Past News Items

WASHINGTON - The new Interior officials confirmed by the Senate last week will be sworn-in by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton at a ceremony tomorrow, July 17, at 1:15 p.m. The ceremony will take place outside on the Department’s rooftop terrace.

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.

An unusually large volume of legislation that will bring far-reaching benefits to American Indians was enacted by the recently adjourned 87th Congress, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall said today.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will celebrate its 175th Anniversary tomorrow, Friday, September 8, 2000, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT) at the U.S. Department of the Interior headquarters, 1849 ‘C’ Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., in the Sydney R. Yates Auditorium with the theme “Reconciling the Past, Trusting the Future: A Renewed Commitment to Indian Tribes for the 21st Century.” The program will include a discussion on the BIA’s past, present, and future.

Located along the Colorado River 13 miles south of Yuma, Arizona, and 15 miles north of San Luis, Mexico is the Cocopah Reservation. Its unique boundaries border Mexico, Arizona and California. Thriving along the banks is an invasive and dangerous plant called salt cedar. Its roots drink deeply, helping to lower the water table and adding large deposits of salt to the soil. As its roots and branches grow, its prolific and highly flammable branches threaten wetland ecosystems and create a significant fire hazard to neighboring communities when wildfires occur. It is also choking out the native willow, cottonwood, and mesquite trees the Cocopah people use for cultural and spiritual purposes.

A proposal for a National Recreation Area adjoining Yellowtail Reservoir in Big Horn and Carbon Counties, Montana, and Big Horn County, Wyoming, is detailed in a report released today by the Department of the Interior.

A 7l-mile long reservoir will be formed by the construction of the Yellowtail Dam now being built near the mouth of Big Horn Canyon, about 42 miles southwest of Hardin, Montana, by the Bureau of Reclamation as a part of the Missouri River ( Project. The dam is expected to be completed by 1966.

One tribe’s 22-year journey through the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) process for federal recognition ended this afternoon when Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Gover signed the final determination in favor of federal acknowledgement for the Chinook Indian Tribe/Chinook Nation of Washington State in a ceremony at the Department of the Interior’s main building in Washington, D.C.

In the spring of 2018, BIA began advertising student internship positions to work in the BIA, Office of Trust Services Pathways Internship Program. After receiving a healthy number of applicants, BIA selected seven interns for the 2018 year to explore careers in wildland fire management.

Award of a $777,777 Bureau of Reclamation contract for the clearing of approximately 15,600 acres of land along the border of New Mexico and Colorado, to be inundated by the waters of Navajo Reservoir, was announced by the Department of the Interior today.

The contract went to Universal Grading Company, Incorporated, of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

WASHINGTON, DC - At a press conference at the National Press Club today, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced budget increases for Indian Country initiatives and joined Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson and other Administration officials and Indian leaders in announcing a new Native American-focused training course. Called "Working Effectively with Tribal Governments," the online course is now available to federal employees.