OPA

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will address the delegates to the United National Indian Tribal Youth, Inc. (UNITY) 2004 National Conference being held June 25-29 at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort on the Gila River Indian Reservation near Phoenix, Ariz. Anderson will speak just after 2:00 p.m. (local time) on the afternoon of June 25 following the conference’s official opening ceremonies.

UNITY is a national non-profit organization that promotes personal development, citizenship and leadership among American Indian and Alaska Native youth through a network of over 200 Youth councils representing over 45,000 young people from tribes across the United States.

The National UNITY Conference is one of the largest annual gatherings in the country of Native American youth ages 15 to 24. The event provides attendees with leadership, problem-solving and public speaking skills through hands-on experience as facilitators, team leaders, hosts and other conference roles. The UNITY conference also provides an opportunity for colleges and universities to reach out to this important segment of the American Indian and Alaska Native population.

WHO: David W. Anderson, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior

WHAT: Anderson will address the 2004 National UNITY Conference.

WHEN: Friday, June 25, 2004 starting at 2:00 p.m. (local time)

WHERE: Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort, Gila River Indian Community, Sacaton, Ariz.

Note to Editors: Credentialed media covering the event should be in place by 1:45 p.m. Press seating will be provided. The program will begin at 2:00 p.m.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will be joined on July 8 by representatives of the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico and other departmental officials at a signing ceremony at the Interior Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to formalize the Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Agreement. The agreement, which Congress ratified and confirmed on June 23, 2003, resolves an Arizona state general stream adjudication over water rights in the Little Colorado River Basin that has been ongoing since 1979.

Since time immemorial, the Zuni people have used an area at the confluence of the Zuni and Little Colorado Rivers in northeastern Arizona for sustenance and religious purposes. Tribal religious leaders made regular pilgrimages from their homelands in New Mexico to the area to worship at the Sacred Lake located there and at surrounding springs, wetlands and riparian areas – sites at the core of Zuni religious beliefs, but threatened by significant deterioration as a result of development close by. In 1984, Congress established the Zuni Heaven Reservation to protect these sacred lands.

When signed, the agreement will resolve all of the Zuni Tribe’s water rights claims in a way that satisfies the Tribe’s needs without harming other water users, brings environmental restoration to the Zuni Heaven Reservation and provides $19.2 million to be used by the Tribe for riparian and wetlands restoration activities, including acquiring necessary state-based water rights from willing sellers.

WHO: Gale Norton, Secretary, Department of the Interior David W. Anderson, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior Representatives of the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico

WHAT: Norton and Anderson will participate in the signing ceremony for the Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Agreement.

WHEN: Thursday, July 8, 2004, at 3:00 p.m. (EDT)

WHERE: Main Interior Building, South Penthouse, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

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.

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Dave Anderson today formally signed an agreement with leaders of the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico that will resolve the tribe’s water rights claims in the Little Colorado River Basin of Arizona without harming other water users.

“This agreement creates a productive partnership among the Zuni Tribe, other water users in the basin, the State of Arizona, and the Federal Government to begin restoring the Zuni Heaven Reservation in Arizona,” Secretary Norton said in signing the settlement. “This collaboration will work to conserve the land and water resources they all share.”

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, who sponsored Congressional legislation that provided a framework to resolve these Zuni water rights issues and spoke at the ceremony, called the settlement a “fair and final solution that protects access to water for rural Arizonans while respecting the religious beliefs of the Zuni Tribe.”

Assistant Secretary Anderson congratulated the Tribe for its accomplishment saying, “The Tribe’s commitment to the process of working with the Interior Department, Congress, the State of Arizona and local water users to resolve their claims has resulted in the preservation of a site sacred to the Zuni people.”

Wilford Eriacho, chairman of the Zuni Tribe’s Water Rights Negotiating Team, said the settlement assures the Zuni people that the wetlands of the Zuni Heaven Reservation will be restored as close as possible to their original condition. “It will help us to preserve our religious traditions by ensuring that the Zuni will continue to make pilgrimage to the lands our ancestors call home.”

