OPA

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover will hold a media briefing on Thursday, September 9. Their briefing will focus on a new report documenting the management of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and other issues affecting the BIA budget.

The briefing will be held in Room 7000 of the Main Interior Building, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC, it begins at 4:00 p.m. EST.

A phone bridge for use by out-of-town media will be available by prior arrangement with the BIA Office of Public Affairs at 202/219-4150 or either of the media contacts listed above.

"BIA is too often unfairly portrayed as a bloated bureaucracy, and in today's BIA that simply isn't true," Babbitt said. "This new report points out that a procession of Congressional budget cuts have inflicted serious damage to BIA's administrative structure. Clearly, it's a case of cutting the fat way into the bone. Now more funding is needed to create efficient management that can be responsive to the tribes."

Secretary Babbitt and Assistant Secretary Gover will also be discussing newly released figures on Tribal Priority Allocation funding.

Santa Clara Day School in the Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico, will play host as the featured site in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Net Day 1999. Santa Clara Day School and18 other BIA funded schools from eastern Maine to Washington's Olympic Peninsula will celebrate their accomplishments, as well as their connection to each other through the Internet, as part of the Four Directions Project.

The Four Directions Project was one of the first funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Technology Innovation Challenge Grants. The project was first funded in October 1995. Nineteen BIA-funded schools are included in the project. The schools and the grant administrators from the Department of Education at the Laguna Pueblo have been working with partners from the University of Texas, the University of New Mexico, the University of Kansas, and Haskell Indian Nations University, to integrate Native American culture and technology into classroom instruction.

On Net Day 1999, planned for September 25, Santa Clara will demonstrate how state of the art technology has transformed their school. During the day, visitors will see students and teachers use technology in their classrooms, collaborate with other students across the nation, and access resources around the world. The school principal, Frank Nordstrom, will show how he uses technology to improve communication with his teachers and parents through e-mail. The school librarian will demonstrate how to conduct online research using the Athena Library System. Kindergarten and second grade teachers will demonstrate how both teachers and students make powerful presentations of their work using Microsoft's PowerPoint software program. Another teacher, Arlene Romero, will show how students can use Quick Time Video Recording (QTVR) to communicate information about their local communities to others over the Internet.

Similar community sharing will simultaneously be conducted at each of the other eighteen Four Directions sites. At 11:00 a.m., Acting Director, Office of Indian Education Programs, Joe Christie, and Tribal Leaders from across the country will join an online chat to talk with students and answer questions from the other sites. Community feasts at each of the sites will follow the chats.

Net Day 1999 will be the Bureau of Indian Affairs' second celebration. The first celebration, in May 1998, celebrated the cabling and Internet connection of 28 schools in a 100-day period. The final Net Day Event will be conducted at the Havasupai School at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. That event, planned for the year 2000, will be a celebration of the completion of the Office of Indian Education Programs' Access Native America project to connect all 187 of its schools.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs received a prestigious Government Information Technology Agency Award from Government Computer News for the development of the Trust Assets Accounting Management System, or TAAMS. Government Computer News, a trade magazine for the Information Technology industry dealing with the United States Government issues awards annually for excellence in information resources management to federal agency organizations in the application of information technology to improve service delivery.

TAAMS has been at the center of a major overhaul of the Indian Trust System begun during the administration of Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt.

“I am extremely pleased the BIA has been recognized for excellence for the development and deployment of TAAMS,” stated Secretary Babbitt. “The Indian employees of the BIA want this trust system fixed, and this is an example of Indians fixing an Indian problem created by decades of neglect. I have always had faith in the abilities of the American Indian employees, and if they are given the resources to fix the trust system, it will be fixed.”

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover was also pleased with the recognition the award represents for the hard work done by the BIA employees. There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the efforts at Trust reform, including the development of the TAAMS. “This award from Government Computer News shows our employees that their work is being recognized as excellent from an independent source. I want to thank our appropriators in both the Senate and House and the Secretary for pushing through the funding to fix this problem. It took 112 years to break this system, and it is not easy or cheap to fix it, but given the resources, our people are showing they will get the job done.”

The TAAMS development team went away from the traditional process of developing a government computing system. Instead of creating a system from the ground up, the strategy involved choosing a commercial off the shelf system, and then making the specific modifications necessary to meet the needs of the tribes and the 300,000 Individual Indian Money accountholders. With the help of the contractor, Applied Terravision, and the trust management employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a system has been created that will move the trust system into the 21st century. The pilot for the system is now operating in the BIA Rocky Mountain Region. The TAAMS system will be deployed to 220 sites over the next 18 months. BIA manages 170,000 individual tracts of land comprising 56 million acres. Management includes overseeing 100,000 leases for timber, coal, oil, gas, gravel, grazing and agricultural uses.

