Past News Items

Robert Schoning, Oregon State Fisheries Director, and Thor Tollefson, Director of the Washington State Department of Fisheries, conferred this week with top officials of the Department of the Interior in Washington to explore possibilities of cooperatively developing regulations that would recognize and provide for Indian off-reservation treaty fishing rights.

Governor Tom McCall of Oregon, at whose request the meeting was held, was unable to attend because of adverse flying weather.

Perry D. Parton, a member of the Pawnee Tribe, has been named Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Jicarilla agency at Dulce, New Mexico, Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Hallett announced today.

Parton has been field Representative for the Zuni agency since January of 1978. He had previously been Administrative Manager of the Colorado River and Hopi agencies.

A United States Air Force veteran, Parton worked for Lockheed Aircraft and other private employers as an accountant, industrial relations representative and in other administrative roles.

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services respects the rights of tribes and citizens to express their views in a peaceful and lawful manner. The presence of additional BIA law enforcements officers at Standing Rock was provided at the request of tribal leadership. The responsibility of BIA law enforcement officers is to protect the peace and provide for the safety and well-being of the citizens of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and individuals within the territory of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation."

-DOI-

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of Federal legislation to establish a special three-judge Federal District Court to settle a disputed boundary between the Navajo and Ute Mountain Indian Tribes in New Mexico. Several millions of dollars are at stake.

The disputed area is a strip of land immediately south of the Colorado border approximately two miles wide and ten and one-half miles long. The United States holds the title to the area in trust for one of the two tribes and both claim it.

The dispute developed from the following facts:

Richmond, Virginia’s Junior ROTC Unit of John F. Kennedy High School presented $200 to the Navajo Indians at the U.S. Department of the Interior Building in Washington, D.C. December 27. Accepting the cheek was Interior's Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget Richard S. Bodman. He presently has administrative control of all Indian operations for the Department of the Interior.

In accepting the donation Assistant Secretary Bodman commended the ROTC Unit for their deep interest in helping their fellow Americans who may be less fortunate.

ST. PAUL, MINN. – In keeping with President Obama’s commitment to supporting Indian families and fostering resilient, thriving tribal communities through his all-of-government approach, acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts today announced that the Departments of Interior (DOI), Justice (DOJ), and Health and Human Services (HHS) have entered into a collaborative agreement to ensure more robust compliance with and implementation of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 (Public Law 95-608).

The maximum development of Indian economic, industrial and employment potential on a nationwide basis, and the problems involved, will be considered at a meeting sponsored by the Department of ~he Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs in Oklahoma late this month.

Officials from the Bureau's 11 area offices in the Midwest, West and Alaska and the Washington headquarters will meet with business and industrial leaders and representatives of the Economic Development Administration and Small Business Administration.

James J. Thomas, 27, Winnebago Indian, has been named special assistant to the Department of the Interior's Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Louis R. Bruce, the Commissioner announced today.

Thomas, horn and reared on the Winnebago I Indian Reservation, Nebraska, recently completed an Indian administrator development program of the Bureau.

WASHINGTON, DC – The Department of the Interior today announced that $2.9 million has been transferred to the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund. The Scholarship Fund was authorized by the historic Cobell Settlement and provides financial assistance through annual scholarships to American Indian and Alaska Native students wishing to pursue post-secondary education and training.

The States we know as Nevada, Utah, and Colorado were once the hunting and warring grounds of numerous Indian tribes. Their stories are told in an illustrated, 24-page booklet just issued by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs -- Indians of the Lower Plateau.