Also attending the ceremony were Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico, Lt. Gov. Carmelita Sanchez of Zuni Pueblo, Zuni Councilman Eduard Wemytewa, and Joan Sandy of the Zuni Tribe.

The Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Agreement, which Congress ratified and confirmed on June 23, 2003, resolves claims associated with the Zuni Heaven Reservation in the Little Colorado River Basin of northeastern Arizona. The agreement would not affect any claims or water rights for the Zuni Tribe’s homeland reservation in New Mexico.

The Tribe will be entitled to purchase annually up to 3,600 acre-feet of surface water rights in addition to existing surface water rights on the Zuni Heaven Reservation. The settlement also recognizes the right of the Zuni Tribe to annually withdraw or use up to 1,500 acre-feet of ground water from wells on specified Zuni lands.

The settlement provides $19.2 million from a Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Development Fund to be used by the Tribe for riparian and wetlands restoration activities. These include acquiring necessary state-based water rights from willing sellers.

The United States Government will contribute the bulk of the funds. The State of Arizona will contribute $1.6 million to the tribe’s restoration activities and will make additional settlement contributions. The Salt River Project will contribute $1 million to be used for restoration activities.

The settlement requires the Federal Government to take into trust parcels of land, subject to existing easements and rights of way. The tribe and the United States waive all past, present and future claims to additional water rights for Zuni lands in Arizona.

Since time immemorial, the Zuni people have used the area of Hunt Valley, Arizona -- at the confluence of the Zuni and Little Colorado Rivers in northeastern Arizona -- for sustenance and religious purposes. Tribal religious leaders made regular pilgrimages from their homelands in New Mexico to the Hunt Valley area to worship at the Sacred Lake located there and at surrounding springs, wetlands and riparian areas. These sites are at the core of Zuni religious beliefs, but are threatened by deterioration as a result of other development in the area.

Recognizing the need to protect these sacred sites and provide for their use by future generations of Zuni people, Congress established the Zuni Heaven Reservation in 1984 to protect these sacred lands. Securing water rights for these reservation lands is necessary to enable restoration of the resources and sacred sites and to return them to meaningful religious use.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced he has named William F. Benjamin as regional director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Great Plains Regional Office in Aberdeen, S.D. The appointment was effective May 16, 2004. Benjamin, who is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, comes to his appointment after having served as deputy regional director of the bureau’s Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Billings, Mont.

“I am very pleased that Bill Benjamin will be taking the helm at our Great Plains Regional Office,” Anderson said. “His level of knowledge, as well as his extensive programmatic and managerial experience, will ensure that the BIA will fulfill its commitment to providing quality service to its customers.”

As deputy regional director, Benjamin was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day program and administrative operations for the BIA regional office including trust and human services programs, administration and personnel, environmental services, safety programs, facilities management and information resources, as well as working with tribal and state governments and other federal agencies. During his tenure Benjamin also has served on several Federal water rights negotiation teams dealing with tribal-state water rights compacts; worked to resolve conflicts between a Montana tribe, federal agencies and private lenders to provide housing mortgages to tribal members; worked with irrigation water users to resolve water supply and water rights issues; and forged productive relationships with tribal leaders, state officials, federal representatives and members of the public.

Benjamin has built a 27-year career with the bureau starting in 1977 as a loan specialist with the Billings Area Office (now called the Rocky Mountain Regional Office). Prior to that time, he had worked in the private sector where he spent several years first as a high school teacher in Montana (1966 – 1969) and then with the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America (1969 – 1977) where he directed recruiting programs for American Indians on reservations throughout the western United States. He later served as finance director for the organization’s office in Great Falls, Mont.

