OPA

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is one of several major sponsors of “RES 2005,” the 19th Annual National Reservation Economic Summit & American Indian Business Trade Fair, which will be held Feb. 7-10, 2005, at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nev. The BIA also will host one of four conference tracks and Anderson will be the keynote speaker at the RES 2005 Indian Business Achievement Awards Luncheon on Feb. 10.

“We are pleased and proud to support RES 2005, which is an important venue for strengthening tribal economies and promoting Indian entrepreneurship,” Anderson said. “Indian country is a valued contributor to the national economy. We will continue to do our part to help tribes create a path to prosperity.”

The summit and trade fair is an annual event held by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development (NCAIED), a non-profit business management organization that seeks to develop and expand the American Indian private sector through employment, entrepreneurship and economic development.

The Bureau will conduct seminars at this year’s event on how tribes can develop their political, legal and corporate infrastructures and diversify their economies. Other seminars for tribes in the BIA track will focus on accessing capital, leveraging and maximizing federal and private sector resources, success stories, and lessons learned. The Bureau also will highlight its programs that support tribal governance and business development.

The Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Interior 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. Information on NCAIED and RES 2005 can be found at www.ncaied.org.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne will discuss Indian issues and be joined by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson and other Administration officials to launch a new Native American-focused online training course for federal employees at a press conference at the National Press club on Thursday, January 31.

Secretary Kempthorne will also announce progress on two Department of the Interior initiatives important to Indian Country. The Improving Indian Education Initiative, announced as part of the President's FY 08 budget, included a request for $15-million to improve Indian student academic achievement. The Safe Indian Communities Initiative, announced at the same time, included a request for $16-million to combat a methamphetamine crisis in Indian Country by improving policing capabilities in Indian Country.

Secretary Kempthorne, Administrator Johnson and the other Administration officials will launch the on-line training course for federal employees. This new training will strengthen working relations with Tribes and serve as a primer for federal employees charged with the important responsibility of working with Indian tribes. The course focuses on cultural and governmental issues unique to American Indian tribes.

Secretary Gale Norton:
"Convinced Indian Country is Better Off Because You Served"
Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason
to Temporarily Assume Responsibilities of Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs

(WASHINGTON) - Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Dave Anderson today announced his decision to resign, effective February 12, 2005.

In a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Assistant Secretary Anderson said that, "I have concluded that I can have the greatest impact to improve the future of Indian Country, not by managing the day-to-day operations of BIA programs, but by focusing my time on developing private sector economic opportunities for Indian entrepreneurs."

In response, Secretary Norton wrote, "It is with both understanding and regret that I received your letter today informing me of your decision to resign as Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, effective February 12, 2005."

"On behalf of President Bush, I thank you for your service, and I am convinced that Indian Country is better off because you served. You can take justifiable pride in your efforts to improve Indian education, law enforcement, and trust services. You have also been a terrific role model to young people in Indian Country. I have received many reports from people who have been encouraged by your message of hope, self-reliance, and belief in the personal worth and dignity of each Native American."

Secretary Norton also announced that she will be working with the White House and leaders in Indian Country to select a new Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. In the meantime, Jim Cason, currently Associate Deputy Secretary, will be tasked with fulfilling the responsibilities of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. For the past three-and-a half-years, Cason has worked extensively on a variety of Indian issues including law enforcement, land management and fractionation, trust responsibilities, historical accounting, and probate.

In his letter to Secretary Norton, Assistant Secretary Dave Anderson said, "Working with President Bush, Bureau of Indian Affairs staff, the more than 560 federally recognized Indian tribes, your staff and you, we made this a year of remarkable progress in Indian Country. Our accomplishments include:

• An additional $32.4 million in higher education funding was provided for BIA-managed schools as a result of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.
• Key components of the No Child Left Behind Act will be implemented in a soon to be published final rule, following extensive consultation with Indian country.
• A new Replacement School Construction List was developed to establish priority funding for Indian Country schools that have critical health and safety concerns .
• Thousands of safety and security improvements were made in Indian country detention centers .
• A new American Indian Records Repository was dedicated, in order to preserve and consolidate Indian records that are essential to carry out Interior's trust reform responsibilities.
• Ground was broken on a new National Indian Programs Training Center as part of an effort to improve the delivery of federal services to Indian country."