“We are literally taking this system into the 21st century”, said Gover. “The TAAMS system can be a system that all of Indian country can be proud of for a long time, and the credit should go to the hardworking employees of the BIA for moving heaven and earth to fix a problem that has been ignored for over a century. These employees are doing a great job at an incredibly difficult task.”

Other agencies recognized with awards from Government Computing News included the Department of Defense, NASA, the Defense Logistics Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the State Department, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

For Halloween, beyond increasing their presence on the streets during that holiday, law enforcement officers from the Crow Agency, Northern Cheyenne Agency, Wind River Agency and Spokane Agency went into schools to talk with children from kindergarten to sixth grade about safety when trick-or-treating. They distributed Halloween bags filled with candy, pencils, pens, rulers and crayons to each student. The officers at the Crow Agency and Northern Cheyenne Reservation sponsored a Spook House for the children of the community. "This is something new that the BIA Law Enforcement is doing, we haven't had this kind of involvement in the community in the past, we're trying more preventive measures," said Police Sargent Ben Snyder of the Wind River Police Department. "We're trying to get into more community involvement so that the public will view us as their friend, not their enemy," said Snyder. "The activities allows us to get into the community and find out things we normally don't find out." This involvement has led to the citizens in Wind River, Wyo. starting their own community watch program, with the assistance of the Police Department, to eliminate drugs and violence on their reservation.

Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement officers jobs may be dealing with lawbreakers, but their hearts deal with all the citizens of the communities they serve. Better policing doesn't always involve arresting someone, sometimes it means trying to build trust with the citizens of that community. In an effort to build a bridge, the BIA Police in District V, who uphold law and order for tribal nations in Montana, Wyoming and western Washington are already seeing the results of their actions. "Personal satisfaction comes from knowing you are helping someone in your community," said Snyder. "To see a smile on a kids face or an elder person is payback enough."

Because this is the beginning of the holiday season, other plans involve sponsoring bake sales and raffles, with the proceeds going toward providing holiday baskets for the elderly and needy of the community. Officers will be donating their time to go into schools and elders homes to serve holiday meals. BIA law enforcement personnel also are providing rifle safety courses, recording personal belongings for identification in case of theft, and working with tribal courts to update Tribal Codes for traffic safety.

The District V of the BIA Law Enforcement includes Crow Agency, Crow, Mont., Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Lame Deer, Mont., the Wind River Reservation, Wind River, Wyo., and Spokane Agency, Spokane, Wash.

In an effort to close solid waste dumps located on tribal lands and help tribes develop alternative solid waste management options, the National Tribal Solid Waste Interagency Workgroup is seeking proposals from tribes for solid waste projects. The workgroup, representing 8 federal agencies, provides funding for tribes to assist with solid waste management and closing open dumps. There are over 1,100 open dumps on Tribal lands in the United States. The deadline for submitting a pre-proposal is November 19, 1999, with the final proposal due February 25, 2000. "The pre-proposal stage is so that the workgroup can determine if the project is feasible, and assist the tribes to develop final proposals, which will then be considered for funding," said Jerry Gidner, Chief, Division of Environmental and Cultural Resources Management for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A copy of the solicitation letter providing information needed to submit a proposal can be downloaded from the Environmental Protection Agency's Web Site at www.epa/gov/tribalmsw/finance.htm#fy2000. During FY 1999 $1.6 million was awarded to 11 tribes and it is hoped that a similar amount will be available to fund projects in Fiscal Year 2000.

The effort to clean up or close the open dumps is well behind the schedule required to meet the federal government's deadline for compliance. "What to do with these open dumps is one of the biggest environmental issues in Indian country today. Its huge," said Gidner. According to a study by the Indian Health Service, it will take over $120 million dollars to assist the tribes in cleaning up or finding alternative waste disposal sites. "Last year the various federal agencies contributed probably less than $5 million dollars to the effort," Gidner said. "Given the modest amounts of funding that Federal agencies can contribute to this effort, we want to make the money go as far as possible, and avoid duplicating efforts. This workgroup provides a consolidated federal forum to coordinate funding to tribes for solid waste projects."

The National Tribal Solid Waste Interagency Workgroup was established in 1998 after Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt wrote to Carol Browner of the EPA asking for help in developing and implementing a federal plan to help tribes bring their waste disposal sites into compliance with the federal regulations. The interagency workgroup consists of representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service, Department of Agriculture, Federal Aviation Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Agriculture and Defense.

