OPA

ROCKY BOY, MONTANA – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin traveled from the nation’s capital to the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation this afternoon at the personal invitation of Chippewa-Cree Business Committee chairman Alvin Windy Boy, Sr., for the dedication of a new $4 million campus of the Stone Child College.

Martin oversees a Department of the Interior program that has provided more than $1 million in operational grants to the administration of the tribal college in the current fiscal year. She says post-secondary education programs will be fundamental to the future economic security of Indian country.

“Supporting effective educational opportunities and improved facilities in Indian country remains a top priority for this administration,” Martin said today. “The community at Rocky Boy has put a strong emphasis on post-secondary education, working hard to build a school with a wide-ranging curriculum. I am proud to represent the Department at this important event, which is a milestone for the people of this region.”

The three new buildings to be dedicated on the Stone Child College campus include a 3,500 square foot cultural learning facility, a 13,300 square-foot student services building with community library and a 25,100-square foot academic and administration building. The school served an average of 350 students last year and awards associate degrees in a variety of academic programs.

Since assuming her leadership role for Indian Affairs programs at the Department of the Interior, Martin has provided a renewed emphasis for all educational programs, including the improvement and rehabilitation of facilities at schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

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.

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WASHINGTON – Interior’s new Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, David W. Anderson, pledged to work with tribes for the betterment of Indian people and to put greater emphasis on supporting Bureau of Indian Affairs employees in the field during his public swearing-in ceremony today with Secretary Gale Norton. Accompanied by his sister in full tribal dress who held a bible for his swearing-in, Anderson took the oath of office administered by Secretary Norton in front of over 100 attendees comprised of tribal officials and departmental employees. “I am looking forward to working with tribes and tribal leaders,” Anderson said. “My administration will be in the field serving two customers: BIA employees and the tribes.”

Secretary Norton publicly welcomed Anderson as the newest addition to her staff. “His enthusiasm and great compassion for Indian people will be a big asset to Indian Affairs,” Norton said. Anderson was also joined by officials of the Lac Courte Oreilles Lake Superior Band of Ojibwa in Wisconsin, where he is an enrolled member, and Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, from whom he also shares ancestry. A private swearing-in was held for Anderson on Feb. 2.

David Anderson is a nationally recognized entrepreneur whose background includes that of corporate turnaround specialist, cookbook author, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and, as founder and chairman of Famous Dave’s of America, Inc., one of the nation’s fastest growing chains of family restaurants, a successful restaurateur.

As the ninth Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs to be confirmed since Congress established the position in the late 1970s, Anderson will help the department fulfill its trust responsibilities to individual and tribal trust beneficiaries. He also will promote 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. 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, which administers the Federal Acknowledgment Process; and the BIA school system, which serves almost 50,000 American Indian children in 23 states.

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 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 have maintained their family’s home in Edina, Minnesota.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs will publish the Replacement School Construction Priority List in the Federal Register. The current list, which was last published on July 9 and July 18, 2003, is revised by the addition of newly prioritized schools. The BIA uses the list to determine the order in which Congressional appropriations are requested to replace aging BIA-funded schools and dormitories.

Facilities on the previously published list that funding is requested for in fiscal year 2005 are, in order, as numbers 1 through 5 at the top of the revised list:

1. Bread Springs Day School, Gallup, N.M.
2. Ojo Encino Day School, Cuba, N.M.
3. Chemawa Indian School, Salem, Ore.
4. Beclabito Day School, Shiprock, N.M.
5. Leupp School, Winslow, Ariz.

The Replacement School Construction Priority List includes 14 schools considered in need of replacement of their core academic and/or dormitory facilities. This list of 14 should be more than sufficient to continue the Replacement School Construction Program through fiscal year 2007. Funding and scheduling for these projects is contingent on the budget process.

1. Dilcon Community School, Winslow, Ariz.
2. Porcupine Day School, Porcupine, S.D.
3. Crown Point/T’iists’oozi’bi’olta Community School, Crownpoint, N.M.
4. Muckleshoot Tribal School, Auburn, Wash.
5. Dennehotso Boarding School, Dennehotso, Ariz.
6. Circle of Life Survival School, White Earth, Minn.
7. Keams Canyon Elementary School, Keams Canyon, Ariz.
8. Rough Rock Community School, Chinle, Ariz.
9. Crow Creek Elementary/Middle/High School, Stephen, S.D.
10. Kaibeto Boarding School, Kaibeto, Ariz.
11. Blackfeet Dormitory, Browning, Mont.
12. Beatrice Rafferty School, Perry, Maine
13. Little Singer Community School, Winslow, Ariz.
14. Cove Day School, Red Valley, Ariz.

