Past News Items

Promotion of Benjamin Reifel, a Sioux Indian and doctor of philosophy in public administration, to be area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Aberdeen, S. Dak., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

He will succeed William O. Roberts, area director at Aberdeen since February 1954, who retires on August 31 after 38 years of continuous and progressively responsible service with the Indian Bureau.

WASHINGTON – Because of a high level of interest, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (OJS) is providing legal training it successfully held last year to new groups of tribal court prosecutors, defenders and judges to improve their trial advocacy skills. The training focuses on cases involving the trafficking of illegal narcotics, domestic violence and sexual assault on adults and children.

Dr. Robert Hall, Bureau of Indian Affairs Director of Special Education, has been elected Secretary/Treasurer of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Inc.

The Association is composed of people within state education agencies having statewide responsibilities for the education of exceptional children, both handicapped and gifted. The BIA's federal school system is considered for administrative purposes, comparable to a state system.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton today announced that he has requested the Justice Department to institute a suit to determine the rights of the Pyramid Lake Indians under the Winters Rights Doctrine with the priority date of 1859, and that the complaint to be filed set forth those rights on the Truckee River that have previously been decreed by the court.

In order to insure that the Tribes positions fully presented to the court. Secretary Morton also recommended that the Tribe be permitted to intervene as a party.

SANTA FE, NM – As part of President Obama’s commitment to empowering American Indian tribal nations and strengthening their economies, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today joined New Mexico Governor Susanna Martinez and leaders from four Pueblo tribes—the Tesuque, Nambe, Pojoaque and San Ildefonso—at the Santa Fe Indian School to execute settlement documents and celebrate the historic New Mexico vs. Aamodt water rights settlement.

Regulations governing BIA responsibilities in the former Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area were published in the Federal Register April 26, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today.

(Following is a statement delivered by Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton during a visit to the Uintah-Ouray Indian preservation in Utah Tuesday evening, October 5, 1971.)

I am very pleased to report to you that before I left Washington, a Secretarial Order was signed that revokes a 1930 oil shale withdrawal order as it pertained to your Indian lands.

Thus, we have erased any doubt that might have existed as to the Tribe1s ownership of lands and minerals affected by the 1930 order.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk announced today that a listening session will take place at Haskell Indian Nations University on Monday, September 20, 2010. This youth listening session is a part of America’s Great Outdoors Initiative and will be hosted by the Department of the Interior Office of Youth in the Great Outdoors and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).

Leo M. Krulitz, the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, said today that unless Indian tribes can fully utilize their natural resources, the opportunity to determine their own future will hold little promise for them.

In an address to the two-day conference of the Federal Bar Association in Phoenix, Arizona, on Indian law, Krulitz said: "Self-determination will mean little to many Native Americans if the Federal trustee does not insure that water rights are preserved.

Since July 1970, American Indians started 241 new businesses and expanded 143 Indian-owned businesses through the Indian Business Development Fund program of the Bureau of Indian !Affairs, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today.

New businesses and expansions made possible by the Fund will create an estimated 2,900 Indian jobs and produce an annual payroll of nearly $11,900,000.