Past News Items

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.

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald “Del” Laverdure will deliver the keynote address at the 21st Annual Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service being held Thursday, May 3, 2012, at the Bureau of Indian Affairs United States Indian Police Academy in Artesia, N.M. He will be accompanied by BIA Director Mike Black and BIA Office of Justice Services Deputy Bureau Director Darren Cruzan.

Donald E. Loudner, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Yankton, South Dakota Agency, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

Loudner has been Coordinator of the Office of Indian Affairs for the State of South Dakota for the last four years.

A long-time resident of Mitchell, South Dakota, Loudner was active in Indian matters there, and for six years was a member of the South Dakota State Indian Commission.

Award of a $393,000 contract for construction of a central heating plant at Haskell Institute located at Lawrence, Kansas, was announced by the Department Of Interior today.

C. L, Mahoney Co. of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was awarded the job on the basis of its low bid. Eight other bids, ranging from $407,390 to $450,000, were received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The new plant is to replace present manually operated boiler equipment, some of which has been in service since 1921.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk will be leaving the Department of the Interior after nearly 3 years of leadership. Echo Hawk, an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, will resign his position effective April 27, 2012 to assume a leadership position in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the first in a series of steps that must be undertaken by the nearly 3,000 Menominee Indians of Wisconsin to restore their tribal government which was terminated in 1961.

Tribal candidates for the Menominee Restoration Committee will be nominated January 19, with elections to be held no later than March 5.

Award of a $214,950 contract to Alder-Child Construction Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, for construction of dormitory facilities to house Indian children at Richfield, Utah, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Sixteen higher bids, ranging from $225,313 to $368,413, were submitted by contractors from Utah and New Mexico.

WASHINGTON — A partnership among Department of the Interior agencies and American Indian communities in North Dakota has spurred a 400 percent increase in revenues from increased domestic energy production over last year – providing substantial economic benefits to the tribal government and individual mineral owners.