from the tribe in 1818.

According to the plan, approved by Congress and made effective June 15, 1978, the funds will be divided between the Creek Nation of Oklahoma and an unorganized group of descendants of the Creek Indians east of the Mississippi.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel will bestow the Department’s valor award on eight employees June 30 at ceremonies in Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Hall. The event also will honor 94 Interior employees for distinguished service.

The Department’s gold valor award will go to the following:

Sacramento, CA — The third consultation on the Buy Indian Act will begin Tuesday, August 21, 2012. The Buy Indian Act provides Indian Affairs with the authority to set-aside procurement contracts for qualified Indian-owned businesses. This proposed rule describes uniform administrative procedures that Indian Affairs will use in all of its locations to encourage procurement of goods and services from eligible Indian economic enterprises, as authorized by the Buy Indian Act.

Proposed regulations governing the procedures by which an Indian group would be acknowledged to be an Indian tribe were published June 1 in the Federal Register, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The increased number of Indian groups requesting that the Secretary of the Interior officially acknowledge them as Indian tribes has necessitated the development of uniform procedures to be followed.