Past News Items

Good morning - distinguished members of the press, Representatives of the Indian desks, ladies and gentlemen.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald E. “Del” Laverdure today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (OJS) has issued a handbook on best practices for reducing crime in Indian Country. The publication, “Crime Reduction Best Practices Handbook: Making Indian Communities Safe 2012,” was developed by the OJS based on the successful deployment of its strategy to meet the Department’s goal of reducing violent crime on four reservations.

Wilfred Brown, a Navajo, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' agency at Fort Defiance, Arizona Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The Fort Defiance agency is one of five serving the huge Navajo Reservation.

Brown, 38, has been Administrative Manager and Program Officer at the agency. He previously worked for the Navajo Tribe as a planning assistant and economic planner.

An Army veteran, Brown earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering and Industrial Design at Arizona State University.

Appointment of James N. Lowe, Sacramento, Calif., as Chief of the Indian Bureau is newly created Branch of Industrial Development was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald “Del” Laverdure today issued a statement regarding the unfortunate loss of a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Fort Yuma Agency firefighter on Friday, June 8, 2012.

In a step aimed at clearing the way for an exchange of land between the Federal Government and the Navajo Indian Tribe, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management is proposing the withdrawal from mineral entry of 57,000 acres of public land in San Juan County, New Mexico.

The land exchange would allow the Navajos to acquire land where Tribal families are now living. The Bureau of Land Management would acquire approximately 80,000 acres 'in McKinley County within the El Malpais Outstanding Natural Area south of Grants, New Mexico.

A two-year extension of the Interior Department's authority to lease lands on the Colorado River Indian Reservation in western Arizona would benefit the Indians, the Federal Government and the economy of Yuma County, Arizona, Assistant Secretary Roger C. Ernst said today in announcing the Department's support of S. 2161.

The bill would amend the Colorado River Leasing Act of 1955 and would provide such an extension beyond the present August 14, 1957, expiration date.

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA. — The final government-to-government tribal consultation regarding the draft report on Indian Affairs Administrative Organizational Assessment and Bureau of Indian Affairs/Bureau of Indian Education streamlining plans will take place on Wednesday, May 23, 2012, at the Dimond Center Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska. The consultation is the final of seven that have taken place around the country in Arizona, Florida, South Dakota, Washington, Oklahoma and California. The first was held in Miami on April 12 and 13, 2012.

A plan for the use and distribution of more than $400,000 awarded to the Mojave Indians by the Indian Claims Commission for lands taken more than a century ago by the United States is being published in the Federal Register.

The award will be divided between the Fort Mojave Tribe of the Fort Mojave Reservation and certain persons of Mojave ancestry from the Colorado River Reservation. Both reservations are located on the California-Arizona, border.

Award of a $163,641.18 contract to Roy Kindt of Winner, South Dakota, for 7.2 miles of grading, drainage and crushed gravel base construction on the road from Rosebud to U. S. Highway 18 on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, S. Dak., was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Roy Kindt was the low bidder. Three other higher bids were received ranging from $172,744.84 to $175,142.18.