Past News Items

Twelve studies to determine the feasibility of economic development which could create greater job opportunities on Indian reservations and in the native villages of Alaska are being undertaken by the Bureau of Indian Affairs with technical assistance funds provided by the Area Redevelopment Administration of the Department of Commerce, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Contracts totaling $402,493 have been awarded to the lowest qualified bidders for carrying out the studies in 11 States.

WASHINGTON -- The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Law Enforcement Services (OLES) will hold its 11th Annual Memorial Service May 9, 2002, to commemorate the sacrifice made by tribal law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty while serving on Indian lands. The Memorial Service will start at 10:30 A.M. on the BIA Indian Police Academy grounds in Artesia, New Mexico.

All title source documents and records pertaining to trust or restricted lands on 21 Indian reservations have now been transferred from Washington, D. C. , to area offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Aberdeen, S. Dak.; Billings, Mont. j Gallup, N. Mex.; and Portland, Oreg., the Department of the Interior announced today.

The transfer, Commissioner Philleo Nash emphasized, has involved only the land records formerly maintained in Washington and not those kept at the Bureau's agency offices.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the appointment of Robert D. Ecoffey, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, as its lead law enforcement officer. As director of the Bureau’s Office of Law Enforcement Services, Ecoffey will oversee a 750-person department that provides uniformed police services, detention operations and criminal investigations of alleged or suspected violations of major federal criminal laws in Indian Country.

Appointment of George M. Felshaw, a veteran of more than 20 years' service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as superintendent of the Western Washington Indian Agency, Everett, Wash., effective May 1, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

Felshaw, who has been in charge of the Bureau's field relocation office at Los Angeles since 1957, replaces Clarence W. Ringey who is transferring to the Bureau's area office at Aberdeen, S. Dak., April 29. Ringey has been superintendent at Everett since 1955.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb today announced two separate actions concerning the final rule titled “Acquisition of Title to Land in Trust.” One action further extends the effective date of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) final rule on placing lands into trust that were published on January 16, 2001.

Appointment of Dr. James E. Officer of Tucson, Arizona, as Associate Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

Dr. Officer, who was instructor in sociology and anthropology and assistant director of the Bureau of Ethnic Research at the University of Arizona from 1955 to early 1961, served as a member of the task force which was appointed by the Secretary to survey the operations and programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

On Monday, December 18, 2000, at 11:00 a.m. (EST), Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Kevin Gover will formally open the Ely S. Parker Building, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) new facility in Reston, Virginia, with the unveiling of a plaque naming the building for the first American Indian to serve as Commissioner for Indian Affairs. The facility will house the BIA’s Office of Management and Administration and Office of Information Technology, and the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Business Center (NBC).

Proposed casino hotel-resort project expected to increase jobs, wages and revenues benefitting the Tribe and regional economy

The Department of the Interior favors proposed legislation to provide that judgment funds on claims against the United States awarded to any of the constituent Indian tribes on the Colville Reservation in Washington shall be deposited in the United States Treasury to the credit of the confederated tribal group on the reservation, Assistant Secretary John A. Carver, Jr., announced today.