From 1977 on Benjamin worked successfully in a series of positions dealing with human service programs and budget and finance functions at the agency and area office (now regional office) levels within the BIA. He served as a tribal programs specialist in the bureau’s Fort Belknap Agency in Harlem, Mont. (1977 – 1978); held budget and finance positions with the Billings Area Office (1978 – 1993); served a temporary assignment as a supervisory accountant with the BIA’s Division of Accounting Management (DAM) in Albuquerque, N.M. (1992); rose to the level of area supervisory accountant with the Billings office; and was promoted to chief of DAM’s payments branch in Albuquerque (1993 – 1996) prior to his becoming deputy regional director in the Rocky Mountain office.

Benjamin also has successfully completed the Federal Executive Potential Training Program (1991 – 1992) and the Interior Department’s Senior Executive Service (SES) Candidate Development Program (2000 – 2001). Benjamin, who was born and raised in Browning, Mont., on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, is a 1960 graduate of Browning High School. Following a course of study in accounting, economics and business law at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, he continued his education at Eastern Montana College where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in business education, with a major in accounting, in 1966.

(WASHINGTON) - Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton announced today that all of the requirements of the Shivwits Band of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah Water Rights Settlement Act, Public Law 106-263, have been completed, allowing the settlement to become fully effective. As required by the Settlement Act, the Secretary's statement of findings will be published in the Federal Register.

"Congress approved this important water rights settlement for the Shivwits Band of Paiute Indians and the citizens of Southwestern Utah in 2000, but the Settlement Act still required certain actions by the parties and full appropriations by Congress before the end of this year to validate and enforce the settlement," Secretary Norton said. "I am pleased to report that all of the requirements under the Settlement Act have been met.

"I congratulate the Shivwits Band, the Washington County Water Conservancy District, the city of St. George, and the state of Utah for coming together to resolve these often contentious issues through a creative, negotiated settlement for the benefit of all the parties, rather than relying upon costly litigation, which often takes decades and results in few winners and many losers. I also want to thank the Utah congressional delegation for their continued support of the legislation and the funding required to complete this settlement and also thank the federal settlement team for helping to shepherd the successful resolution of these issues."

According to Glenn Rogers, band chairman, Shivwits Band of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, "This settlement will help us become self-sufficient and will open the door for economic development so that we can look forward to the future."

The Settlement Act confirms a water right of 4,000 acre-feet per year for the Shivwits Band of Paiute Indians, whose reservation lies in the Virgin River Basin just north of St. George, Utah. Most of the water to satisfy the Band's right will come from two separate projects developed as part of the settlement. One, the St. George Water Reuse Project, will treat and recycle discharges from the St. George Water Reclamation Facility. The other, the Santa Clara Project, will use a pressurized pipeline to replace certain irrigation water deliveries via area canals, thereby conserving water currently lost through seepage and evaporation. These projects will not only benefit the Shivwits Band but will also benefit the city of St. George and other water users in the area.

To become fully effective, the Settlement Act required the Secretary to find that: congress had fully appropriated the $24 million authorized for the settlement; parties had revised, as necessary, the underlying settlement agreements to conform to the settlement legislation; the state engineer of Utah had taken all actions necessary to implement the agreements; and the state's district court had entered a final decree in the Virgin River adjudication confirming the water rights of the Shivwits Band. Publication of the Federal Register notice will certify the Secretary's findings as required by the Settlement Act.

This settlement also represents an example of the collaborative approaches to address water supply problems in the West sought under Secretary Norton's recently announced Water 2025 Initiative.

"In this water-short area of the country, the Shivwits Band, local water users, the city and the state came together to develop innovative solutions to address their respective water needs while also working to protect the habitats of species of concern in the basin, such as the Virgin River spinedace," Secretary Norton said. "The projects developed as part of the settlement provide water supply flexibility through improved water conservation and efficiencies in the area and by also providing an opportunity for market-based transfers of water as well. These projects, combined with the cost-sharing arrangements for all parties under the settlement, represent the type of collaborative approach which I hope Water 2025 will foster in resolving other water supply challenges in the West."

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WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced he has confirmed Clayton J. Gregory as regional director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Pacific Regional Office in Sacramento, Calif., effective July 11. Gregory, an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe of Montana with more than 20 years of government service, had been serving as the acting regional director since May 2003.