Assistant Secretary Anderson added, "Perhaps more important are the countless opportunities I had to meet with Indian parents, teachers and children to encourage them to reach their potential, to climb the academic ladder of achievement and prepare them to become contributing members of their families and tribes."

Anderson's letter to Secretary Norton concluded by saying "More than you can imagine, I am honored by the trust President Bush and you placed in me by asking me to serve as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. To lead Indian Country for the past year has been a great honor and valuable experience. As I return to private life, my experiences this past year have better prepared me to encourage all those in Indian Country to achieve their God-given potential."

The letters exchanged between Secretary Norton and Assistant Secretary Anderson can be found at https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/archive/news/archive/05_News_Releases/050131a.htm

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The fiscal year 2009 budget requests $2.2 billion for Indian Affairs, which includes Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) programs. The budget request includes increased funding for the Interior Department’s Safe Indian Communities and Improving Indian Education initiatives as well as for the Indian Guaranteed Loan and Job Placement programs to meet tribal and individual Indian business financing needs and to help alleviate high unemployment rates in Indian Country.

The Safe Indian Communities and Improving Indian Education initiatives are the two major efforts undertaken by the Interior Department in FY 2008 and continued in FY 2009 to protect the lives and property of Indian Country residents and to improve the academic performance of students attending BIE-funded schools.

Tribal leaders from across the nation have attested to the crisis that has occurred throughout Indian Country from the spread of methamphetamine, calling crime stemming from the drug’s use the number one public safety problem in their communities.

Because of their rural, isolated nature and widely dispersed law enforcement, tribal communities have been subjected to attack by organized crime and foreign drug cartels, resulting in a violent crime rate that, in some places, is 10 to 20 times the national average. In addition, residents of Federal Indian reservations on the U.S. – Mexico border also have had to face threats to their lives and property from drug dealers.

The FY 2009 budget request includes a $2.9 million increase over the FY 2008 enacted budget for the Safe Indian Communities Initiative, for a total of $26.6 million. With a cumulative investment of $50.3 million over two years, the Department will assist tribes with suppressing the production and distribution of methamphetamine, address related effects such as drug abuse and child neglect and abuse, and increase staffing in BIA-funded detention centers. The request also provides funding for: 1) additional officers for law enforcement, 2) specialized drug training for existing officers, 3) support for public awareness campaigns for the Indian public, and 4) additional resources to protect tribal lands located on the U.S. border.

The Safe Indian Communities Initiative increase will put additional law enforcement agents in targeted communities throughout Indian Country and fund additional training for the current force. The BIA also will expand the use of a mobile meth lab for training tribal police in identifying, investigating and mitigating the effects of methamphetamine use in their communities to more effectively combat drug-related crime. Targeted communities will be identified through a needs analysis that looks at the rate of violent crime, service population and current staffing levels.

One way to aid Indian Country children and youth and improve their resistance to drug use and crime is to ensure that they receive a quality education. The Improving Indian Education Initiative is key to ensuring that BIE students will enhance their academic performance with funding to hold schools accountable for meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals under the No Child Left Behind Act. Only 30 percent of BIE-funded schools are currently achieving their AYP goals. The Improving Indian Education Initiative promotes student achievement so that more schools will achieve AYP.

The FY 2009 budget request includes an increase of $1.4 million over the FY 2008 enacted budget for the Improving Indian Education Initiative, for a total of $25.5 million. The request includes an increase for formula funding which directly supports school education programs. The request also includes funding increases for employee displacement costs at five schools expected to convert from BIE-operated to tribally operated status and technology investments.

The FY 2009 budget request for Education Program Enhancements provides reading programs, tutoring, mentoring and intensive math and science initiatives at schools which are required to take corrective action to promote student achievement. In FY 2008, the Congress provided $12.1 million for enhancements. The BIE continues this program 2008 budget request level of $5.2 million.

The request also includes an increase of $1.3 million for the BIE’s information technology infrastructure that supports education program applications. The increase will provide more bandwidth for the education IT network, which provides email and internet access for all 184 BIE-funded elementary and secondary schools, 14 tribal colleges and universities, adult learning centers and libraries and aids in school compliance with reporting requirements.

Overall, the FY 2009 budget request for the Operation of Indian Programs is $2.0 billion, a reduction of $59.5 million below the 2008 enacted level.

