OPA

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has received $2.1 billion in funding for FY2001, a 15% increase over FY2000, the largest increase in several years. The BIA administers programs for and provides services to federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and individuals. BIA programs receiving significant increases include new school construction, trust fund management and law enforcement.

Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover expressed his appreciation to the President, Congress, tribes and Indian organizations for supporting BIA programs critical to Indian and Alaska Native people. "The BIA is now in a position to begin addressing long-standing problems of concern to Indian people, thanks to the support of President Clinton, Secretary Babbitt, Congress, and tribes and Indian organizations across the country. I also want to acknowledge the hard-working BIA employees who do their jobs despite limited budgets with grace and dedication."

The BIA School Construction program got its largest funding increase ever to $293 million, up 120% from the FY2000 level of $133.3 million. Most of the BIA's 185 schools, which serve over 50,000 Indian elementary and secondary students, need major repairs and new construction, at an estimated cost of over $2.4 billion dollars. "With this funding we can start to address the concerns of parents, teachers and tribal leaders over the condition of BIA-funded schools, and the welfare of their students," said Gover. "However, funding must remain significant if we are to meet the trust responsibility for education and complete the task of rebuilding our schools. Indian children deserve no less than healthy and safe learning environments."

Schools slated for replacement include Tuba City Boarding School and Second Mesa Day Schools in Arizona: Zia Day School, Baca Consolidated Community School and Wingate Elementary School in New Mexico; and Lummi Day School in Washington State. In addition, funding was increased from $67.8 million in FY2000 to $148.3 million in FY2001 to address a major backlog in BIA school maintenance and repair projects. Furthermore, the nation's 31 tribal colleges will receive $38.2 million in FY 2001, an 8% increase over their FY2000 enacted level of $35.3 million.

The BIA also received $104.5 million for trust management, a 44% increase over its FY2000 enacted level of $72.5 million. "These funds will allow the work on fixing the trust fund management system to continue," Gover said.

The BIA's law enforcement program was funded at $152.9 million, an 8% increase over its FY2000 enacted level of $141.1 million. These additional funds will be used to improve law. enforcement and public safety in Indian Country, including strengthening core law enforcement functions such as uniformed police, communications, basic detention services and detention officers. "With funds we will continue to strengthen law enforcement capabilities in tribal communities throughout Indian Country. Our law-abiding citizens and men and women in uniform need to know that we are taking seriously their concerns about public safety. Our message is clear: Crime will not be tolerated in Indian Country," said Gover.

The BIA' s budgets were severely limited during the period that the Administration and Congress sought to balance the federal budget. Having reached that goal, the Congressional Budget Office is now projecting budget surpluses over the next several years. "We are grateful for the increase in the BIA budget for FY2001 and hope for continued support to fulfill the Nation's trust responsibility to American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes in the new century," said Gover.

More information on the FY2001 budget can be found on the BIA's website at www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html or by calling the Office of Public Affairs at 202-208- 3710.

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton today praised President Bush’s intention to nominate Neal A. McCaleb to serve as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. The announcement is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate, once the official nomination is made by the President.

“Neal McCaleb will bring a unique blend of skills, experience and background that will serve him well as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs,” said Secretary Norton. “His compassion for Indian issues, decisive management skills and ability to facilitate dialogue will help to improve this program and the relationship of the Department with Indian tribes around the country.”

Mr. McCaleb, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, served as Oklahoma’s first Secretary of Transportation in Governor Bellmon’s Administration from 1987 to 1991, and recently in Governor Keating’s Administration from 1995-2001, where he is responsible for overseeing the construction and maintenance of the state’s transportation systems, and the state assisted general airports program. He is the first in the history of the state government to serve concurrently as Director of both the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (1987-95) and the Oklahoma Transportation Authority in addition to serving as Cabinet Secretary.

In 1999, then Secretary McCaleb negotiated the reinstatement of passenger rail service to Oklahoma with Amtrak after a 20-year absence. Prior to that he was a practicing engineer with more than 40 years experience in designing and supervising the construction of roads, bridges, public facilities, and architectural structures in Oklahoma and throughout the Southwest.

Mr. McCaleb also served eight years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and was elected Minority Floor Leader in 1978. He is a native of Oklahoma City, OK. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Oklahoma State University. He and his wife Georgann have four grown children.

The Assistant Secretary for 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 is also responsible for providing services to approximately 1.4 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who are members of the 561 federally recognized tribes.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Department of the Interior Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs James H. McDivitt will give the keynote address next week at an event commemorating federal law enforcement officers who have given their lives while on duty in Indian Country. The Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial will be held May 3, 2001 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in conjunction with the U.S. Department of the Treasury Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and the International Association of Chiefs of Police Indian Country Section at the BIA Indian Police Academy in Artesia, N.M.

This year, the name of Officer Kelmar One Feather of the Oglala Lakota Nation Department of Public Safety, White Clay District, Pine Ridge, S.D., will be added to the names of 77 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty since 1852 which are inscribed on three granite rocks that comprise the Memorial. Officer One Feather died on July 1, 2000 as a result of injuries he sustained in a driving accident while transporting prisoners to an adult detention facility in Pine Ridge, S.D.

The Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial was formally dedicated on May 7, 1992 at the Indian Police Academy in Marana, Ariz., and was re-dedicated on May 6, 1993 when the Academy moved to its present location. Representatives from Federal law enforcement offices, national law enforcement organizations, Tribal police departments, city officials and Officer One Feather’s family will be in attendance.

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WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Gale Norton today lauded the U.S. Senate’s action late Friday confirming Neal A. McCaleb as Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs. “I want to thank the Senate for expeditiously approving Neal McCaleb’s confirmation, “ she said, “As an important member of my team, Neal’s solid leadership, management skills and experience will serve well the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Country and our Nation.”

McCaleb will replace James H. McDivitt, who has served as the acting Assistant Secretary since January. “With his steady hand on the tiller, Jim McDivitt has done a great job of guiding the Bureau during this transition,” said Secretary Norton, “His dedication and professionalism ensured the agency continued to operate smoothly, for which I am grateful.”

Following McCaleb’s swearing-in, McDivitt will resume his former position as Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs for Management. “I want to thank Secretary Norton for her support during the past few months,” said McDivitt, “I’m also looking forward to working with Assistant Secretary McCaleb on his goals for improving the BIA’s education, economic development, and public safety programs, as well as continuing to move forward on trust reform.”

McCaleb, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, served as Oklahoma’s first Secretary of Transportation in Governor Bellmon’s Administration from 1987 to 1991, and recently in Governor Keating’s Administration from 1995 to 2001, where he was responsible for overseeing the construction and maintenance of the state’s transportation systems, and the state-assisted general airports program. In 1999, then-Secretary McCaleb negotiated the reinstatement of passenger rail service to Oklahoma with Amtrak after a 20-year absence.

McCaleb was the first in the history of the state government to serve concurrently as Director of both the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (1987 to 1995) and the Oklahoma Transportation Authority in addition to serving as Cabinet Secretary. He also served eight years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and was elected Minority Floor Leader in 1978. McCaleb has been a practicing engineer with more than 40 years experience in designing and supervising the construction of roads, bridges, public facilities and architectural structures in Oklahoma and throughout the Southwest. He is a native of Oklahoma City, OK. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Oklahoma State University. He and his wife Georgann have four grown children. 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 is also responsible for providing services to approximately 1.4 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who are members of the 558 federally recognized tribes.

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On Monday, December 18, 2000, at 11:00 a.m. (EST), Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Kevin Gover will formally open the Ely S. Parker Building, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) new facility in Reston, Virginia, with the unveiling of a plaque naming the building for the first American Indian to serve as Commissioner for Indian Affairs. The facility will house the BIA’s Office of Management and Administration and Office of Information Technology, and the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Business Center (NBC).

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Business Center are pleased to have the opportunity to recognize Commissioner Ely S. Parker, a man of great talent and intellect who strived against bigotry and racism to serve his people and his country," said Assistant Secretary Gover, "I consider it a tremendous honor that the Tonawanda Seneca Nation and the Department of the Interior have supported our efforts to remember Do-Ne-Ho-Geh-Weh, Ely S. Parker - in this way."

Ely Samuel Parker (1828-95), a citizen of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, was born into the Wolf Clan on the Tonawanda Reservation in New York State. Parker, who was made the sachem for his tribe in 1852 and given the title Do-Ne-Ho-Geh-Weh, or "Keeper of the Western Door of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy)," was a remarkable person for his era. In a time when American Indians could not become U.S. citizens and were rarely seen in the professions, Parker represented his nation in treaty matters before the federal government and earned degrees in law and engineering.

While his lack of American citizenship prevented him from practicing law, Ely Parker’s engineering degree led to a career supervising public works projects in Galena, Illinois, in the late 1850s. It was there that he met and formed a personal friendship with the future general and president, Ulysses S. Grant. When Grant became commander of the Union Army during the Civil War, he chose Ely Parker as his military secretary, and it was Parker who recorded the terms of surrender that ended the war at Appomattox Court House in Virginia on April 9, 1865. After his election as president, Grant appointed Ely Parker as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in April 1869, where he served until August 1871.

Assistant Secretary Gover will give welcoming remarks and the keynote address. Guest speakers will be Lisa Guide, Acting Assistant Secretary-Policy, Management and Budget, U.S. Department of the Interior; Sharon Blackwell, Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Deborah Maddox, Director, Office of Management and Administration, Bureau of Indian Affairs; and Tim Vigotsky, Director, National Business Center.

Special guest speakers will be Norman Hill ("Taa-Wonyas"), Wolf Clan Runner, Tonawanda Seneca Nation, who will give the Nation’s "opening words" in the Seneca language; Evelyn Jonathan ("Einjhonesh"), Wolf Clan Mother, Tonawanda Seneca Nation, who will interpret for Mr. Hill and will give the Nation’s official greeting; and Bernadette Hill ("Go-Seni-Sas"), Heron Clan Mother, Cayuga Nation.

WHO: Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Business Center, USDOI

WHAT: Grand opening ceremony for the BIA-NBC Ely S. Parker Building.

WHEN: Monday, December 18, 2000, at 11:00 a.m. (EST).

WHERE: 2051 Mercator Drive, Reston, VA (Directions from the Main Interior Building are attached).

Credentials: Please bring your sanctioned media credentials and, if possible, wear on your shirt collar or around your neck for easy viewing. Media are advised to be in place by 10:30 a.m. on December 18. Press seating will be provided.

Tours of the facility will be offered after the ceremony.

Also on Monday, the Department of the Interior Museum will be showing the video "Warrior in Two Worlds," the life of Ely S. Parker, produced by WXXI Public Broadcasting Council in collaboration with the Rochester Museum & Science Center. Viewing times for the 56-minute film are 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. in the Interior Department Museum, which can be reached via the Department’s south entrance at 1849 C Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C. For more information, call Anne James, Assistant Curator, at 202-208-4659.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Neal A. McCaleb, a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and President Bush’s nominee for Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, was sworn into office July 4, 2001, on the occasion of America’s 225th birthday. “I’m ready, willing and enthusiastic about starting in my new role,” McCaleb said. Interior Secretary Gale Norton administered the oath of office at the Interior Department building in Washington, D.C., where McCaleb was surrounded by well-wishers including Chickasaw Nation Ambassador Charles Blackwell, who held the bible for the ceremony. The Senate had confirmed McCaleb’s nomination on June 29.

“I was gratified and privileged today to be able to swear in Neal McCaleb as my Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs,” said Secretary Norton. “I know he will do an outstanding job. I commend the Senate for confirming this important member of my leadership team, and I look forward to many more swearing-in ceremonies in the days and weeks ahead.”

The event in Washington was an administrative swearing-in; an official public ceremony will take place in the coming weeks.

Following the ceremony, McCaleb announced his intent to focus on three immediate goals: to meet with tribal leaders on a one-to-one basis and, to the greatest extent possible, on their turf; to become involved with congressional activities that relate to American Indian and Alaska Native interests; and to rapidly develop a working knowledge of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the 176- year-old federal agency he will oversee, and its people and operations in order to be useful and responsive to the needs of the agency’s customers. “The BIA, in all of its functions, is to be a service organization to the American Indian and Alaska Native people,” McCaleb said. “In my view, I expect it to be an ‘Indian Service.’”

Until his nomination by President Bush, McCaleb served as Oklahoma’s first Secretary of Transportation in Governor Bellmon’s Administration from 1987 to 1991, and recently in Governor Keating’s Administration from 1995 to 2001, where he was responsible for overseeing the construction and maintenance of the state’s transportation systems and the state-assisted general airports program. In 1999, then-Secretary McCaleb negotiated the reinstatement of passenger rail service to Oklahoma with Amtrak after a 20-year absence. He was also the first in the history of the state government to serve concurrently as Director of both the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (1987 to 1995) and the Oklahoma Transportation Authority, as well as serving as Cabinet Secretary. He served eight years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and was elected Minority Floor Leader in 1978.

A native of Oklahoma City, Okla., McCaleb has been a practicing engineer with more than 40 years’ experience in designing and supervising the construction of roads, bridges, public facilities and architectural structures in Oklahoma and throughout the Southwest. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Oklahoma State University. He and his wife Georgann have four grown children.

McCaleb is the eighth Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs to be sworn in since Congress established the position in the late 1970s. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency with almost 10,000 employees nationwide, provides services to, carries out its federal trust responsibilities for, and promotes the self-determination of the 558 federally recognized Tribal governments and approximately 1.4 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb will appear on C-SPAN’s live nationwide public affairs call-in program “Washington Journal” on Sunday, July 15, 2001, at 9:15 a.m. (EDT). He will be speaking on contemporary American Indian issues, tribal economic development, education and his goal of shaping the Bureau of Indian Affairs into a 21st century service agency responsive to the agency’s customers: federally recognized tribes and American Indians and Alaska Natives.

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.

“I am no longer home alone as was dubbed recently by the Washington press core,” said Norton. “These highly qualified and extraordinarily talented professionals represent the beginning of an outstanding team at the Department of the Interior. They all believe in communicating with people of good faith and cooperating and collaborating in the service of conservation. This leadership team will listen to local concerns and make responsible decisions that are committed to the wise stewardship of our precious lands for the sake of our children and for future generations of Americans.”

Note to Editors: Credentialed media covering the event should enter the Interior Department through the C Street entrance.

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