“Clay Gregory is an outstanding senior manager with a long commitment to serving Indian people,” Anderson said. “I am confident that, as director of the BIA’s Pacific Regional Office, he will continue to provide excellent service to the California Indian tribes and their members.”

Gregory started his federal career in the early 1970s holding a variety of positions with the U.S. Forest Service in Montana and Wyoming, including wilderness ranger/fireguard, supervisory forestry technician, trail crew supervisor and forestry aide. He later joined the BIA in Montana as a forester, and went on to develop a career in natural resources management as a natural resources specialist and, later, as a natural resources officer.

In the early- to late-1990s, Gregory served three stints as acting superintendent of the BIA’s Crow Agency, also in Montana, which provides services to the Crow Tribe. In that capacity, he oversaw the agency’s day-to-day operations working with the tribe to protect, conserve and enhance its trust assets and resources while providing human services assistance to individual tribal members, as well as working with other federal, state and local governments and the general public.

From March 2000 to May 2003, Gregory served as a natural resources officer in the BIA’s Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Billings where he supervised and managed the regional Division of Natural Resources with programs in forestry and fire management, land and minerals, and water resources. During his tenure, he chaired the Crow Boundary Settlement Act of 1994 Steering Committee and the Federal Water Rights Negotiation Team for the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana.

In addition, Gregory served as acting deputy regional director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office in 2001 and in 2003. In that capacity he was responsible for overseeing six BIA agency and field offices as well as tribal and trust programs serving eight Federally recognized tribes in Montana and Wyoming.

As acting regional director of the Pacific Regional Office, Gregory has supervised and directed the day-to-day operations of four BIA agency and field offices as well as trust and human services programs for the 104 Federally recognized tribes in California.

Gregory graduated from Lodge Grass High School in Lodge Grass, Mont., in 1970 and went on to the University of Montana-Missoula where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry in 1978. He also successfully completed the Federal Executive Potential Training Program (1992 – 1993) and the Interior Department’s Senior Executive Service (SES) Candidate Development Program (2002).

WASHINGTON – Secretary Gale Norton today announced that the foundation established by Congress to support Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) education programs has been renamed the National Fund for Excellence in American Indian Education (NFEAIE) in a bill signed by President Bush on July 2, 2004. The foundation, designated the American Indian Education Foundation in its original legislation, felt the change was needed in order to avoid confusion with organizations having similar names.

“We are pleased that Congress acted in a timely manner to rename the foundation as the National Fund for Excellence in American Indian Education,” Norton said. “With this action, the NFEAIE board of directors can move forward in their mission to put private contributions to work on behalf of BIA students.”

Congress established the foundation in December 2000 as a federally-chartered charitable nonprofit corporation under Title XIII of the Omnibus Indian Advancement Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-568) to accept and administer donations for the benefit of the BIA’s Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) and “other activities” to further educational opportunities for American Indian students attending BIA-funded schools. Federal agencies are prohibited from accepting private donations unless authorized to do so by Congress.

NFEAIE board members include David Beaulieu, Ph.D. (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe - White Earth), director, Arizona State University-Tempe Center for Indian Education; Sharon K. Darling, founder and president, National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), Louisville, Ky.; John Guevremont, director, Mashantucket Pequot Tribe National Government Affairs Office, Washington, D.C.; Daniel Lewis (Navajo), senior vice-president and director, Office of Native American Financial Services, Bank of America, Phoenix, Ariz.; Nick Lowery, president, Nick Lowery Foundation and co-founder, “Nation Building for Native Youth,” Tempe, Ariz.; JoAnne Stately (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe), senior program officer, The Saint Paul Foundation, St. Paul, Minn.; Linda Sue Warner, Ph.D. (Comanche), research associate professor, University of Missouri-Columbia Truman Center for Public Policy; and Della Warrior (Otoe-Missouria), president, Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Santa Fe, N.M. Secretary Norton and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson are ex-officio members of the board.