The FY 2009 budget request for Construction is $173.3 million, a reduction of $30.5 million from the 2008 enacted level. Included within this request amount is $115.4 million for Education Construction, a reduction of $27.6 million from the 2008 enacted level. The FY 2009 request fully funds the replacement of the Dennehotso Boarding School, a K-8 on-reservation boarding school in Arizona, and replaces buildings at the Chinle Boarding School, a K-8 on reservation boarding school in Many Farms, Ariz.

The Education Construction request also includes funding for facilities improvement and repair projects including $50.7 million for annual maintenance. In addition, employee housing is funded at $1.6 million.

Improving the economic viability of tribal communities through tribal and individual entrepreneurship is another way to ensure a brighter future for Indian Country. The Fiscal Year 2009 budget request includes an increase of $2.0 million for the Indian Guaranteed Loan Program, the Federal guaranteed loan program for tribal and individual Indian businesses located on Federal Indian trust lands or in tribal service areas. At the request level, the program will be able to guarantee up to a total of $85.2 million in loans. The budget also includes a $1.0 million increase for the Job Placement and Training program to add training programs for construction trades and employment caseworkers who assist tribal members with job placement.

-DOI-

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman will host the Interior Department’s kick-off event for its intertribal economic consortium initiative, which will take place on Monday, February 11, 2008 with a signing ceremony between the Department, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Connecticut and the Seminole Tribe of Florida to honor the memorandum of understanding that formalizes the two tribes’ cooperative economic relationship. The ceremony will take place at the Interior Department building at 1849 C Street, N.W., Room 7000 A&B, in Washington, D.C., starting at 11:00 a.m. (EST).

“This intertribal economic consortium initiative will create a platform for tribal economic growth,” Artman said. “It is a platform that helps resource-rich, cash-poor tribes by linking them to those with purchasing power. Forging those links between supply and demand is necessary for building strong tribal economies, and that is good both for Indian Country and all Americans.”

The concept of tribes with purchasing power buying from tribes with goods or services to sell has been further developed by the DOI’s Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development as a way to build and strengthen tribal reservation economies. The IEED will assist in this unique collaboration by linking producer tribes and Indian-owned businesses with purchaser tribes, helping tribes explore opportunities to collaborate economically and connect participating tribes with Federal procurement opportunities and commercial markets world-wide.

The intertribal economic consortium initiative had its beginnings in mid-2007 when the Mashantucket and Seminole tribes, who rely on a broad network of vendors and producers of raw materials for their businesses, decided to buy from American Indian-owned vendors and producers for their needs wherever and whenever possible. The IEED has worked with these and other tribes to help them maximize their purchasing power and develop new commercial markets for their products.

The IEED works with federally recognized tribes seeking to create demand for their livestock, seafood, agricultural products, raw materials and mineral assets. It also works with tribes seeking to invest in exploration for and production of natural resources such as sand and gravel, energy resources such as coal, coal-bed methane, gas and oil, and alternative energy resources and technologies such as wind, biomass, geothermal, solar, hydroelectric and tidal resources on or near Federal Indian lands.

CREDENTIALS: This invitation is extended to working media representatives, who are required to display sanctioned media credentials for admittance to the event.

-DOI-

WASHINGTON – President Bush has proposed a $2.2 billion budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for Fiscal Year 2006. The budget continues the Department’s commitment to reform trust management and provides increases for law enforcement and detention centers, an economic development commission, and a leadership academy pilot program.

“The President’s Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for Indian Affairs maintains his commitment to improving tribal communities by targeting federal dollars where they can produce the greatest results,” said David W. Anderson, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.

Together with a request of $304 million for the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST), the Fiscal Year 2006 budget proposes an investment of $2.5 billion in Indian programs.

The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for Operation of Indian Programs is $1.9 billion.

The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request includes a $12.6 million increase to continue support for Secretary Norton’s ongoing efforts to reform current trust systems, policies and procedures. The increase includes $3.0 million to continue to implement trust reform permitting more decisions to be made at the local level and more efficient management of trust assets. An increase of $9.6 million will strengthen the Bureau’s efforts to address the current backlog in probating Indian estates. This increase includes $8.0 million for contractor costs associated with case preparation for over 23,000 probate cases and $1.6 million for contract support for title related workload associated with Indian land consolidation, administrative law judges and Youpee activities. The request for the BIA portion of the unified trust budget reflects a $5.2 million savings to the government due to elimination of one-time costs, project task completion, and management efficiency gains.

