Past News Items

The Education Division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a series of four special conferences this summer to orient field personnel to recent developments in teaching American Indian children in BIA schools, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has asked Congress for $901.4 million dollars for its fiscal year 1984 programs and projects. An additional $100 million is to be provided for reservation road projects under the Highway Improvement Act of 1982 recently enacted by President Reagan.

The $100 million roads allocation through the Department of Transportation "will create thousands of new jobs while helping the reservations build infrastructure for economic development", said Kenneth L. Smith, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) is proud to announce that Christopher Harrington, a member of the Comanche Nation in Oklahoma and a SIPI staff member, has been selected to receive a J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship grant to Pakistan. Harrington is the chairperson of the Department of Liberal Arts and Business Education. He was selected by the presidentially appointed 12-member J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Two contracts totaling $367,043 have been awarded by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs for road construction projects on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, S. D. and the Yakima Reservation in Washington.

A $247, 885 contract for crushed rock and bituminous mat surfacing of approximately 15.5 miles of the Signal Peak road on the Yakima Reservation was awarded to Bohannon Asphalt Paving, Inc.; of Yakima, Wash. Five bids were received, ranging to a high of $298,520.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett today announced the appointment of Nathan Stoltzfus to his public information staff.

Stoltzfus will head the internal communications function for the BIA He has responsibility for soliciting and disseminating information about significant Interior Department and BIA issues, policies, and programs among Department and BIA officials. His duties include editing the biweekly newsletter, preparing briefing materials, writing speeches for the Commissioner, and writing press releases

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Interior announced today that the Bureau of Reclamation is awarding a construction contract of almost $62 million for part of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project in New Mexico to increase the supply of clean drinking water to surrounding communities.

Alaska is home to three native peoples. The Eskimos, although best known, share the vast land with their island relatives, the Aleuts, and with a large number of Indians.

The story of these native residents of the great northern peninsula that became a State in 1959 is told in a booklet just published by the Bureau of Indian Affairs--Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts of Alaska.

Here is a sampling of some little known facts revealed in the new publication:

Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus announced today that amended interim regulations governing off-reservation treaty fishing rights by Michigan tribes in the waters of Lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron and connecting waters will be published in the Federal Register this week. The regulations will be effective immediately upon publication, Andrus said, and will govern fishing during the 1980 season pending preparation of final regulations.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts today announced final, updated Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) guidelines for implementing the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) that will better protect the rights of Indian children, their parents and their tribes in state child welfare proceedings.

The guidelines explain the ICWA statute and regulations while also providing examples of best practices for its implementation, the goal of which is to encourage greater uniformity in the application of ICWA measures.

Timber harvesting on Indian reservations set records during the 1967 calendar' year in terms of both cash and timber volume, a final tabulation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs shows.

Cash sales exceeded 900 million board-feet and provided gross receipts of $17.9 million. This compares with a total of 527 million board-feet and $10.7 million gross sales ten years ago, and about 802 million board-feet, with $15.4 million in cash sales for 1966, and 811 million board-feet and approximately $13 million in cash sales in 1965.