OPA

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald “Del” Laverdure today issued a statement regarding the unfortunate loss of a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Fort Yuma Agency firefighter on Friday, June 8, 2012.

“Anthony Polk was a BIA fire operations and fuels technician at the Fort Yuma Agency with his final assignment being a wildland fire engine boss. On behalf of the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Office of Indian Affairs, the BIA, and the BIE it is with great sadness we join the nation in mourning the loss of such a brave and courageous man.

I know that he was well regarded by all who knew him and that he had called on the public to honor the loss of a fellow firefighter in 2008. The service and commitment of the men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting Indian Country is a selfless duty embodied by Mr. Polk. Firefighters must endure long hours, difficult conditions and danger. Their actions and self-sacrifice truly represent the values most highly revered by our tribal cultures and traditional leadership of putting one’s self second to the needs of the community.”

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WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced $4.4 million in grants from the Historic Preservation Fund to 117 American Indian tribes to assist with the preservation of important historic and cultural sites and to promote education and interpretation programs.

“As part of our commitment to empowering Indian nations to achieve the future of their choosing, we want to support the agendas of tribes to preserve, interpret, and enrich their heritage,” Secretary Salazar said. “These investments will help not only help protect cultural and historic sites, but also provide tools to spur new economic opportunities in tribal communities.”

The grants are derived from revenues from federal oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf and are used by the National Park Service to make historic preservation grants to Tribal Historic Preservation Officers.

“Assisting tribal historic preservation efforts is one of several ways that we help American Indians recover and safeguard their cultural heritage,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “We are honored to collaborate with tribes on this important front.”

Tribes use the grants to fund projects such as nominations to the NPS's National Register of Historic Places, preservation education, architectural planning, historic structure reports, community preservation plans, and bricks-and-mortar repair to buildings. HPF grants are also made to State Historic Preservation Offices.

Grants and programs funded by the HPF encourage private and non-federal investment in historic preservation efforts nationwide. Recent HPF achievements can be found in its annual report at http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/hpg/downloads/2010_HPF_Report.pdf. For more information about NPS tribal preservation programs and grants, please visit http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tribal/.

Fiscal Year 2011 Historic Preservation Fund Grants to Indian Tribes

Absentee-Shawnee $31,060
Agua Caliente Band $32,696
Bad River Band - Chippewa $36,931
Bay Mills Indian Community $32,130
Bear River Band $30,100
Big Pine Paiute $30,647
Bishop Paiute Tribe $31,225
Blackfeet $43,921
Blue Lake Rancheria $29,909
Bois Forte Chippewa $37,001
Buena Vista Rancheria $30,128
Caddo $29,975
Catawba $31,310
Cheyenne-Arapaho $33,195
Cheyenne River $46,416
Chippewa Cree $36,855
Choctaw $33,709
Citizen Potawatomi Nation $31,353
Coeur d'Alene $39,592
Colville $43,602
Comanche $30,973
Coos, L. Umpqua & Siuslaw $30,343
Coquille Indian Tribe $59,311
Crow Creek Sioux $70,714
Crow Tribe of Indians $45,517
Dry Creek Rancheria $30,158
Eastern Cherokee $35,492
Elk Valley Rancheria $30,811
Flandreau Santee Sioux $57,615
Fond du Lac Band Chippewa $36,538
Fort Peck Tribes $82,402
Gila River Indian Community $39,454
Grand Portage Band of Chippewa $35,234
Grand Ronde Community $60,259
Ho-Chunk Nation $31,854
Hopland Band of Pomo $31,783
Hualapai $42,395
Jena Band of Choctaw $30,109
Jicarilla Apache $41,990
Karuk Tribe $31,186