The budget request also includes $1.5 million for lease costs at the new National American Indian Training Center in Albuquerque, N.M. The center, which was established to provide standardized trust and program-related training, will provide a broad range of mission critical, leadership and career development training to employees of the BIA and OST.

The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request proposes a $16.7 million increase for BIA detention facilities. The proposed budget addresses issues raised by the Interior Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in its September 2004 report that documented poor conditions at BIA detention facilities. The increase includes $4.1 million to support detention operations at four new centers currently under construction with Department of Justice (DOJ) funds, and $3.2 million for facility operations and maintenance at 19 detention centers built with DOJ grants since 2001. The increase adds $4.4 million for detention center improvement and repair construction projects. The proposed budget also includes $5.0 million to outsource detention of individuals in jurisdictions where BIA facilities do not comply with national standards.

The budget request includes $500,000 to establish an Economic Development Commission to increase tribal business opportunities and reduce unemployment on Indian lands. The commission will investigate impediments to tribal business development and develop an operational model for tribal businesses.

The President’s Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for Indian School Operations provides $521.6 million to support 184 BIA-funded schools and dormitories. The BIA and the Department of Education continue to work together to ensure that BIA-funded schools meet performance and accountability requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110). The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request proposes a $2.0 million increase to implement pilot leadership academies at four BIA schools. The intent of leadership academies, which will seek to apply the best practices of innovative schools in the public and private sector, is to instill in students a life-long desire and aptitude for learning and encourage post-secondary education.

In addition, the budget seeks $60.9 million for post-secondary education to fund operating grants to 26 tribal colleges and universities and the BIA-operated institutions of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, NM. The request also includes a $500,000 increase to expand the BIA student loan repayment program, which was first implemented in Fiscal Year 2005 to improve the Bureau’s ability to recruit highly qualified new employees.

The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for Construction is $232.1 million.

Repairing and rebuilding BIA-funded Indian schools is one of Interior’s highest priorities. The request for Indian school construction of $173.9 million provides funding for replacement schools and major facility improvement and repair projects. In 2001, 65 percent of BIA-funded schools were in poor condition with 35 percent considered good or fair. After compilation of the work funded through 2006, those numbers will be reversed, showing marked improvement in the condition of schools.

Between 2001 and 2005, funding was appropriated for 34 replacement schools, nine of which have been completed and are in operation. Twenty-five schools are in design or construction phases. Fiscal Year 2006 funding will allow replacement of the Porcupine Day School in South Dakota and fund Phase I of the replacement of the Crownpoint Community School in New Mexico, schools which are next in priority on the new Replacement School Construction Priority List published in March 2004. The reduction in the number of school replacements funded in the 2006 request will allow BIA to focus on completing the 25 schools already under design or in construction.

The Fiscal Year 2006 school construction request includes $128.4 million to fund four major facilities improvement and repair projects, annual maintenance needs, and minor repair projects. These projects will address critical health and safety concerns, improve compliance with code standards, and resolve program deficiencies at existing education facilities.

The Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for land and water settlements is $24.8 million. Settlements resolve long-standing claims to water and lands by Indian tribes. The request includes funds for the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw settlement in Oklahoma ($10.2 million), the Colorado Ute/Animas La Plata settlement ($8.1 million), and the Zuni water settlement in New Mexico ($5.4 million).

The Fiscal Year 2006 BIA budget request reflects reductions in funding levels for programs that lack performance accountability, duplicate other Federal or state programs, and have implemented management efficiencies. Program reductions include welfare assistance (-$6.4 million), Johnson-O’Malley grants (-$8.8 million), community fire protection (-$1.2 million), therapeutic residential model (-$3.0 million), consolidation of education line officers (-$1.4 million), energy development grants (-$.4 million), agency office administration costs (-$1.4 million), water management and planning (-$2.0 million), water rights negotiations and litigation (-$2.4 million), the endangered species program (-$2.0 million), one-time costs associated with the removal of the Chiloquin Dam (-$2.1 million), and projected savings related to improved fleet and space management (-$.8 million).

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 1.8 million members.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman, Seminole Tribe of Florida Vice-Chairman Richard Bowers and Mashantucket Pequot Vice-Chairman Kenneth Reels have signed a partnership agreement that will utilize the tribes’ purchasing power to promote Indian Country business development under DOI’s intertribal economic consortium initiative. The initiative seeks to match federally recognized producer tribes and Indian-owned businesses with purchaser tribes, helping tribes explore opportunities to collaborate economically and connect participating tribes with Federal procurement opportunities and commercial markets world-wide. The signing took place at a ceremony held on Monday, February 11, at the Interior Department’s headquarters.

“This signing ceremony celebrates an historic step in Indian Country’s economic development,” Artman said. “I applaud the leadership shown by the Mashantucket Pequot and Seminole people in their approach to creating a tribe-to-tribe economic circuit where resource rich, cash poor tribes can be linked to tribal and Indian-owned businesses struggling to find markets for their goods and services. When tribes have the ability to chart their own success, economic prosperity is possible, and that is a goal we can all support.”

The agreement establishes a cooperative relationship between the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) and the Mashantucket and Seminole tribes to foster and promote business transactions, joint ventures, and other economic development initiatives, such as using their significant purchasing power and broad-based commercial dealings to buy goods and services from Indian-owned businesses, as an economic stimulus for Indian Country. Under the agreement, the IEED will initiate and facilitate such commercial dealings between the two tribes and other tribal and Indian-owned enterprises.

Among a gathering of over 50 Federal, tribal and business representatives attending the event was Councilwoman Melinda Danforth of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, who, along with the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians of Oregon and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians of California, has joined the consortium. A designated free-trade zone, the Oneida

Tribe’s holdings include agricultural products and livestock, both buffalo and cattle. Located just a few miles west of the city of Green Bay, the tribe has access to a deep-water port, an airport and major highways (U.S. 41 and I-43). According to Danforth, the Oneida Tribe hopes to explore through the consortium business opportunities with other tribal nations.

Both tribal signatories expressed their interest and support for tribes struggling to bring economic development to their communities. Mashantucket Vice-Chairman Reels spoke of the need for creating more opportunities for tribal members, protecting the environment, and assisting other tribes through the marketplace. Seminole Vice-Chairman Bowers reflected on the possibilities that have resulted from his tribe’s success in business. “Today we have the power and the opportunity to fulfill our dreams,” he said. “We can help [other] tribes to stimulate their economies. We believe in taking care of our own.”

WASHINGTON—Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced he has named W. Patrick Ragsdale to be Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs(BIA) effective Feb. 13, 2005.

Ragsdale, who is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, has been serving for the last year as Director, Trust Review and Audit in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians.

“Mr. Ragsdale comes to this position with a wealth of experience in Indian Affairs,” said Anderson. “He has done everything from teaching in Indian schools to holding the position of Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs between the Reagan and Bush administrations. I have every confidence in his management abilities and his dedication to meet the needs of Indian people.”

Ragsdale began his career at BIA in 1967 as a teacher. From 1969 to 1972 he was on military furlough serving as an officer with the US Marine Corps. During his BIA tenure he has served in many capacities including: Deputy to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Area Director - Anadarko, Assistant Area Director (Trust Responsibilities) - Phoenix, and Superintendent of the Unita and Ouray Agency.

He retired in 1993, joined the Cherokee Nation and became Executive Director of the Nation in 1999. He returned to Federal service in February last year to become the Director, Trust Review and Audit in Albuquerque.

“I look forward to rejoining the large group of family and colleagues in the Indian Bureau after being absent for more than 10 years. I have great appreciation for Mr. Anderson’s efforts to energize leadership in Indian Country and am grateful to him for giving me this opportunity.”

Ragsdale has a bachelors degree in history from the University of Central Oklahoma and has graduate hours at both the University of Oklahoma and the University of Arizona.

He was born and attended high school in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and has two adult daughters and two grandchildren.

Ragsdale will replace Brian Pogue as BIA Director. Pogue left the directorship to take the position of Regional Director--Anadarko.

The Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs directly oversees the day-to-day activities of the agency that provides services to individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes. The Director administers all laws governing non-education portions of Indian Affairs, provides leadership and direction for BIA employees, and oversees and monitors the work of the BIA regional offices, agencies and field offices. The Director also shares authority and responsibility for the management of tribal and individual Indian trust funds with the Special Trustee for American Indians, and oversees the Bureau’s Land Consolidation Center, the agency’s nationwide program to consolidate fractionated interests in Indian lands.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today announced that the Interior Department has published final regulations in the Federal Register implementing Title V of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58) regarding Tribal Energy Resource Agreements (TERAs) under the Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act. The regulations will become effective on April 9, 2008.

“The Tribal Energy Resource Agreement is a major step for tribal self-determination and self-governance that will usher in a new era of tribal economic development,” Artman said. “It is a new tool for tribes who want to directly manage their energy resources and develop their renewable and non-renewable energy resources to benefit their communities and the nation.”

TERAs further the goal of Indian self-determination by promoting tribal oversight and management of energy and mineral resource management on tribal trust lands. With a TERA, a tribe may, at its discretion, and with the Secretary of the Interior’s review and approval, enter into business agreements and leases for energy resource development as well as grant rights-of-way for pipelines or electric transmission or distribution lines across its trust lands. The new regulations are optional for federally recognized tribes, some of whom may choose not or find they are unable to assume the greater level of oversight and administrative responsibility that TERAs require.

The new regulations, which can be found at 25 CFR Part 224, fully implement the provisions of 25 USC 3504, which lay out the process by which a tribe can consult with the Interior Department on whether a TERA is a viable means for it to use for energy development, what the TERA requirements and application consist of, and what the Secretarial decision-making process is. The regulations also provide for a periodic review of the tribe’s compliance with the approved TERA’s provisions.

“We stand ready to work closely with any tribe that chooses to establish a TERA with the Interior Department by ensuring access to the expertise and data necessary for this level of decision-making responsibility,” Artman said. “I have directed the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development to put these resources in place immediately.”

The IEED intends to hold a national information and discussion session for tribes on the TERA regulations in the near future with dates, times and location to be announced.

The Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development was established within the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs to provide high-level support for the Interior Department’s goal of serving tribal communities. It does so by providing access to energy resources and helping tribes with stimulating job creation and economic development in their communities.

-DOI-

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced a cooperative initiative with the General Services Administration (GSA) to provide Federally recognized tribes participating in the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) Native Sovereign Nation (NSN) Domain Name Program with the opportunity to use E-Buy, GSA’s online procurement system for products and services.

“E-Buy is an important e-commerce tool for the Federal government to buy products and services efficiently and cost effectively,” Anderson said. “This initiative will help improve ecommerce in Indian country by providing tribal governments the same opportunity to meet their service and supply needs online while making the most of their procurement dollars.”

OIA and GSA will introduce the NSN Domain Name/E-Buy Program at the 19th Annual National Reservation Economic Summit & American Indian Business Trade Fair, known as RES 2005, being held Feb. 7-10 at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nev. They also will conduct a panel discussion on Feb. 8 about the initiative as part of GSA’s Native American Business Center special session “GSA Presents the Native American Business Center and Other Programs.” The discussion is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. local time.

The E-Buy program is designed to bring ease and versatility to online procurement. NSN Domain Name Program participating tribes, identified by the –nsn.gov suffix in their web addresses, will be able to use E-Buy to send Requests for Quotes and receive quotes for products and services under GSA’s Multiple Award Schedules program. They also will be able to access E-Buy’s services such as quotes on millions of products and services, locating suppliers and making large purchases, searching for information, and establishing blanket purchase agreement pricing.

E-Buy benefits also include saving time and resources by competing procurements online, ensuring compliance with Department of Defense Section 803 requirements, increased competition from suppliers, and allowing submission of modifications online.

The Indian Affairs NSN Domain Name Program, which began in 2002, currently has 67 active tribal domains with another 96 domains registered with GSA’s Federal Technology Service.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Native American Programs (ONAP) also has endorsed the value of online procurement by encouraging tribal housing coordinators to utilize the NSN Domain Name Program and E-Buy for tribal housing programs.

To learn more about the Indian Affairs NSN Domain Name Program, contact Paul Marsden, EGovernment Officer, Office of Information Policy, Office of the Chief Information Officer, OIA, at 703-735-4112 or visit the GSA/FTS dotgov registration web site at www.dotgov.gov.

For more information about the GSA E-Buy program visit www.ebuy.gsa.gov or call GSA Advantage/E-Buy Customer Service at 877-472-3777. For more information about HUD/ONAP contact C. Raphael Mecham, Administrator, Southwest Office of Native American Programs, at 602-379-7200.

Registration and other information about RES 2005 can be found at www.ncaied.org.