Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior James Watt announced today that Roy H. Sampsel, a Choctaw Indian from Portland, Oregon, has been appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.

Sampsel has worked in Indian Affairs as a consultant, as executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, as a reservation program officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior.

WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today delivered opening remarks at the sixth White House Tribal Nation’s Conference, where she emphasized the Obama Administration's commitment to Indian Country, including self-determination and self-governance initiatives that are helping tribal nations to build a foundation for a successful and culturally vibrant future.

"Oklahoma! Its very name stirs memories of a long-ago Indian civilization.”

So begins “Indians of Oklahoma" - a 16-page illustrated booklet published this week as the first of a regional series to be issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. About a dozen more booklets will follow, each devoted to the history and progress of Indians in a particular state or region.

Proposed regulations establishing uniform procedures for federal land managers to protect and conserve archeological resources on public and Indian lands have been published in the Federal Register of January 19, 1981.

The proposed regulations would implement the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (P. L. 96-95) which was signed by President Carter on October 31, 1979.

The Archaeological Resources Protection Act has two major purposes:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of the Interior today announced that an additional $1 million has been transferred to the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund, bringing the total transferred in 2014 to more than $4.5 million. The Scholarship Fund was authorized by the historic Cobell Settlement and is funded in part by the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program). The Scholarship Fund provides financial assistance through scholarships to American Indian and Alaska Native students wishing to pursue post-secondary education and training.

A change in leadership of the Public Information Office of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs was announced today by Commissioner Robert L. Bennett.

Virginia S. Hart, the Bureau's Chief of Public Information for the past three years, has been succeeded in that post by W. Joynes Macfarlan, for many years a member of the Washington Bureau of the Associated Press. Macfarlan's appointment was effective May 29. Mrs. Hart was named Special Assistant (Communications) to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs on May 7.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today named three businessmen from outside the Government to make a survey of the operations and programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Walter Bimson, chairman of the board, Valley National bank of Phoenix, Arizona, was chosen as the chairman of the team. The other non-Government members are Robert D. Lutton, Santa Fe Railroad, Chicago, Illinois, and J.R. Johns, Sears Roebuck Company, Dallas, Texas.

Three officials of the Department will assist in the survey.

Albuquerque, NM – This week, prosecutors and special agents from the Office of the Attorney General joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs, tribal law enforcement agencies, service providers and the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (CSVANW) to combat human trafficking on Native American lands in New Mexico. The working conference, Sex Trafficking in Indian Country, demonstrates the critical importance of federal, state and tribal entities working together with service providers to attack human trafficking and protect victims on tribal lands in New Mexico.

Our American society as a whole has assumed new dimensions within the past few years. The place of minority groups has been redefined -- or, rather the inherent rights of citizens, whatever racial minority groups they may represent have been reinforced. But civil rights remain only theoretical as long as economic exclusion continues. This is frequently the situation in localities where American Indians constitute a significant and socially conspicuous minority.

The resignation of Louis R. Bruce as Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was announced today President Nixon. The resignation is effective January 20,1973.

Bruce. 66 has served as Commissioner since August 1969. A member of the Ogala Sioux tribe of South Dakota, Bruce was born on the Onondaga Indian Reservation in New York and grew up on the State's St. Regis Mohawk Reservation.