NFEAIE founding director Lorraine Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock) has over 20 years’ experience in Indian education from her work with federal Indian education programs and having served as executive director of two non-profit Indian education organizations: the American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC) in Albuquerque, N.M., and the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) in Alexandria, Va.

NFEAIE will be organized as a 501(c)(3) corporation in the District of Columbia. Under the terms of the statute, the Secretary is authorized to provide support for NFEAIE for a period of at least five years until it becomes an independent entity. The board meets annually and operates independently from the Interior Department. NFEAIE is currently preparing to file articles of incorporation and by-laws with the District as well as applications for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and trademark protection for its name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced she has issued a Notice of Final Determination to decline to acknowledge as an Indian tribe a group known as the Snohomish Tribe of Indians located in and around Edmonds, Wash. The Snohomish petitioning group did not demonstrate that it met all seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment as an Indian tribe under 25 CFR Part 83, Procedures for Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe.

Federal acknowledgment of a group as an Indian tribe establishes a government-to-government relationship between the United States and the tribe, and makes it eligible to receive services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The decision to decline is final and effective 90 days after the publication of the Notice of Final Determination in the Federal Register unless the petitioner, or any interested party, requests reconsideration with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA).

The purpose of 25 CFR Part 83 is to provide a means to acknowledge Indian tribes that have continuous social and political existence and to determine whether the group descends from a historical Indian tribe or tribes. However, the Snohomish petitioner did not meet criteria 83.7(a), (b), (c) and (e) of the regulations. The petitioner did not demonstrate that it was identified as an Indian entity on a “substantially continuous” basis for fifty years, 1900 to 1950; that “a predominant portion of the petitioning group comprised a distinct community” on a substantially continuous basis from first sustained contact with non-Indians to the present; that it had maintained “political influence or authority” over its members as an autonomous entity from first sustained contact with non-Indians to the present; and that its membership consisted of individuals who descended from a historical Indian tribe or tribes that combined and functioned as a single autonomous political entity.

The Snohomish petitioner met criteria 83.7(d), (f) and (g) of the acknowledgment regulations by demonstrating that it has a governing document; that its membership is not principally composed of members of an acknowledged North American Indian tribe and that neither the petitioner nor its members are the subject of congressional legislation that has expressly terminated or forbidden the Federal relationship. The evidence in the record revealed that the petitioner formed its organization in the 1950s, and currently maintains an office in Edmonds. The record further revealed that the petitioner is not the same as the historical Snohomish tribe that was involved in the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855 and that settled on the Tulalip Reservation. The historical Snohomish tribe organized a tribal government with other tribes under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. These historical tribes became known collectively as the Tulalip Tribes of the Tulalip Reservation located near Marysville, Wash. 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 1.4 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.

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WASHINGTON – Office of Indian Education Programs Director Edward Parisian will join students, parents and tribal officials on August 31, 2004, to celebrate the opening of First Mesa Elementary School, a newly-constructed Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) operated elementary school located in Polacca, Ariz., a Hopi community situated at the eastern base of First Mesa on the Hopi Reservation.

First Mesa Elementary School is a K-6 facility that will serve students from First Mesa villages and the Polacca community. The school replaces an older building, Polacca Day School, which has been on the list of aging BIA schools that have been slated for replacement.

The BIA school system is comprised of 184 BIA-funded elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on or near 63 reservations in 23 states and serving approximately 48,000 students.

WHO: Edward Parisian, Director, Office of Indian Education Programs, Department of the Interior.

