OPA

WASHINGTON – The Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform will hold its final meeting on December 16th and 17th at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C. At this meeting, task force members will provide closing comments and review their work over the past 11 months that has been aimed to improve trust management systems and processes to better serve American Indian and Alaska Native tribal and individual trust account beneficiaries.

On December 4th, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb announced a major reorganization plan for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) that was based on organizational concepts developed by the task force over the past year. The task force was established in February of 2002 to review and propose plans for improving the Department’s management of individual Indian and tribal trust assets.

WHO: Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform

WHAT: Final meeting to review past year of activity and reorganization plan to improve Department of the Interior management of individual Indian and tribal trust assets.

WHEN: December 16, 2002 – 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. December 17, 2002 – 8:30 a.m. to Noon (Local time)

WHERE: J.W. Marriott Hotel, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. Ph: 202-393-2000.

WASHINGTON - The House and Senate appropriations committees with funding authority over Department of the Interior (DOl) programs have approved a DOl plan to realign the management organization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST). Input for the reorganization plan was received through the Joint Tribal/DOl Task Force on Trust Reform and a series of consultation meetings the Interior Department held over the past year with tribal leaders. The Department released details of the reorganization plan on December 4.

"I am very encouraged by this strong endorsement from Congress, allowing us to take an historic step in the reform of Indian trust management and improving the delivery of services to the American Indian and Alaska Native community," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said today. "I am particularly encouraged by the bipartisan recognition from both the House and the Senate of the hard work we've undertaken and our strong reliance on the advice that was given to us by tribal leaders over the past year."

Outgoing Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb says the fundamental themes of the reorganization plan were developed over the past year through the extensive work of the Tribal Leaders/DOl Task Force:

"This approval by the Congress is a testament to the sheer volume of work we have undertaken over this past year and our intensive efforts to include tribal leaders in the development of our reorganization plan. Secretary Norton and I are also deeply grateful for the support and guidance we've received from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and its chairman, Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and vice-chairman, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-CO)."

In its December 18 letter to Interior Secretary Norton concurring with the DOl reorganization plan, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies called attention to "the Department's efforts over the past year in formulating this proposal, including more than forty-five meetings with Tribal leaders, extensive internal management reviews, and six appearances before the relevant authorizing committees of Congress." The committee's chairman, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) and the panel's ranking member, Sen. Conrad Bums (D-MT), issued the letter.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies also released a letter to Secretary Norton late yesterday approving the reorganization plan. House subcommittee chairman Rep. Joe Skeen (R-NM) and ranking minority member Rep. Norman Dicks (D-W A) noted the "comprehensive process of informing the Indian community through exhaustive consultations" conducted over the past year by Secretary Norton and Assistant Secretary McCaleb.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On June 27, 2003, the Department of the Interior (DOI) will conclude its month-long schedule of presentations to employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) on the reorganization of both agencies with briefings at the Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Billings, Mont. and the Southern Plains Regional Office in Anadarko, Okla., the last of the BIA’s 12 regional offices to be visited. The Department is seeking to increase accountability and efficiency in its trust management functions by reorganizing the agencies that manage Indian trust funds and assets. The presentations began on June 3 and were held throughout the month at the regional offices and other locations around the country.

Employees will be briefed on the Department’s plan for reorganization of the BIA and OST, and on the Comprehensive Trust Management Plan (CTMP) at morning sessions on Friday. The CTMP describes how the new BIA and OST organizational structures will improve the delivery of trust services when the reorganization is completed. Tribal leaders from each region will also be briefed on the reorganization effort in subsequent sessions.

In 2002, the Department and the Tribes together undertook an ambitious effort to change the way the BIA and OST deliver trust and non-trust services to Tribes, tribal service populations and trust beneficiaries. The Plan is based on agreements reached with the Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force established by Secretary Gale Norton to examine and recommend proposals for improving service delivery to recipients and beneficiaries.

CREDENTIALS: Press registration will be provided. Please bring your sanctioned media credentials and if possible, wear on your shirt collar or around your neck for easy viewing. This will assist our staff. Press seating will be provided.