For more information please contact: Melanie Barger Garvey, EPA, 202-564-2579; Steve Aoyama, HIS, 301- 443-1046.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Kevin Gover announced today that he is transferring the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Division of Accounting Management from BIA's regional office in Albuquerque to a new Policy, Management and Budget Office in Washington, D.C. The new office will assist him in more effectively allocating BIA's resources.

The move was recommended by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) in a study of BIA management and administration commissioned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. NAPA urged Gover to elevate BIA's accounting function as part of an expansion of high-level staff support the Assistant Secretary needs to plan, organize, coordinate, control and direct the Bureau's many activities and programs.

Gover said in explaining the decision, Alt is absolutely imperative that we establish a top-notch, top-level accounting function to establish credibility with the executive branch, Congress and the Indian people we serve.

In the latest of a long series of poor annual report cards, the Interior Department's Inspector General faulted the Bureau for failure to obtain a clean audit, to record or account for loan costs properly, to collect debts on time, and to pay bills on time during Fiscal Year 1998. Further, there were material weaknesses in property management accounts, control over automated information management systems, and control over financial integrity reviews.

NAPA noted the complexity of BIA's mission, combined with the extremely limited staff oversight and coordination of line management, as key factors in the steady erosion of BIA's administrative capabilities.

Gover is asking all employees of the Division of Accounting Management to accept equivalent positions in Washington, D.C. AI know it's not easy to pull up stakes here and move to Washington - I went through that three years ago. But that's where I need your help.

Those employees who choose to relocate will be given full relocation benefits, and will be requested to report to the new office by February 13, 2000. Those who do not, will receive assistance in finding alternative employment, either within or outside the federal government. Approximately 65 BIA employees will be affected by the action. BIA employs an additional 320 people in Albuquerque who will not be affected.

Charles Chi bitty of Tulsa Oklahoma, the last surviving member of the Comanche Code Talkers, will receive the Citizen's Award for Exceptional Service from the Department of the Interior in a ceremony that will take place in the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon on November 30, 1999. The. Ceremony is to honor his role as a Comanche Code Talker during World War II where he and his fellow Comanche Indians were instrumental in saving many lives during the Normandy Invasion. Like the Choctaws in World War I and the Navajos in the Pacific Theater, the Comanche Code Talkers used their native language to prevent the enemy from intercepting radio messages involving troop movements being transmitted by Allied forces.

"Indian Country is proud of men like Charles Chi bitty and the other veterans who served in the armed forces during World War II. Like many before and after them, American Indians have contributed significantly to the effort of defending this country's interests during times of war," said Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs. "It is truly a great thing that we honor him and the memory of his fellow Comanche Code Talkers with this distinguished award."

Mr. Chibitty was born near Medicine Park, Oklahoma on November 20, 1921. He attended Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas. Enlisting in the United States Army in 1941, he joined sixteen other Comanches to make up part of the 4th Infantry Division, 4th Signal Corp, known as the Code Talkers. While in the Army, Mr. Chibitty was a champion boxer and was described by military newspapers as packing dynamite in both hands. For his efforts, Corporal Chibitty earned the World War II Victory Medal, the ETO (5 bronze Star) Victory Medal, the European/African/Middle East Campaign Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal.

On November 3, 1989, the French Government awarded Mr. Chibitty the Chepalier de I-ordure National dusMerit Medal which was presented to him by Premier Messmer, Prime Minister of France under President Charles DeGulle. In 1992, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney presented Mr. Chibitty a Certificate of Appreciation to recognize him for his service to the United States of America stating. "In a very real sense, thousands of service members and this country owe their lives to you and your fellow Code Talkers."

Mr. Chibitty has also been honored in the past by the Governor of Oklahoma with a Special Proclamation recognizing his tremendous contribution to the state of Oklahoma and United States. Mr. Chibitty is also known throughout Indian Country for his championship dancing in the fancy, straight and traditional categories and is a 32nd degree Mason, Shriner and a member of the Elks Lodge in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The award ceremony will take place at the Pentagon in the Hall of Heroes, located on the second floor "A" Ring between the sixth and seventh corridors on November 30,1999 starting at 10:00 AM. Coverage of the ceremony is open to the media. Reporters interested in attending should contact Susan Hansen, DOD Public Affairs, at 703-693-6858.

This report provides a portrait of the American Indian and Alaska Native population in the United States and discusses the largest specified tribal groupings, reservations, Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs), and areas outside reservations and ANVSAs (outside tribal areas) at the national level. It is part of the Census 2000 Special Reports series that presents demographic, social, and economic characteristics collected from Census 2000.

In Census 2000, 4.3 million people, or 1.5 percent of the total U.S. population, reported that they were American Indian and Alaska Native. This number included 2.4 million people, or 1 percent, who reported only American Indian and Alaska Native as their race. Table 1 shows the number of people reporting a single detailed tribal grouping and a tally of the number of times the grouping was reported.