WHAT: Parisian will visit the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona to celebrate the opening of the First Mesa Elementary School where he will be joined by students, parents, school representatives and tribal officials.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 at 10:00 a.m. (all times are local time) 10:00 a.m.: Dedication ceremony (open to press)

• Posting of Colors by Hopi Jr. ROTC
• Opening Prayer by Raleigh Namoki, Sr.
• Welcome: Bruce Steele, Principal, First Mesa Day School Lawrence Polingyumptewa, Comm. Chairman Brannon Sidney, Polacca Day School Student Body President Danielle Polacca, 2004 Miss Hopi
• Speakers will include (in order of presentation):
  • Jeremiah LaMesa, Project Manager
  • James Tewayguva, Kikmongwi
  • Leo Lacapa, Corn/Water Clan Leader
  • The Honorable Wayne Taylor, Jr., Chairman, The Hopi Tribe
  • Edward Parisian, Director, Office of Indian Education Programs, DOI
• Ribbon-cutting at main entrance of school (open to press)
• Tour of First Mesa Day School (open to press)

WHERE: First Mesa Day School Directions from Flagstaff or Winslow, Ariz.: Take I-40 to Exit 257 (State Highway 87). Go North to State Highway 264 (60 miles). Turn east and go approximately 6 miles to sign for First Mesa Elementary School. (school will be on the south side of 264). Turn right at sign.

CREDENTIALS: Please bring your sanctioned media credentials. Wear on shirt collar or around neck for easy viewing, if possible.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has awarded $196,735 to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon for a due diligence study for the Warm Springs Biomass Demonstration Project, an effort by the tribes to enhance an existing biomass electrical generating plant located on the reservation. The project is expected to lessen potential wildfires on the tribes’ lands by reducing wood waste and other fuels, as well as create new jobs and economic development opportunities for the tribes as a biomass power provider.

“I am very pleased to announce our support for the Warm Springs Tribes’ effort to develop a reservation-based biomass electrical generating plant,” Anderson said. “Not only will such a power plant create new jobs for the Warm Springs people, but their project will be a beacon for other forest resource tribes who are seeking solutions to their forestry fuels management and economic development needs.”

According to a U.S. Department of Energy 1999 National Renewable Energy Laboratory report, an average of 4.9 jobs are created for every megawatt of biomass energy produced. The enhanced Warm Springs plant is expected to produce 15 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy that will create 75 living wage jobs while preserving another 135 existing jobs at the tribes’ mill. In addition, the plant will use wood waste that could potentially fuel catastrophic wildfires, provide electricity to local utilities and state and federal governments and serve as a demonstration project for other forest resource tribes.

The Warm Springs Biomass Demonstration Project Due Diligence Study is needed to assure potential lenders and guarantors that the project will have an adequate forest resource base to rely on, a secured market for electricity produced and that appropriate financial pieces are in place. The study is scheduled to be completed next April.

In addition to helping the Warm Springs Tribes reach their economic and job development goals, the Warm Springs Demonstration Project also exemplifies several Interior Department and BIA initiatives, such as:

• IMPROVING FOREST HEALTH AND REDUCING FOREST FUELS by removing wood waste and other fuels and thinning dense stands of trees and undergrowth to significantly reduce the risk that national and tribal forests face from catastrophic wildfire, and to create healthier, more fire-resilient landscapes.
• SUPPORTING RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT by utilizing biomass created from fuels reduction activities in tribal forests for the production of renewable power.
• CREATING JOBS by enhancing the tribes’ existing plant to generate 15 MW of power that will create 75 living wage jobs while preserving 135 existing jobs at the tribal mill.
• IMPROVING AIR QUALITY by reducing the need for land management agencies and landowners to use the practice of openly burning forest fuels, which adds smoke, particulates and other pollutants to the atmosphere.
• SUPPORTING IMPLEMENTATION OF LEGISLATION AND DEPARTMENTAL DIRECTIVES by providing a market in central Oregon for biomass material that will be created as a result of the implementation of President Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative, Secretary Gale Norton’s Renewable Energy Plan, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, the Tribal Forest Protection Act, and Interior interagency agreements dealing with biomass utilization and fuel treatments.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Interior Department's trust responsibilities and promoting self-determination through economic self-sufficiency to the 562 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments. The Assistant Secretary also oversees the BIA, which is responsible for providing services to approximately 1.8 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes.