Past News Items

Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs announced that 177 federally-recognized tribes representing 18 tribal grantees are currently participating in a demonstration project that allows for the integration of the employment, training and related services provided by formula-funded programs from three federal agencies.

The Department of the Interior today announced proposed regulations governing the preparation of a membership roll of the Ponca Indian Tribe of Nebraska.

The roll is to be compiled under provisions of a law approved by the President in September 1962 which gives enrolled tribal members an opportunity to express themselves for or against division of the tribal assets among themselves. Those on the roll would be the beneficiaries if division of the assets is approved.

Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Ada Deer today expressed strong concern over recent recommendations by Congressional Budget Committees to reduce the 1997 President's Budget for American Indian tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs with cuts from $100 million to $250 million.

Award of a $34,193 contract for improvement to the water supply system at Shiprock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract provides for approximately 2,000 feet of water main, and for the construction of a water treatment plant with a capacity of 750,000 gallons per day. This work is the second phase of a project to provide adequate water supply at Shiprock for a recently completed Indian hospital, a 1,000-pupil Indian boarding school and a sub-agency headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Restoration of federal funds needed for Tribal Priority Allocations (TPA) that provide basic reservation programs and develop strong and stable tribal governments is a key component of the Fiscal Year 1997 Bureau of Indian Affairs $1. 78-billion budget request.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the appointment of E. B. Maytubby, Muskogee, Okla., to fill out the unexpired term of his late nephew, Floyd Maytubby, as Governor of the Chickasaw Indian Nation and the designation of Overton James, Oklahoma City, to serve a two-year term as Governor starting with expiration of the Maytubby term on October 18, 1963.

Interior Assistant Secretary Eddie F. Brown today said the recently established Indian Gaming Management Office has developed an action plan and oversight process to provide assistance to Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) field staff and Indian tribes on gaming management issues and problems.

Promotion of Floyd E. Stayton from principal to superintendent of the Haskell Institute for Indian students at Lawrence, Kansas, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

He succeeds Solon G. Ayers who is also being promoted. Ayers has moved from Haskell to the position of director of schools in the Indian Bureau's area office at Portland, Oreg.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced the appointment of Dr. Jonathan Haas as the seventh member of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee. Haas is Vice President for Collections and Research at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He joins Rachel Craig, Dan Monroe, Tessie Naranjo, Dr. Martin Sullivan, William Tallbull and Dr. Philip Walker as members of the committee. Lujan selected Haas from a list of nominees developed by members of the committee at their first meeting April 29-May 1 1992, in Washington, D.C

Nearly 400 more Indian college students received scholarships from the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs this year than in 1964, Commissioner Philleo Nash reported today.

BIA awarded college scholarships to 1,718 students--an increase of 30 percent over last year's figure, he said. Grants amounted to $1,225,000, or an average of $700 per student.