Keweenaw Bay $35,451
Lac Courte Oreilles $36,065
Lac du Flambeau $36,384
Lac Vieux Desert Band $30,680
Leech Lake $41,160
Lower Sioux $31,664
Lummi $34,045
Makah $34,426
Mashantucket Pequot $31,620
Menominee $38,311
Mescalero Apache $40,035
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma $30,343
Mille Lacs $36,614
Muscogee Creek Nation $59,431
Narragansett $31,749
Navajo $56,430
Nez Perce $35,058
Nooksack $30,661
Northern Arapaho $44,355
Northern Cheyenne $39,970
Oglala Sioux $45,022
Oneida $32,899
Pala Band $33,280
Passamaquoddy $37,072
Pawnee Nation $31,582
Penobscot $36,074
Pinoleville Pomo Nation $30,252
Pit River Tribe $33,525
Poarch Band of Creeks $30,566
Pokagon Band $31,079
Ponca $30,417
Pueblo of Pojoaque $33,372
Pueblo of Santa Ana $65,503
Pueblo of Tesuque $33,767
Quapaw of Oklahoma $31,455
Red Cliff Chippewa $33,593
Reno Sparks Indian Colony $57,538
Rosebud Sioux $40,167
Salish/Kootenai $43,378
San Carlos Apache $36,289
Santee Sioux $36,813
Seminole Tribe of Florida $33,754 

Seneca $35,446
Sherwood Valley $30,768
Shingle Springs Rancheria $55,012
Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate $33,959
Skokomish $32,494
Smith River Rancheria $29,988
Spokane $37,408
Squaxin Island $31,751
St. Regis Mohawk $33,754
Standing Rock Sioux $45,606
Stewart's Point Rancheria $29,987
Stockbridge-Munsee Band $33,726
Susanville Rancheria $31,358
Suquamish Tribe $32,876
Swinomish Tribe $33,220
Table Bluff – Wiyot $30,281
Three Affiliated Tribes $42,460
Timbisha Shoshone $16,533
Tohono O'odham $46,461
Trinidad Rancheria $30,190
Tunica-Biloxi $31,119
Turtle Mountain $36,024
Umatilla $38,448
Ute Mountain Ute $40,909
Wampanoag $30,811
Warm Springs $41,083
Washoe Tribe $32,347
White Earth Chippewa $41,828
White Mountain $44,253
Wyandotte $30,728
Yakama Nation $43,586
Yankton Sioux $35,490
Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation $55,370
Yurok $35,504
Zuni $40,050
Total $4,388,570 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of President Obama’s commitment to fulfilling this nation’s trust responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska Natives, the Office of the Secretary of the Interior will have the Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform participating in a live radio-broadcast talk show on Wednesday, June 13, 2012. The Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform is tasked with moving forward on their comprehensive evaluation of Interior’s management and administration of the nearly $4 billion in trust assets. The Commission is charged with providing recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior at the end of their two-year tenure on how best to improve the Department’s trust management and administration. Building upon the progress made with the historic Cobell Settlement, the Commission will help establish a new era of trust administration, stressing responsive, customer-friendly, accountable and transparent management of these substantial funds and assets. Three of the five members of the Commission will be participating in the live radio-broadcast talk show. Please tune in to the program on-line at www.nativeamericacalling.com.

For more information, please visit: http://www.doi.gov/cobell/commission/index.cfm.

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WASHINGTON -- Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced $1,483,632 in grants to assist American Indian tribes, Alaska native villages, and museums with implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Of this amount, $1,422,515 is going to 19 recipients for consultation/documentation projects, and $61,117 is going to five repatriation projects.

“Returning human beings to their descendants and cultural items to their inheritors is unequivocally the right thing to do,” Secretary Salazar said. “These grants will help to rectify an offense committed against American Indians in the past.”

“I am proud that the National Park Service plays a key role in the implementation of NAGPRA,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “We take care of many places and objects that are part of our nation’s cultural heritage, and we are privileged to help American Indians enjoy their right to care for their heritage.”

Enacted in 1990, NAGPRA requires museums and federal agencies to inventory and identify American Indian human remains and cultural items in their collections, and to consult with culturally affiliated tribes, Alaska native villages and corporations, and native Hawaiian organizations regarding repatriation.

This year five repatriation grants, totaling $61,117, will go to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Gila River Indian Community, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the University of Colorado, and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Repatriation grants help with costs associated with the transfer of human remains and cultural items from institutions to tribes. This year’s grants will fund the repatriation of 32 individuals’ remains and over 200 cultural items from museums across the country to tribes.

FY 2011 NAGPRA Consultation/Documentation Grant Recipients

Recipient Award

Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians $90,000

Caddo Indian Tribe of Oklahoma $68,717

California State, Sacramento $89,905

Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes $90,000

Del Norte County Historical Society $51,085

Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota $90,000

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe $74,823

Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico $89,877

Organized Village of Kasaan $89,732

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology $90,000

Rochester Museum & Science Center $59,127

Sitka Tribe of Alaska $11,375

SUNY, College at Oswego $90,000

Susanville Indian Rancheria $90,000

Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians $23,228

University of Colorado Museum, Boulder $59,120

Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission $87,053

White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation $89,997

Wisconsin Historical Society $88,476

FY 2011 NAGPRA Repatriation Grant Recipients

Recipient Award

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation $9,996

Denver Museum of Nature & Science $14,868

Gila River Indian Community $14,407

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe $8,378

University of Colorado Museum, Boulder $13,468

BILLINGS AND CROW AGENCY, MT--At two events with tribal leaders in Montana today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and other top Interior officials took what he called “the latest steps to implement President Obama’s pledge for reconciliation and empowerment for American Indian nations.”

In Billings this morning, Secretary Salazar and Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes hosted nation-to-nation consultations with tribal leaders from the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains region to discuss the land consolidation component of the $3.4 billion Cobell Settlement. Sen. Jon Tester also participated.

Later in the day, Secretary Salazar and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor visited the Crow Indian Reservation to participate with a crowd of 200 celebrating the recently approved Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement. The water settlement will bring more than $460 million to the Crow Nation to ensure safe drinking water for the reservation and rehabilitate the irrigation project.

“Today’s events in Montana signal a new era in the U.S. government’s relationship with Indian Country nationwide,” Secretary Salazar said. “The Billings meeting and upcoming meetings with tribal leaders in other regions are just part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to re-invigorating nation-to-nation relationships with tribes. And this afternoon’s celebration in Crow Agency made me especially proud of our Administration’s support for water rights settlements that will deliver much-needed water to Indian communities such as the Crow Reservation.”

The land consolidation meeting in Billings today was the first in a series of six regional meetings. Additional tribal consultations will be scheduled through Oct. 15, 2011 in Seattle, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, and Oklahoma City. Today’s participants included leaders and representatives of a number of tribes. Joining Secretary Salazar and Deputy Secretary Hayes from the Interior Department were Associate Deputy Secretary Meghan Conklin, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Jodi Gillette and Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Mike Black.

At Crow Agency, Secretary Salazar and Commissioner Connor outlined how the water settlement will create jobs on the reservation while improving the Crow Irrigation Project; developing a municipal, rural and industrial water system; and supporting development of Crow Nation energy resources. Of the $460 million, Salazar announced that, at the request of Crow Chairman Cedric Black Eagle, the first $500,000 of the settlement funds appropriated by Congress was released to the tribe on July 8 and that $4.9 million in early funding for the settlement has been made available for future disbursement to the tribe.

The Secretary thanked Crow Chairman Black Eagle, Vice-Chairman Coolidge Jefferson, and Secretary Scott Russell and Interior’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Del Laverdure, also a member of the Crow Nation, for welcoming Interior officials to their homeland. He thanked Letty Belin, Counselor to the Deputy Secretary, and Pamela Williams, Director of the Secretary’s Indian Water Rights Office, for their leadership in the Department of the Interior in reaching the settlement.

BACKGROUND ON COBELL SETTLEMENT:

The $3.4 billion Cobell settlement was approved by Congress on November 30, 2010 (Claims Resolution Act of 2010) and signed by President Obama on December 8, 2010. The Cobell Settlement will address the Federal Government’s responsibility for an historical accounting of Individual Indian trust accounts and trust mismanagement claims on behalf of more than 300,000 individual Indians. A fund of $1.5 billion will be used to compensate class members for their historical accounting, trust administration and asset mismanagement claims.

In addition, to address the continued proliferation of thousands of new trust accounts caused by the "fractionation" of land interests through succeeding generations, the Settlement establishes a $1.9 billion fund for the voluntary buy-back and consolidation of fractionated land interests. The land consolidation program will provide individual American Indians with an opportunity to obtain cash payments for divided land interests and free up the land for the benefit of tribal communities. Up to $60 million of the $1.9 billion will be set aside to provide scholarships for post secondary higher education and vocational training for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

On May 27, 2011, U.S. Senior District Judge Thomas F. Hogan granted communication between representatives of the United States and Cobell class members only in regards to the Trust Land Consolidation component of the Settlement. This enabled the Department of the Interior to set up regional tribal consultations, the first of which was on July 15 in Billings, Montana. Additional tribal consultations will be held through Oct. 15, 2011 in Seattle, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, and Oklahoma City. More information on the upcoming consultations and other aspects of the Cobell settlement can be found at www.doi.gov/cobell.

BACKGROUND ON CROW WATER SETTLEMENT:

The omnibus law that resolved the Cobell litigation also included four major water rights settlements– totaling more than $1 billion—for American Indian tribes including the Crow Nation. The Crow Reservation encompasses more than 2 million acres, and is home to roughly two-thirds of the approximately 12,000 Crow tribal members.

The drinking water system on the Reservation has significant deficiencies in capacity and water quality and many tribal members must at times haul water. The Crow Irrigation Project (CIP), operated and maintained by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is in a state of significant disrepair and cannot support the Reservation's mainstay of farming and ranching. The Bureau of Reclamation will carry out activities to improve the CIP, which consists of nine diversion dams, one storage dam, nine canal systems, and other irrigation structures.

Litigation concerning the Tribe's water rights commenced in 1975 and will be brought to a close under the settlement. In 1985, the Tribe and the State of Montana entered into negotiations on this matter and reached agreement on the Crow-Tribe-Montana Water Rights Compact on June 22, 1999. President Obama signed legislation to approve the Compact in 2010.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk visited Marine Corporal Phillip Baldwin of Ft. Hall, Idaho, today at the Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Echo Hawk, himself a former Marine and past resident of Ft. Hall, visited with the wounded serviceman, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, who lost both legs in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) incident on June 18, 2011. The incident occurred while Corporal Baldwin was on foot patrol near the Helmand Province in Afghanistan.

“It’s remarkable the resilience this young man has, to go through the ordeal he did and to be in such great spirits during our visit is a tribute to him and his family,” said Echo Hawk. “I wish Corporal Baldwin the best of luck in his recovery and for the future.”

Corporal Baldwin is in the First Battalion, Fifth Marines, out of San Diego, Calif. He will be returning there on July 20 to continue his rehabilitation. Bethesda Naval Hospital is located in Maryland just north of the nation’s capital.

WASHINGTON – Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Jodi Gillette today provided opening remarks at the Action Summit for Suicide Prevention/2nd Annual Methamphetamine and Suicide Prevention Initiative Conference running from August 1- 4, 2011, in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Summit is sponsored in part by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), the Indian Health Service (IHS), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

“The federal government must be a better partner in addressing this critical issue that afflicts Indian Country,” Gillette said. “This week’s summit is an important step toward positive engagement and collaboration with other government agencies and tribes as we work together to build healthier, stronger communities.”

One of the administration’s top priorities has been to ensure that Indian Affairs is an active partner in preventing and responding to suicide emergencies. During President Obama’s first tribal listening conference in November 2009, a number of tribal leaders asked that the federal government engage more fully on the issue of suicide prevention, especially among youth. Several tribes suggested that a summit would be an important step. The Action Summit in Scottsdale, is the fulfillment of that request. The Second Annual Methamphetamine and Suicide Prevention Initiative (MSPI) Conference has been incorporated into the Action Summit for Suicide Prevention programs and includes suicide and methamphetamine prevention learning labs from MSPI.

The Action Summit is intended to bring together mental health professionals with tribal leaders, teachers, law enforcement and other community leaders to provide information and training for those who work most closely with those at risk in Native communities.

In preparation for the Action Summit, Indian Affairs has worked closely with the IHS Office of Behavioral Health and with SAMHSA. In order to make the Summit most responsive to the interests and needs of the tribes, Indian Affairs held a series of 10 Listening Sessions throughout Indian Country from November 2010 through January 2011.

The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs has responsibility for helping the Secretary of the Interior to fulfill his trust responsibilities to tribal and individual trust beneficiaries and promoting self-determination and self-governance for the nation’s 565 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. The Assistant Secretary oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), which administers one of two federal school systems and funding to tribal colleges and universities.

A new federal framework to assist American Indian and Alaska Native communities in achieving their goals in the prevention, intervention, and treatment of alcohol and substance abuse was announced today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar, and Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder.

The framework, captured in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by Secretary Sebelius, Secretary Salazar, and Attorney General Holder was published in the Federal Register today - http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-08-05/pdf/2011-19816.pdf. It was called for in the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010, which President Obama signed into law in July 2010.

The MOA describes how the Office of Indian Alcohol and Substance Abuse established in HHS’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) http://www.samhsa.gov/tloa will coordinate tribal substance abuse programs across the federal government with a special emphasis on promoting programs geared toward reaching youth and offering alternatives to incarceration.

“Alcoholism and addiction are among the most severe public health and safety problems facing American Indian and Alaska Native people,” said HHS Secretary Sebelius. “It doesn’t have to be this way. With help that is based in the rich Indian culture these conditions just like other heath conditions can be successfully prevented and treated.”

“There is a clear need to align, leverage, and coordinate federal resources so that we can best support tribal efforts to build healthy and safe communities,” said Secretary Salazar. “This new office will serve as the federal focal point for this critically important work.”

“A truly holistic approach is necessary when addressing substance abuse in Indian Country because we know that where alcohol and substance abuse are prevalent, public safety concerns are similarly prevalent,” said Attorney General Holder. “This new office will help further the commitment of the Justice Department and our partner agencies to build and sustain safe, secure, and healthy tribal communities.”

An interdepartmental coordinating council will guide the overall direction of the new federal effort to improve its work with tribal communities beginning with determining the scope of the problem -- identifying and assessing national, state, tribal, and local alcohol and substance abuse programs and resources; and creating standards for programs.

SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D. said, “The collaboration among agencies and departments that got us to this announcement today is already paying off. Our work with tribal communities has resulted in a new $50 million budget proposal in 2012 for Tribal Prevention Grants, better understanding of law enforcement and judicial training needs, and serious new work and investments in suicide prevention in Indian country.”

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SAMHSA is a public health agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Its mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America’s communities.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk and his principal deputy assistant secretary, Donald “Del” Laverdure, today announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Harvard University’s Project on American Indian Economic Development whereby DOI and Harvard will collaborate on promoting tribal economic development through research, outreach and leadership education. The MOU was finalized July 12, 2011.

“Through this memorandum of understanding with the world-renowned Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, DOI has access to the best possible minds and expertise in the field of creating and promoting self-sustaining tribal economies,” Echo Hawk said.

“It will be the tribes who benefit from the creativity of this collaborative partnership, and they will reap the rewards of its efforts,” said Laverdure. “We are confident that the outcomes of this collaboration will spur greater economic activity and increase employment in all areas of Indian Country.” DOI and the Harvard Project have identified areas of possible collaboration:

• Research efforts that focus on improving economic opportunities in tribal communities, that facilitate tribal development of the legal and political infrastructure that will promote economic development in tribal communities, and that address disparities in economic indicators.
• The identification and development of outreach efforts having high potential impact on economic development initiatives in tribal communities, the capacity of those communities to promote economic development, opportunities for productive research and curriculum programs on economic development and tribal government management.
• Expanded outreach and recruitment opportunities for graduate education at Harvard University and its allied organizations in leadership, management and other professional fields relevant to Indian Country economic development policy, as well as the orientation and training of DOI and Indian Affairs managers to foster a climate of economic growth in tribal communities.

In addition to Echo Hawk and Laverdure for the DOI, the signatories to the MOU from Harvard University are Kennedy School of Government Dean David Ellwood and Harvard Project Director Joseph P. Kalt.

Founded in 1987, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development is housed within the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Through applied research, teaching and service, the Harvard Project aims to understand and foster the conditions under which sustained, self-determined social and economic development is achieved through American Indian nations. The Project’s core activities include research, advisory services, mid-career executive education, and the administration of a tribal governance awards program. For more information about the Harvard Project, visit http://hpaied.org.

The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs discharges the duties of the Secretary of the Interior with the authority and direct responsibility to strengthen the government-to-government relationship with the nation’s 565 federally recognized tribes, advocate policies that support Indian self-determination, protect and preserve Indian trust assets, and administer a wide array of laws, regulations and functions relating to American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, tribal members and individual trust beneficiaries. The Assistant Secretary oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education. For more information, visit www.indianaffairs.gov. The DOI-IA-Harvard MOU document may be viewed by clicking on the following URL: http://www.indianaffairs.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/text/idc014780….