The process used by the BIA to develop the Replacement School Construction Priority List involved identifying which schools have critical health and safety concerns. The list includes schools which ranked highest in need of replacement according to the following criteria, in order of priority: 1) health and safety deficiencies, 2) environmental deficiencies, 3) accessibility for persons with disabilities and 4) condition of existing utilities and site improvements.

In addition, any school placed on the Replacement School Construction Priority List is eligible for the Tribal School Construction Demonstration Program, which provides incentives to tribes to match federal funds to build replacement schools. Participation in the program would expedite the funding for a school replacement project.

In four years, President Bush has dedicated a total of $1.1 billion for replacement, construction and repair of BIA-funded schools. That four-year total is $370 million more than the total amount provided over the preceding eight years and incorporates the $229.1 million proposed for the program by President Bush earlier this month in his fiscal year 2005 budget request.

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 1.8 million 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, and the BIA school system. The school system serves approximately 50,000 American Indian children in 184 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states. In school year 2002-2003, the BIA directly operated one-third of these schools and the remaining two-thirds were tribally operated under BIA contracts or grants.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced the appointment of Edward F. Parisian as Director of the Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP). Parisian, an enrolled member of the Chippewa-Cree Tribe of Montana, has served as OIEP’s deputy director since April 15, 2002. His new appointment is effective August 3, 2003.

“Ed Parisian is well known in Indian education for his leadership, experience and commitment to quality education,” Martin said. “I am pleased that he has accepted this new assignment to bring accountability and improvement to BIA schools.”

“I want to thank Acting Assistant Secretary Martin for this opportunity,” Parisian said. “I am committed to ensuring that all BIA-funded schools comply with the No Child Left Behind Act in holding schools accountable for their students’ academic performance.”

Parisian, 53, has over 25 years experience in Indian education, previously serving from 1990 to 1992 as BIA’s director of Indian Education Programs. From 1983 to 1990, he served as Superintendent of Schools on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation in Montana where he directed all phases of administration and supervision of a 472-student school system from Headstart through Grade 12. From 1992 to 1995, he served as superintendent of Heart Butte Schools on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana. From 1995 to 2000, Parisian was CEO of the Rocky Boy Health Board where he had previously served as tribal health director and planner in 1980 and 1981. From 2000 to 2002, he was the Education Line Officer for the BIA’s Northern Pueblos Agency in New Mexico.

His teaching experience includes courses in human growth and development at Stone Child College and social studies at Browning (Mont.) Junior High School. He has also evaluated over 30 Indian education programs under Title IV and Title VII for school systems in North and South Dakota, Washington, D.C., Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Mississippi and Utah.

A native of Rocky Boy, Mont., Parisian holds an M.A. in educational administration from the University of South Dakota (1977), and a B.A. in physical education (1974) and an A.A. in liberal arts (1973) from Eastern Montana College. Since 1973, he has been a member of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), an association of American Indian and Alaska Native educators, where he served on the board of directors and from 1988 to 1989, as its president. In 1985, Parisian was named to Who’s Who in the West. In 1982, he was named one of the Outstanding Young Men of America, and Outstanding Indian Administrator by the Montana Indian Education Association. He is married and has two children. Note to Editors: A photo of Ed Parisian may be viewed via the Interior Department’s web site at www.doi.gov.

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WASHINGTON - Secretary Gale A. Norton issued an open letter to the residents of the White Mountains of Arizona today expressing her condolences to the friends and family members of those killed while battling wildfires in the region. Secretary Norton emphasized that the recent tragedies have underscored her determination to ensure that public firefighter safety be an issue of top priority within the Department.

"The recent loss of life and injuries to firefighters here, in Idaho, and in Washington State, underscore my resolve to ensure public firefighter safety remains our number one priority," Secretary Norton said. "The legacy of safe healthy forests is one of the greatest things we can do in memory of those who have perished, those who have suffered, and finally those who have survived the recent tragic events."