Census 2000 reported on six major race categories: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and Some Other Race.3 The term “American Indian or Alaska Native” refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment. It includes people who reported American Indian and Alaska Native or wrote in their principal or enrolled tribe. When the terms “American Indian” and “Alaska Native” are used separately in this report, they refer to two distinct populations.

Continue reading the report from Census.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Acting Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced she has issued a Notice of Proposed Finding whereby she proposes to decline to acknowledge that the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe (petition #81) in Trumbull, Conn., exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. The proposed finding is based on a determination that the petitioner does not satisfy three of seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment under 25 CFR Part 83, the Federal acknowledgment regulations, and therefore does not meet the requirements for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

Since 1823, the evidence shows that the historical Golden Hill Indians ceased to exist as a distinct community, as required by criterion 83.7(b).

Between 1802 and 1973, the evidence does not show an entity with an internal political process, as required by criterion 83.7(c). Since 1973, a few individuals formally organized into a more visible and active political entity. However, there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate significant social interaction within the group, or widespread support for or involvement in political processes.

Thirdly, the petitioner does not meet the standard set by criterion 83.7(e). The petitioner has not shown that its membership consists of individuals who descend from a historical Indian tribe or tribes. There is insufficient evidence to verify that the petitioner's ancestors descended from a historical tribe. Although the petitioner submitted several membership lists, none are sufficient to meet the criterion.

The petitioner has met the other four mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment. The portion of the group claiming descent from the historical Golden Hill has been identified consistently as an American Indian entity from 1900 to the present as required by criterion 83.7(a). In accordance with 83.7(d), it submitted a copy of its governing document and membership criteria. None of the petitioner's members are currently enrolled with any Federally acknowledged tribe [83.7(f)]. The Golden Hill has never been the subject of legislation terminating or forbidding the Federal relationship [83.7(g)].

The proposed finding is based on the available evidence and has been considered under a court-approved negotiated agreement. The agreement only modified the timeframes for issuing the proposed finding. It did not modify the regulatory timeframes following the issuance of the proposed finding or the standards required to demonstrate that the criteria are met.

The Notice of Proposed Finding on the Golden Hill Paugussett will be published in the Federal Register. As provided by 25 CFR 83.10(i), the petitioner or any individual or organization wishing to challenge or support the proposed finding shall have 180 days after the notice's publication date to submit arguments and evidence to rebut or support the proposed finding before any final determination is issued.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Department's trust responsibilities and promoting self-determination on behalf of tribal governments, American

Indians and Alaska Natives. The Assistant Secretary, who oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Federal Acknowledgment Process, is also responsible for providing services to approximately 1.4 million American Indians and Alaska Natives from the 562 federally recognized tribes.

Note to Editors: The abbreviated version of the Mandatory Criteria for Federal Acknowledgment that accompanies this press release may be viewed via the Department's website at www.doi.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Acting Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that she has confirmed Terry Virden, a member of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, as Deputy Commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). "Terry Virden has been a strong advocate for the BIA," said Martin. "I am confident that he will continue to guide the Bureau with a steady hand now and into the future." The Deputy Commissioner is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the nearly 180-year-old federal agency.

Virden, a 25-year veteran of the BIA, had been acting Deputy Commissioner since July 1, 2002 when he was chosen for the post by former Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb. Prior to his appointment, Virden had served as director of the BIA's Office of Trust Responsibilities.

Virden's career with the Bureau began in 1977 as a Reservation Forester on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in Wisconsin. In 1981, he was promoted to Forest Development Officer at the Great Lakes Agency in Ashland, Wisc., where he provided technical assistance to ten tribes in the state. In 1983, he accepted the position of Timber Sales Forester in what was at that time the Bureau's Minneapolis Area Office (now the Midwest Regional Office). From 1990 to 1993, Virden served as the region's Area Forester.

In September 1993, Virden moved to the BIA's Central Office in Washington, D.C., as Assistant Chief Forester. In April 1994, he was selected for the position of Chief Forester for the BIA and served in that capacity until July 1995 when he was named Director of the Office of Trust Responsibilities.

Virden was born and raised in Northern Minnesota. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Forest Management from the University of Minnesota (1977). He is a member of the Minnesota Forestry Association and the Society of American Foresters, Appalachian Chapter.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Department's trust responsibilities and promoting self-determination on behalf of the 562 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency with 10,500 employees nationwide, which is responsible for providing services to approximately 1.4 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes.

Note to Editors: A photo of Terry Virden may be viewed via the Interior Department's web site at www.doi.gov.