-DOI-

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that the No Child Left Behind Act Negotiated Rulemaking Committee has set a schedule of four meetings to undertake rulemaking as required under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The Committee, which was established earlier this year, is charged with making recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior for proposed regulations on six sections of the Act that seek to improve accountability and student academic achievement at BIA-funded schools.

“The No Child Left Behind Act Negotiated Rulemaking Committee is a joint partnership between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Tribes to ensure that all BIA-funded schools will meet the Act’s stringent requirements for accountability and improvements in student academic performance,” said Martin. “This is also in keeping with the president’s goal of improving the quality of education in Federally-funded schools, regardless of location, by holding them accountable for their students’ academic success.”

The Negotiated Rulemaking Committee held its first meeting on June 9-13 in Albuquerque, N.M., and established ground rules and schedules for conducting business. Moreover, the Committee organized work groups based on the six sections, which are undertaken in this negotiated rulemaking. A notice announcing the first meeting was published in the Federal Register on May 29. The Department also published a notice on July 1, 2003 on three upcoming meetings, which are scheduled for July 14-18 in Bloomington, Minn.; August 21-24 in Seattle, Wash.; and September 15-19 in Nashville, Tenn. These meetings are open to the public.

The Negotiated Rulemaking Committee must develop final rules to be published by September 1, 2004 in time for the start of the 2004 school year. On January 9, 2002, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (Public Law 107-110), legislation that embodied his vision for reforming public education by holding Federally-funded schools accountable for their students’ academic achievements. The Act brings to BIA-funded schools the four pillars of the president’s education reform plan: accountability and testing, flexibility and local control, funding for what works and expanded parental options for children attending failing schools.

The Act directed the Secretary to conduct consultation meetings followed by negotiated rulemaking for the six sections that deal with issues affecting programs funded by the Department’s Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP). The six sections are: 1) Section 1116(g), defining “Adequate Yearly Progress,” the essential measurement for determining that a school is providing quality education; 2) Section 1124, establishing separate geographic attendance areas for each BIA-funded school; 3) Section 1127, establishing a formula for determining minimum annual funding necessary for each BIA-funded school; 4) Section 1130, establishing a system for the direct funding and support of all BIA-funded schools; 5) Section 1136, establishing guidelines to ensure constitutional and civil rights of Indian students in BIA funded schools; and 6) Section 1043, establishing a method to administer grants under the Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988.

In August and September of 2002, OIEP held a series of regional consultation meetings with parents, teachers, students, school officials and tribal representatives to obtain comments, opinions and ideas on establishing a negotiated rulemaking committee. The Act required that the committee represent a balance of interests that will be significantly affected by the final rules, that it proportionately represent students from tribes served by BIA-funded schools, that it reflect different varieties of schools and that it include individuals with experience and expertise in Indian education.

On December 10, 2002, the BIA published in the Federal Register a Notice of Intent to form a negotiated rulemaking committee and to request nominations for tribal representatives to serve as committee members. On May 5, 2003, the BIA published in the Federal Register a list of proposed committee members comprised of tribal and Federal representatives, school administrators, school board members and other educators.

The public may make comments to the committee during specified times during the committee meetings or submit written comments to the committee through the No Child Left Behind Negotiated Rulemaking Project Management Office, 500 Gold Avenue, S.W., Room 7202, P.O. Box 1430, Albuquerque, N.M., 87103-1430.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Department’s trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries, as well as promoting the self-determination and economic well-being of the nation’s 562 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is responsible for providing education and social services to approximately 1.4 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the nation’s 562 Federally recognized tribes.

The BIA school system is comprised of 185 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on 63 reservations in 23 states and serving approximately 48,000 students. In School Year 2001-2002, the BIA directly operated one-third of its schools with the remaining two-thirds tribally-operated under BIA contracts or grants. The BIA also directly operates two postsecondary institutions of higher learning and provides funding to 25 tribally-controlled colleges and universities. In addition, the BIA offers financial assistance grants to Indian undergraduate and graduate students through, respectively, tribal scholarship programs and the American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC) in Albuquerque, N.M.

Information about the No Child Left Behind Act Negotiated Rulemaking Committee is also available by clicking on “Negotiated Rulemaking” at the Office of Indian Education Programs website www.oiep.bia.edu.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene Martin today announced her final decision to acknowledge that the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, as defined in the Assistant Secretary’s final determination, meets the regulatory requirements for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, as acknowledged, has over 300 members and is located near Kent, Conn., on a reservation established by the Colony of Connecticut in 1737 and confirmed in 1752 – a period of 278 years. The newly acknowledged tribe meets all the mandatory criteria under 25 CFR Part 83, the Federal acknowledgment regulations. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation has demonstrated continuous existence as an Indian tribe and a notice of the decision will be published in the Federal Register.

This decision is issued under a court approved negotiated agreement which supercedes certain provisions of the Federal acknowledgment regulations. Several lawsuits concerning the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation are pending. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation filed two lawsuits under the Non-Intercourse Act. A third lawsuit filed by the United States seeks to condemn certain lands on the Schaghticoke Reservation, under eminent domain, to become part of the Appalachian Trail. All three lawsuits involve the question of whether the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation is an Indian tribe under Federal law.

The State of Connecticut, through the Offices of the Governor and Attorney General, the Connecticut Light & Power Company, Kent School Corporation, the Town of Kent, and the Housatonic Valley Coalition consisting of the City of Danbury and the Towns of Bethel, Brookfield, New Fairfield, Newtown, and Ridgefield, Conn., and others have participated in the administrative process before the Department of the Interior.

The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation evolved from the Weantinock and Potatuck tribes that existed at the time of the first sustained contact of the Indians of northwestern Connecticut with non-Indian settlers. Connecticut appointed an overseer for the group in 1757 and maintained oversight continuously until the present. The Schaghticoke have been identified as an Indian entity since the early 1740’s to the present. The tribe has maintained a community exercising political influence over its members from first sustained contact with non-Indians to the present. Members of the newly acknowledged tribe descend from persons identified by State and Federal records as members of the historical Schaghticoke tribe.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Interior 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 1.8 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the Federally recognized tribes, and the Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA), which is responsible for administering the Federal Acknowledgment Process.

WASHINGTON – President Bush has proposed a $2.3 billion budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for Fiscal Year 2005 that will ensure the continuation of the Interior Department’s Indian trust reorganization and management improvement efforts, maintain the commitment to implementing the No Child Left Behind Act in BIA-funded schools, continue school replacement construction projects, and support law enforcement. The request also includes payments for Indian water and land claims settlements.

“The President has proposed a budget that will ensure trust management continues to improve, that Indian students will learn in safe and healthy schools, and that law enforcement services will improve for tribal communities,” said David W. Anderson, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs.

The Fiscal Year 2005 budget request provides $291.8 million, an increase of $47.4 million over the Fiscal Year 2004 enacted level, to continue the Department’s effort to reform and improve its management of trust resources and assets of the Federally recognized tribes and individual Indians. The request includes $29.1 million to continue the modernization of the BIA’s information technology systems and security to support trust and non-trust programs.

Increases to support ongoing reform and reorganization of Indian trust programs include $4.0 million to quicken the pace at which current probate cases are resolved and $5.5 million for additional trust management and oversight positions at the local level. Other 2005 requests which will enhance trust management are a $2.0 million increase for training to develop a workforce geared toward the unique execution of trust operations across the nation and $1.1 million to establish a permanent Office of Tribal Consultation which will promote greater Federal consultation with tribes on issues effecting trust reform.

The Indian Land Consolidation Program will expand into a nationwide effort to reduce the fractionation of individual Indian land ownership interests in 2004. The budget for the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) includes an unprecedented $75 million for the program, reflecting a $53.3 million increase in funding. The BIA will receive those funds for the ongoing effort to acquire small, fractionated ownership shares in allotted Indian lands from willing sellers. The BIA has implemented the land consolidation effort as a pilot program in four states on seven reservations. As of December 31, 2003, program funds purchased 68,938 individual interests representing 42,075 acres.

As part of the President’s Healthy Forests Initiative, the Fiscal Year 2005 budget request for BIA also includes a program increase of $1.0 million to improve the management of Indian forests. The request will increase the number of reservations covered by forest management plans. Such plans optimize benefits and address use conflicts on reservations, as well as improve the utilization of trust resources. This request also will complement fuels treatment efforts by DOI’s wildland fire program.

In January 2002, the President signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The Fiscal Year 2005 budget request seeks $522.4 million for elementary and secondary school operations to maintain the President’s commitment to improving student achievement in BIA schools. It also includes an increase of $500,000 to expand FOCUS to five new sites. FOCUS is a program that provides targeted assistance to schools to raise their level of instruction and improve student learning.

The budget request also includes $229.1 million for school replacement construction and repair, including $68.5 million to replace the five remaining schools and dormitories on the education facilities construction priority-ranking list. They are the Bread Springs Day School, Gallup, N.M.; Ojo Encino Day School, Cuba, N.M.; Beclabito Day School, Shiprock, N.M.; Leupp Boarding School, Winslow, Ariz.; and Chemawa Indian School, Salem, Ore. The school construction budget also includes $9.9 million, an increase of $4.0 million over Fiscal Year 2004, for the Tribal School Construction Demonstration Program, which provides incentives to tribes to match Federal funds to build replacement schools.

Together with funding provided in previous appropriations, the 2005 budget will significantly improve the condition of BIA schools, which serve almost 48,000 Indian students living in 23 states. In School Year 2002-2003, the BIA directly operated one-third of its schools and the remaining two-thirds were tribally-operated under BIA contracts or grants.

For post-secondary education, the Fiscal Year 2005 budget request seeks $43.4 million, and supports two existing tribally-controlled colleges that have recently met statutory requirements for BIA support: the Tohono O’odham Community College in Arizona and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College in Michigan. The budget request also includes $250,000 for a student loan repayment program, a pilot project specifically targeted to college graduates who agree to a term of employment with the BIA. This program will add to the Bureau’s ability to recruit new employees.

Furthermore, funding is requested to continue support for the BIA’s Law Enforcement Program to improve public safety and justice in Indian Country. The Fiscal Year 2005 budget request seeks $1.4 million for BIA operations at the Tohono O’odham Nation’s reservation border in Arizona, and an increase of $7.8 million for the operation of eight new detention centers to meet current detention standards and alleviate conditions such as severe overcrowding and the mixing of juvenile and adult detainees. The Department’s $29.1 million IT increase includes $1.5 million for the BIA share of an Incident Management and Analysis Reporting System to be used by all Interior Department law enforcement programs.

The Fiscal Year 2005 budget request also seeks $34.8 million to meet Federal requirements for authorized settlements resolving tribal land and water claims. The request includes funding for two new settlements: $14.0 million for Zuni Pueblo water claims in N.M. and $1.75 million for Seneca Nation land claims at Cuba Lake in New York. The request also includes the second $10.0 million payment for the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw settlement in Oklahoma, and $8.0 million for the Colorado Ute/Animas La Plata settlement. The budget reflects a net decrease of $25.4 million from the Fiscal Year 2004 funding level due primarily to the completion of the Santo Domingo and Ute Indian settlements in 2004.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Department’s trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries, as well as promoting tribal self-determination, education and economic development for the nation’s 562 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their members. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which is responsible for providing services to approximately 1.8 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the Federally recognized tribes.

WASHINGTON – David W. Anderson, an enrolled member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Lake Superior Band of Ojibwa in Wisconsin, who also shares ancestry from the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, and President Bush’s nominee for Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, was sworn in today by Interior Secretary Gale Norton. “I am deeply honored by the confidence that President Bush and Secretary Norton have shown me through this appointment,” Anderson said. “I am fully prepared to meet this new challenge.” His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 9, 2003.

“I am pleased to have Dave Anderson as part of my management team,” Secretary Norton said. “He is an experienced leader whose extensive management skills and insights on Indian issues will further our efforts to improve the lives of Indian people, and provide quality customer service to Indian tribes and beneficiaries.”

Anderson is a nationally recognized entrepreneur whose background includes that of corporate turnaround specialist, cookbook author, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and, as an original investor in the Rainforest Café and founder and chairman of Famous Dave’s of America, Inc., one of the nation’s fastest growing chains of family restaurants, a successful restaurateur. Anderson is the ninth Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs to be confirmed since Congress established the position in the late 1970s. In addition to helping the Department fulfill its trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries, the Assistant Secretary is responsible for promoting the self-determination and economic well-being of the nation’s 562 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their 1.8 million members.

During the course of his business career, Anderson helped found three publicly traded companies, creating over 18,000 new jobs, and reorganized several failing businesses in Indian Country that turned them into financially successful operations. For example, as chief executive officer for Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa tribal enterprises in 1982, Anderson created a management team that successfully rebuilt reservation businesses into profitable and stable operations. Under his leadership, their gross revenues increased from $3.9 million to $8.0 million – an achievement recognized by President Reagan’s Presidential Commission on Indian Reservation Economies.

As a philanthropist, Anderson is known for his dedication to the American Indian community after having donated more than $6 million to Indian advancement programs and having established a national organization to help young Indian people.

In 1999, the Anderson Family itself provided $1.4 million to establish the YouthSkills Foundation, an organization that helps disadvantaged American Indian children. The foundation is supported by proceeds from Anderson’s award-winning BBQ cookbook, “Famous Dave’s Backroads & Sidestreets” (1999) and his most recent book, “LifeSkills for Success” (2004).

In 2001, Anderson founded the LifeSkills Center for Leadership, an organization offering life-changing programs for at-risk Indian youth and young adults. The center made such an impression on television personality Oprah Winfrey that her Angel Network supported its work with a $25,000 grant the next year.

Anderson also has served on numerous national and state commissions, including the Presidential Advisory Council for Tribal Colleges and Universities (2001), the National Task Force on Reservation Gambling (1983), the Council on Minority Business Development for the State of Wisconsin (1983) and the Wisconsin Council on Tourism (1983), as well as Harvard University’s Native American Program Advisory Council. In 2003, he was appointed by Interior Secretary Gale Norton to the American Indian Education Foundation, a non-profit organization established by Congress to accept contributions from private citizens and groups to support the education of Indian students at Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools.

Anderson has used his business and life experiences to help others through public speaking, and by sharing his optimism and inspiration with youth groups and community organizations. He has received numerous honors for his efforts including being named a Bush Leadership Fellow (1985); recognition as Minnesota and Dakota’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year by the Wall Street firm Ernst & Young, NASDAQ and USA Today (1997); designated Restaurateur of the Year by Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine (1998) and being chosen by his community as an Olympic Torch carrier for the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Anderson received a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1986. He and his wife maintain their family home in Edina, Minnesota.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Department’s trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries, as well as promoting tribal self-determination, self-governance and economic development for the nation’s 562 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their members. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the 179-year old agency that provides services to individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the Federally recognized tribes; the Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA), which administers the Federal Acknowledgment Process; and the BIA school system, which serves almost 50,000 American Indian children located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states.

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that an employee at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was named as a finalist for the 2003 Service to America Medals, a national awards program to honor the groundbreaking achievements of federal employees. Special Agent John Oliveria, a Law Enforcement Agent at BIA, is one of 28 national finalists for the awards due to his work in developing initiatives to fight child abuse and sexual assault cases in American Indian communities while in federal service.

“I want to commend Special Agent John Oliveria for being named a finalist for the 2003 Service to America Medals,” said Assistant Secretary Martin. “He is a dedicated public servant and outstanding BIA employee committed to aiding American Indian victims of child abuse throughout Indian Country.”

Special Agent Oliveria is a finalist for the Justice Medal, which recognizes a federal employee who has made a significant contribution to the nation in activities related to law enforcement, criminal justice, and civil rights.

“It is all too easy to overlook the important and daily contributions of the men and women in our federal workforce, but they are the heroes behind the headlines who make our nation work,” said Partnership for Public Service President and CEO Max Stier. “Now more than ever, our country needs dedicated, effective federal employees and Special Agent Oliveria has nobly answered this call to serve.”

The nine Service to America Medals awardees will be announced at a dinner and awards ceremony at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., on October 15, 2003. Awardees will be selected by a panel of national leaders.

