Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today announced that the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Gaming (OIG) has cancelled its October 25, 2007, tribal consultation meeting on tribal gaming revenue allocation plans (RAPs), which was to be held at the Barona Valley Ranch Resort and Casino in Lakeside, Calif., due to Southern California’s wildland fire emergency, which is occurring near the facility’s location.

The Navajo Indian Tribe will receive more than $7.3 million, under a contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to be used in public schools
serving Navajo students, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The contract, awarded August 11, gives the tribe administrative responsibility for the Johnson-O'Malley (JOM) programs serving the reservation.

Acting Secretary of the Interior Elmer F. Bennett today announced the Code of Federal Regulations has been amended to guarantee that Indian tribes will receive adequate offers for mineral leases on their lands.

The amendment provides greater uniformity in regulating the leasing of Indian lands for the mining of minerals other than oil and gas. It also furnishes a safeguard patterned after that which applies to oil and gas leases. The latter are required by law to be advertised, not negotiated.

The State of Idaho, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the U.S. Department of the Interior finalized a major water rights agreement for the Snake River today. The settlement resolves a number of water rights issues as part of the Snake River Basin Adjudication (SRBA).

Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Marvin L. Franklin today announced the publication of a new Bureau of Indian Affairs booklet on the current status of Indian education.

Indian Education: Steps to Progress in the 70's is a 60 page booklet that gives a comprehensive outline of the numerous Bureau of Indian Affairs programs underway to raise the American Indians' level of education.

Award of a $35,438 contract for the construction of two bridges on the Menominee Indian Reservation, Shawano County, Wisconsin, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

WASHINGTON – President Bush has proposed a $2.2 billion budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) for Fiscal Year 2008. The 2008 request is $7.0 million above the President’s 2007 budget request and $1.0 million below the 2007 continuing resolution. The budget includes two initiatives to ensure that future generations of Native Americans have safe and secure communities to call home and that Indian children attending BIE schools can fulfill their potential through education.

David Makity, president, and Elliott Pamp, vice president, Battle Creek Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians, met with Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson in Washington, D.C. last week to discuss Federal recognition of their tribe.

“The group is interested in expanded service for school age and older members in the areas of health, education, and social service benefits,” Thompson indicated.

Ten Indian high school graduates will soon be attending the North Dakota School of Science at Wahpeton, North Dakota l through scholarship program made possible by a grant of Federal land to the school, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Assistant Secretary Roger C. Ernst recently signed a quitclaim deed conveying 70 acres of land previously used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school at Wahpeton to the State-controlled school in the same city with the understanding that the scholarship program would be established.

WASHINGTON – Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason today announced that the Department of the Interior has declined to acknowledge that a group known as the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of Abenaki located in and around Swanton, Vt., is an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law.