Past News Items

Transmittal Letter From Secretary Norton Full Report Chart of Key Dates List of Task Force Members Photograph

(WASHINGTON) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb and Tex Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota, presented to Interior Secretary Gale Norton today the Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform's five options for improving the department's management of Indian trust funds and assets. McCaleb and Hall are Task Force co-chairs.

The Navajo Indian Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior are working closely together to meet all emergency needs resulting from the recent heavy snows and extremely cold weather on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash reported today.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the appointment of Wayne R. Smith, 52, as the Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. Mr. Smith is of American Indian heritage, Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux – his mother was born and lived on the Tribe’s reservation in Fort Thompson, S.D., until her graduation from high school. “I welcome Wayne to my team,” McCaleb said. “His extensive Indian gaming, administrative, legal and policy experience will be invaluable as we work to shape Indian Affairs in the 21st century.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash, accompanied by other Indian Bureau officials, will travel extensively through Indian areas of North Dakota in early May, and Minnesota in early June, to consult with Government officials and Indian leaders and visit with Indian families in their homes.

Tulsa, Oklahoma - The Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb will join American Indian students at Sequoyah High School at 9:30 A.M. CDT on April 22,2002 to participate in Earth Day activities planned for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) funded school located at Tahlequah, Oklahoma. "I'm looking forward to visiting with the students and seeing what exciting things they are doing to help their environment," Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb said.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the reappointment of Floyd E. Maytubby, Oklahoma City, as Governor of the Chickasaw Indian Tribe and the appointment of Waldo E McIntosh of Tulsa as Principal Chief of the Oklahoma Creek Indian Tribe.

Under a 1906 law the President was empowered to appoint a Principal Chief periodically for each of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes" of Oklahoma-- Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and Creek. In 1951 this appointing authority was delegated to the Secretary of the Interior.

(WASHINGTON) – Interior Secretary Gale Norton, accompanied by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb, will be the keynote speaker at the National Indian School Board Association’s 2001 Summer Institute conference on Tuesday, July 24, at 8:30 a.m. (PST) at the Doubletree Jantzen Beach Hotel in Portland, Ore.

The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) welcomes tribal leadership and stakeholders to attend an informational virtual meeting scheduled for 2:00 pm eastern standard time on July 8 to hear BIE leadership present its plans for distributing its Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to schools to support the COVID-19 Pandemic recovery.

Dear Friends:

We are sending the attached Philatelic Release from the Post Office Department as an item which may be of interest to you. We understand that this is the first commemorative stamp to feature an Indian motif.

Black-and-white photographs of the stamp design may be obtained without charge by writing to Mr. J. F. Kelleher, Special Assistant to the Postmaster General, Washington 25, D. C.

M.M. Tozier

Information Officer

In a powerful and moving speech at a ceremony commemorating the Bureau of Indian Affairs' l75th anniversary, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Kevin Gover today apologized for the ethnic cleansing and cultural annihilation the BIA had wrought against American Indian and Alaska Native people in years past. Speaking before an estimated audience of 300 people, most of whom were BIA employees, he observed that the event was not an occasion for celebration, but a time for reflection and contrition.