The Service to America Medals were created in 2002 by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to recruiting and retaining excellence in the federal civil service, and the Atlantic Media Company, publisher of The Atlantic Monthly, National Journal and Government Executive magazines. For more information about the Service to America Medals and the Partnership for Public Service, visit www.govexec.com/pps.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Department’s trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries, as well as promoting the self-determination and economic well-being of the nation’s 562 Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is responsible for providing education, law enforcement and social services to approximately 1.4 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the Federally recognized tribes.

(SACATON, ARIZ.) – On a visit to the Gila River Indian Reservation in south-central Arizona, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, joined by Gila River Governor Richard Narcia, today announced that the Gila River Indian Community has been designated as an expansion site of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Indian Land Consolidation Program.

The Secretary announced on Monday that President Bush is included an unprecedented $75 million in the FY 2005 federal budget for the Department of the Interior’s historic Indian Land Consolidation program. The budget reflects a $53.3 million increase in funding for the Department’s ongoing efforts to acquire small, fractionated ownership shares in allotted Indian lands from willing sellers. The Gila River Indian Community has one of the highest numbers of fractionated parcels in the nation.

“One of the greatest challenges managing trust responsibilities is the fractionation of individual Indian interests on land that the federal government holds in trust,” Secretary Norton said. “Without corrective action, millions of acres of land will be owned by such small ownership interests that no individual owner will derive any meaningful value. President Bush has responded to the challenge by proposing to invest an historic amount – $75 million – to expand the Indian Land Consolidation Program.”

The Indian Land Consolidation Program is a key component in the Department’s trust reform and management efforts. Once interests are purchased, title can then be transferred to the tribe. Purchase of fractional interests increases the likelihood of more productive economic use of the land, reduces record-keeping and large numbers of small dollar financial transactions and decreases the number of interests subject to probate. It also reduces the federal burden of managing those interests where, in many cases, the cost to account for and probate highly fractionated tracts far exceeds either the owners’ receipts or the value of the underlying property.

“By working with the Gila River Indian Community to reduce the number of tracts held in fractionated ownership, economic development can be expanded for housing developments and better long-term planning,” Secretary Norton said. “Our program will help reduce the burden on the federal government and, more importantly, help create new opportunities for the Gila River Indian Community.”

The BIA began the Indian Land Consolidation Program as a pilot program on three reservations in 1999. It was later expanded to seven reservations in four states. As of December 31, 2003, program funds purchased 68,938 individual interests representing 42,075 acres.

SELLS, Ariz. – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that President Bush has requested $1.4 million for Fiscal Year 2005 to support border security efforts of the Tohono O’odham Nation, whose reservation in southern Arizona shares a 75-mile border with Mexico. The President’s request will help the tribe address law enforcement border issues on the Tohono O’Odham Nation reservation as part of the administration’s efforts to improve homeland security in Indian Country. Martin made the announcement during a tour of the reservation to see first-hand the problems faced by the tribe in protecting its portion of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The needs of the Tohono O’odham Nation are significant and supported by a substantial investment,” Martin said. “Today’s tour has shown me the magnitude of this problem and justifies our request for funds.”

For years Tohono O’odham tribal members have struggled with the costs associated with trying to curtail the increasing levels of illegal immigration and drug trafficking through their reservation. Such costs include devoting limited tribal resources on border enforcement and to combating robberies against tribal members, as well as providing health care and autopsy services to illegal immigrants and dealing with increased environmental pollution from the litter and waste left behind. Approximately 1,500 illegal immigrants cross the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation daily.

In 2002, there were 71,700 reported incidents of illegal immigrant apprehension and contacts in Indian Country with most of those reported by the Tohono O’odham Nation. That year, Tohono O’odham Nation police seized 65,000 pounds of illegal narcotics. In 2003, over 100,000 pounds were confiscated by tribal law enforcement.

The tribe currently has 69 commissioned officers serving the 2.8 million-acre reservation, which has become the route of choice in Arizona for thousands of drug and immigrant smugglers seeking easy entry into the United States. The President’s request will fund additional tribal police officers, and related costs, to concentrate on border criminal activities and assist federal, state and local authorities in coordinating efforts to resolve cross-jurisdictional issues on the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation.