Past News Items

Joseph E. Kahklen, a member of the Tlingit Indian Tribe, has been appointed Assistant Area Director (Administration), in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Juneau, Alaska, office. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced the appointment would be effective March 16, 1975.

Kahklen's previous position was Area Personnel Officer, but he has been Acting Assistant Director since his predecessor, Clarence Antioquia, was named Area Director.

The Juneau office serves approximately 61,000 Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts in Alaska.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan will visit Scottsdale, Arizona, September 15, 1989, to sign the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Water Rights Settlement Act. The ceremony will take place at 11:00 a.m., at the Tribal Headquarters, 10005 East Osborne, in Scottsdale.

The agreement provides for the settlement of longstanding water right claims with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Under the pact, 122,400 acre feet of water will be delivered annually to the Indian community for the irrigation of 27,200 acres of agricultural land.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson has appointed Billie D. Ott, a member of the Choctaw Tribe of Oklahoma, Assistant Director, Support Services, in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Administration.

Ott, a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, had been Vice President and General Manager of Eastern Operations for the General Telephone and Electronics, Information Systems in Stamford, Conn. He has held other top management positions with Electronic Associates, Inc., and with General Electric.

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Interior announced today it is taking the final steps in its efforts to identify the whereabouts of approximately 17,000 Native Americans to provide compensation as part of the Cobell settlement.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ken Smith has assigned Charles Hughes the Bureau of Indian Affair's top financial official, to full time implementation of reforms and improvements which were initiated in the past year in the BIA's management of finances and trust funds

“The scope depth and importance of the efforts and their stage of development now require that these projects receive concentrated attention from all affected Bureau employees including my own office” Smith said.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard announced today that Earl J. Barlow, a Blackfeet Indian, has been appointed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education.

Barlow has been Superintendent of Schools in Browning, Montana since 1973. He has also served as the Montana State Supervisor of Indian Education and has worked for thirty years as a teacher, principal and education program administrator.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts today issued an updated Contract Support Costs (CSC) Policy for the Indian Affairs Manual (IAM). The updated Policy reflects extensive tribal consultation and the work of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) CSC Workgroup, which is comprised of tribal and federal experts.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt today awarded 23,000 timbered acres on Admiralty Island in southeast Alaska to the Sitka-based Shee-Atika Native Corporation in satisfaction of its selection rights under the 10-year-old Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

With the salmon spawning run on the Klamath River in California nearly over, the Department of the Interior announced today that it is opening portions of the river to Indian subsistence fishing.

WASHINGTON – Lawrence S. Roberts, who is leading the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, announced today that the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) has extended its deadline for nominations of qualified individuals to serve on a negotiated rulemaking committee (NRC) that will recommend revisions to its school accountability system. Nominees are being sought from federally recognized tribes whose students attend BIE-funded schools.