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson and Special Trustee for American Indians Ross O. Swimmer testified jointly today before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on the Interior Department’s trust initiatives for the 21st century and the successful implementation of Secretary Gale Norton’s Comprehensive Trust Management Plan. The two officials expressed their belief that the soon-to-be completed reorganization of the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians under the plan will lead to enhanced services for tribal and individual Indian trust beneficiaries.

“We are confident that the goals and objectives of the Comprehensive Trust Management Plan will enable the Department to provide important services to Indian country more efficiently and effectively than in the past,” Anderson and Swimmer said in a prepared statement to the committee. “We are confident that our trust initiatives under the plan will result in a noticeable enhancement to the level of service our organizations currently provide.”

Approximately 4,000 tasks implementing the reorganization have been or soon will be completed. The new organizational structure will increase emphasis on tribal economic development, self-determination and self-governance policies and projects; increase accountability by adding over 100 employees in the field to serve as additional resources for fiduciary trust transactions and increase service delivery by BIA and OST front line staff to provide consolidated beneficiary services.

After launching the effort to develop a comprehensive approach to improving Indian trust management by Secretary Norton in January 2002, the department undertook an assessment of its role as trustee and its management of business lines such as beneficiary services, financial accountability and natural resource management, as well as developing efficient and standard business processes, including best practices, for these business lines.

The first phase of this trust reengineering project – called the “As-Is” phase – documented how trust operations were then being conducted and was completed in February 2003. On March 21, 2003, a report was issued on the “As-Is” phase detailing the following eight core Indian trust processes: probate, title services, beneficiary services, appraisal, surface asset management, subsurface asset management, accounting management and cadastral survey. The second phase of the trust reengineering project, the “To-Be” phase, has taken a fresh look at how trust operations should be conducted. This phase also involves designing new processes and related improvements in support systems, organizations, training and personnel requirements.

The Comprehensive Trust Management Plan is the department’s roadmap for guiding and designing the implementation of its trust reform efforts. One component of the plan is the realignment of trust functions of the OAS-IA, BIA and OST into a coordinated and integrated system within Interior to reduce redundancies and to put greater emphasis on providing services to individual Indian and tribal trust beneficiaries more efficiently and effectively than in the past.

The plan resulted from over 45 consultation meetings department officials held throughout 2002 with tribal leaders and in meetings of the Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform. In June 2003, the department held 15 briefings with BIA regional office employees on the reorganization and in September further consultation meetings were held with tribal leaders on the realignment of BIA regional and agency offices.

Within the Interior Department structure, BIA retains management responsibility for trust assets and resources. To allow BIA regional directors and agency superintendents to focus on service delivery, regional and agency administrative and IT functions have been consolidated under two new deputy assistant secretaries within the office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs who will provide support to the regional and agency offices as needed. Under this structure, BIA managers now can focus exclusively on providing trust services to tribes and individuals while at the same time providing tribal government services such as economic development, social services and environmental protection.

In addition, the Office of Indian Education Programs, which continues to oversee the BIA school system and administer education programs for BIA students, and the Office of Law Enforcement Services also have undertaken realignments of their respective organizational structures. The OIEP realignment took place on Oct. 19, 2003 and the OLES reorganization will be completed by March 31.

OST continues to be responsible for the management of financial assets and certain reform projects while maintaining its statutory oversight responsibilities. The Special Trustee has added regional trust administrators and trust officers in the field to work closely with BIA regional and agency trust services staff. Trust officers will eventually become the line of contact for tribal and individual Indian beneficiaries regarding trust assets ownership, account balances (for individual Indian and tribal trust accounts) and trust transactions. OST is working to fill six regional trust administrator positions and expects to have 45 trust officers on board by the end of fiscal year 2004.

The department foresees tremendous benefits to tribes and employees in several ways. For tribes, such benefits will include: a focus on beneficiary services, the promoting of self governance and self-determination, ensuring trust accountability, allowing trust employees to focus on trust matters, ensuring better use of trust assets, and keeping trust asset decision-making at the agency level. For employees, benefits will include keeping trust asset decision making at the agency level, allowing trust employees to focus on trust matters, standardizing trust business processes, improving management, creating opportunities for professional growth, and instilling personal and organizational accountability.

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 BIA, 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, 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.

The Special Trustee for American Indians is responsible for the oversight and coordination of the department’s efforts to reform its practices relating to the management and discharge of the Secretary’s Indian trust responsibilities.

Note to Editors: Assistant Secretary Anderson and Special Trustee Swimmer’s joint statement 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 August 2003 is “Back to School Month” for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) funded schools. “August is the time of year when BIA school administrators and teachers are hard at work preparing for the coming school year,” Martin said. “These dedicated professionals provide our students with the foundation they need to achieve personal growth and academic success. BIA students are learning what they need today to become Indian Country’s leaders of tomorrow.”

This month Acting Assistant Secretary Martin will visit Baca Community School in Prewitt, N.M., to view its new facility, which is scheduled to open in time for the 2003-2004 school year. In addition, other BIA schools will be holding a variety of activities and events to welcome students and their families back to the classroom.

There are 185 BIA-funded elementary and secondary day and boarding schools serving approximately 48,000 Indian students living on or near 63 reservations in 23 states. 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.

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 federally recognized tribes.

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WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will speak on March 18 at 10:00 a.m. (PST) at the Chemawa Indian School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs operated off-reservation boarding school for grades 9-12 in Salem, Ore., bringing his message about the benefits of healthy life choices and positive thinking to an assembly of students, parents, faculty and staff. This is the second in a series of visits the new assistant secretary will make to BIA field offices and education facilities during his administration. He addressed students and met with school officials at Sherman Indian High School in Riverside, Calif., today.

The Chemawa Indian School is the oldest of four BIA-operated off-reservation boarding schools. The school was founded in 1880 as the Indian Industrial Training and Normal School and eventually renamed Chemawa Indian School in 1885. Chemawa’s 841 students represent dozens of tribes from 17 western states, including Alaska.

The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs oversees the BIA school system, which educates approximately 48,000 American Indian children in 184 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states.

WHO: David W. Anderson, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs

WHAT: Anderson will visit Chemawa Indian School, an off-reservation BIA boarding school in Salem, Ore., to view facilities and meet with students, parents, faculty and school officials.

WHEN: Thursday, March 18, 2004, at 10:00 a.m. (PST) (Q&A with press to immediately follow remarks)

WHERE: Chemawa Indian School Auditorium, 3700 Chemawa Rd. N.E., Salem, Ore., Phone: (503) 399-5721

Directions: From I-5 take Keizer/Chemawa Road exit to Chemawa Road. Go east on Chemawa Road for approximately one-half mile until reaching Chemawa Indian School sign on right. Turn in and proceed to guard station.

Note to Editors: Credentialed media covering the event should be in place by 9:45 a.m. Press seating will be provided. The program will begin at 10:00 a.m.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson, in California for meetings with Bureau of Indian Affairs education line officers in San Diego, brought his message about the benefits of positive thinking and healthy choices in life to an assembly of students, parents, faculty and staff here at Sherman Indian High School, a BIA-operated off-reservation boarding school for grades 9-12. Today’s visit illustrated the new assistant secretary’s desire to visit BIA field offices and education facilities during his administration.

“Sherman students face incredible personal challenges that I, myself, have faced,” Anderson said. “I want to impress upon them what I have learned: that positive thinking and healthy life choices can empower one to build a life based on hope for a better future.”

Sherman Indian High School is one of four off-reservation boarding schools within the bureau school system. The majority of the school’s 643 students, as reported for school year 2003-2004, represent approximately 90 to 100 federally recognized tribes located in great plains, midwest and western states and Alaska with most coming from reservation and urban communities in Arizona, California and New Mexico.

Given the variety of tribes and backgrounds they come from, Sherman students are situated in an environment that respects their tribal cultures and values, meets their health and safety needs and provides them with a well-grounded educational experience.

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 1.8 million members.

The Assistant Secretary also oversees the BIA, the 180-year old agency that provides services to individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes, and the BIA school system. The school system serves approximately 48,000 American Indian children in 184 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states. The BIA directly operates one-third of these schools and the remaining two-thirds are tribally operated under BIA contracts or grants.

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin will join students, parents, and tribal officials on August 28, 2003, to celebrate the opening of Baca/Dlo’ay azhi Community School, a new Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)-operated day school located in Prewitt, N.M.

Baca/Dlo’ay azhi Community School is a K-6 school that will serve approximately 390 day students from the Prewitt and Thoreau communities on the Navajo Nation reservation. The school replaces two existing facilities, Baca Day and Thoreau Boarding Schools, which are on the list of aging BIA schools slated for replacement.

The BIA school system is comprised of 185 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states. In School Year 2001-2002, BIA-funded schools served approximately 48,000 students.

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.

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