OPA

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The third public meeting of the Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform was held in Albuquerque, N.M., on June 11-12, 2012.

The five members of the Commission along with the Designated Federal Officer convened to move 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.

The two day meetings were highly valuable sessions on the nature of the trust relationship and viewing other public and private sector trust models exploring the thoughts and ideas that may be applicable in Indian Country. There were panelists participating at the meeting such as Sam Deloria, Director, American Indian Graduate Center; Bank of NY Mellon, The Northern Trust Company, and Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation representatives; Intertribal Monitoring Association, Ross Swimmer, Swimmer Group, LLC, and Melody McCoy, Native American Rights Fund.

The Commission also engaged with various American Indian Youth Organizations in an evening session centered on creating a dialogue to discuss the future of Department of the Interior trust management. The session was held at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, an entity of the All Indian Pueblo Council. Keeping the youth informed and soliciting their input is a major goal of the commission. On June 13, 2012, Chair of the Commission Fawn Sharp (Quinault), commission members Dr. Peterson Zah (Navajo Nation), Tex G. Hall (Three Affiliated Tribes), and the Designated Federal Officer for the Commission and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary at the Department of the Interior Lizzie Marsters participated live on the Native America Calling Radio show. They provided a summary of the two-day meeting, and outlined the objectives of the Commission.

Future meetings of the Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform will be held on September 13-14, 2012, Bismarck, N.D.; and December 6-7, 2012, Seattle, Wash. Tribal leaders, tribal organizations and individual Indians are invited to provide recommendations and possible solutions for trust management and administration to improve the delivery of services to Indian Country. For further information, please visit: http://www.doi.gov/cobell/commission/index.cfm.

The Commission values your feedback, to send your comments and recommendations for how to improve trust administration and management, send an email to trustcommission@ios.doi.gov.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk will participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony and speak at the official opening of the replacement Rough Rock Community School on Monday, August 15, 2011.

Echo Hawk will be joined at the event by Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Deputy Director, School Operations Bart Stevens; Indian Affairs Office of Facilities, Environmental and Cultural Resources Director Jack Rever and Office of Facilities Management and Construction (OFMC) Deputy Director Emerson Eskeets.

The replacement project, which included the school’s academic building, dormitories and other facilities, was completed in two phases by the OFMC with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

This will be the Assistant Secretary’s second visit to the school. In September 2009, he participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for Phase II of the project. ARRA funds were used in Phase I to construct a replacement K-8 dormitory for residential students and in Phase II for a replacement K-8 academic building, two dormitories (for K-8 and high school students), a kitchen and dining facility, a bus garage maintenance shop and a transportation office.

The Rough Rock Community School is a BIE-funded K-12 grant school located 35 miles northwest of Chinle, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation reservation. First named the Rough Rock Demonstration School, it opened in 1966 as the first American Indian-operated, and first Navajo-operated, school within what was then the Bureau of Indian Affairs school system. That school system is now administered by the BIE.

WHO: Larry Echo Hawk, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, DOI Jack Rever, Director, Indian Affairs Office of Facilities, Environmental and Cultural Resources, DOI Emerson Eskeets, Deputy Director, Office of Facilities Management and Construction, OFECR, DOI Bart Stevens, Deputy Director-School Operations, Bureau of Indian Education, DOI

WHAT: Assistant Secretary Echo Hawk will participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony and speak at the official opening of the Rough Rock Community School’s new replacement academic buildings, dormitories and other facilities.

WHEN: Monday, August 15, 2011, 8:00 – 9:30 a.m. (local time)

WHERE: Rough Rock Community School, P.O. Box 5050 – PTT, Chinle, Ariz. 86503 Driving Directions: Starting Point – Chinle, Ariz.: 1) Take Hwy 191 North towards Many Farms (approximately 13 miles). 2) Take Hwy 59 West approximately 13 miles to HC-61. 3) Turn left onto HC-61 and follow signs to Rough Rock Community School.

CREDENTIALS: This invitation is extended to working media representatives who are required to display sanctioned media credentials for admittance to this event. Please arrive thirty minutes before the event.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today celebrated the opening of the new educational facilities at Rough Rock Community School, noting the high-tech, culturally sensitive buildings and classrooms will better serve students and teachers on the Navajo Nation reservation in Arizona. Following his participation in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the official opening of the Rough Rock Community School’s new replacement school facilities, Echo Hawk spoke to attendees about the significance of the occasion.

“Two years ago, I was here to help break ground on the Rough Rock Community School replacement project, and today I am gratified at the results,” Echo Hawk said. “Rough Rock students, teachers and staff can now work in greener, spacious, more culturally sensitive and more technologically connected learning and living environments thanks to the American Reinvestment and Restoration Act.”

Echo Hawk was accompanied at the opening by Indian Affairs Office of Facilities, Environmental and Cultural Resources Director Jack Rever; Office of Facilities Management and Construction Deputy Director Emerson Eskeets; and Bureau of Indian Education Navajo Education Line Officer Gloria Hale Showalter.

This is the Assistant Secretary’s second visit to the school. In September 2009, he participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for Phase II of the project (the Phase I portion had begun at the start of his administration just three months earlier).

Today’s event follows one held August 9 to open replacement facilities at the Pueblo Pintado Community School, a BIE-operated off-reservation K-8 boarding school in New Mexico located west of the town of Cuba. Both schools are within the BIE school system. The replacement projects were undertaken by the Indian Affairs Office of Facilities Management and Construction with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

Opened in July 1966 as the Rough Rock Demonstration School, the RRCS, which is situated on adjoining campuses located 35 miles northwest of the town of Chinle, was the first Bureau of Indian Affairs school to be directly operated by American Indians themselves, as well as being the first Navajo-operated BIA school. The K-12 school, which currently serves approximately 440 day and residential students, is still a part of the Bureau school system, which is now administered by the BIE. The facility was included on the BIE’s Replacement School Construction Priority List published in the Federal Register on March 24, 2004.

The RRCS project was built in two phases using $3.9 million in appropriated monies for planning and design and approximately $56.1 million in ARRA funds for construction. Phase I, which started in June 2009, was the construction of a replacement K-8 dormitory for residential students. Phase II, which began in September 2009, replaced a K-8 academic building and two dormitories – one for 86 K-8 students and one for 102 high school students – along with a kitchen and dining facility. A bus garage/maintenance shop and a transportation office have also been added. The project, which was completed in just over two years, was developed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Certification criteria.

Pueblo Pintado was one of 12 schools on the BIE’s replacement priority list published on July 9, 2003. The new $34.6 million campus will serve 387 students in a 71,000 square foot replacement school and a 21,000 square foot dormitory. ARRA funds totaling $5.2 million were used to build a second dormitory. The new K-8 school has a ground source heat pump, closed loop heating and cooling system, and a honeycomb-shaped roof-top heat recovery unit to capture heat from air leaving the building and warm it as it enters the building.

In addition to using green design, materials and technology for the replacement structures, both the Pueblo Pintado and Rough Rock projects met ARRA’s requirements for being “shovel-ready” and creating jobs. The Office of Facilities Management and Construction (OFMC) estimates that both projects created 139 jobs.

The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which serves the nation’s 565 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, and the Bureau of Indian Education, which operates one of two federal school systems (the other is under the Department of Defense). The BIE funds 183 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on 64 federal Indian reservations in 23 states serving approximately 42,000 American Indian and Alaska Native students. The BIE also serves American Indian and Alaska Native post secondary students through higher education scholarships, and support funding to 26 tribal colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges. It also directly operates two post secondary institutions: the Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) in Lawrence, Kan., and the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, N.M.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today celebrated the opening of the new educational facilities at Rough Rock Community School, noting the high-tech, culturally sensitive buildings and classrooms will better serve students and teachers on the Navajo Nation reservation in Arizona. Following his participation in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the official opening of the Rough Rock Community School’s new replacement school facilities, Echo Hawk spoke to attendees about the significance of the occasion.

“Two years ago, I was here to help break ground on the Rough Rock Community School replacement project, and today I am gratified at the results,” Echo Hawk said. “Rough Rock students, teachers and staff can now work in greener, spacious, more culturally sensitive and more technologically connected learning and living environments thanks to the American Reinvestment and Restoration Act.”

Echo Hawk was accompanied at the opening by Indian Affairs Office of Facilities, Environmental and Cultural Resources Director Jack Rever; Office of Facilities Management and Construction Deputy Director Emerson Eskeets; and Bureau of Indian Education Navajo Education Line Officer Gloria Hale Showalter.

This is the Assistant Secretary’s second visit to the school. In September 2009, he participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for Phase II of the project (the Phase I portion had begun at the start of his administration just three months earlier).

Today’s event follows one held August 9 to open replacement facilities at the Pueblo Pintado Community School, a BIE-operated off-reservation K-8 boarding school in New Mexico located west of the town of Cuba. Both schools are within the BIE school system. The replacement projects were undertaken by the Indian Affairs Office of Facilities Management and Construction with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

Opened in July 1966 as the Rough Rock Demonstration School, the RRCS, which is situated on adjoining campuses located 35 miles northwest of the town of Chinle, was the first Bureau of Indian Affairs school to be directly operated by American Indians themselves, as well as being the first Navajo-operated BIA school. The K-12 school, which currently serves approximately 440 day and residential students, is still a part of the Bureau school system, which is now administered by the BIE. The facility was included on the BIE’s Replacement School Construction Priority List published in the Federal Register on March 24, 2004.

The RRCS project was built in two phases using $3.9 million in appropriated monies for planning and design and approximately $56.1 million in ARRA funds for construction. Phase I, which started in June 2009, was the construction of a replacement K-8 dormitory for residential students. Phase II, which began in September 2009, replaced a K-8 academic building and two dormitories – one for 86 K-8 students and one for 102 high school students – along with a kitchen and dining facility. A bus garage/maintenance shop and a transportation office have also been added. The project, which was completed in just over two years, was developed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Certification criteria.

Pueblo Pintado was one of 12 schools on the BIE’s replacement priority list published on July 9, 2003. The new $34.6 million campus will serve 387 students in a 71,000 square foot replacement school and a 21,000 square foot dormitory. ARRA funds totaling $5.2 million were used to build a second dormitory. The new K-8 school has a ground source heat pump, closed loop heating and cooling system, and a honeycomb-shaped roof-top heat recovery unit to capture heat from air leaving the building and warm it as it enters the building.

In addition to using green design, materials and technology for the replacement structures, both the Pueblo Pintado and Rough Rock projects met ARRA’s requirements for being “shovel-ready” and creating jobs. The Office of Facilities Management and Construction (OFMC) estimates that both projects created 139 jobs.

The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which serves the nation’s 565 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, and the Bureau of Indian Education, which operates one of two federal school systems (the other is under the Department of Defense). The BIE funds 183 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools located on 64 federal Indian reservations in 23 states serving approximately 42,000 American Indian and Alaska Native students. The BIE also serves American Indian and Alaska Native post secondary students through higher education scholarships, and support funding to 26 tribal colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges. It also directly operates two post secondary institutions: the Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) in Lawrence, Kan., and the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, N.M.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald E. “Del” Laverdure has expressed his sincere condolences to the family of fallen Bureau of Indian Affairs wildland firefighter Anthony Polk, who was killed in the line of duty on June 8. His remarks were conveyed in a letter to the Polk family that will be read at a memorial service being held this afternoon on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation in southwestern Arizona.

Polk, 30, a resident of Yuma, Ariz., and a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe with ancestry from the Quechan Tribe of the Fort Yuma Reservation, died in a tragic one-vehicle accident while on assignment at the Montezuma fire. He was serving as an Engine Boss when the accident occurred.

Speaking on behalf of the Department of the Interior, the acting Assistant Secretary said, “Anthony was well known and respected by those who knew him inside the Forestry community and among those who fight in the dangerous wildland fire zones. We honor Anthony for his commitment and service to protecting those whose lives and property are threatened by wildland fire. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.”

Polk served as a firefighter for 10 years at the BIA’s Fort Yuma Agency before becoming the leader of the Agency’s Prescribed Fire Operations and Fuels Program. Through that program, he worked with Interior agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; other federal agencies including the U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and numerous local fire departments.

An interagency Serious Accident Investigative Team is looking into the cause of the accident, and more information will be released as it becomes available.

Andrew Polk was a 1999 graduate of San Pasqual Valley High School in Winterhaven, Calif. He is survived by his immediate family: daughter Aiyana; mother Ramona Villa; siblings Manuel, Alex and Raquel Villa; and grandmother Lucinda Polk. The family has requested that cards be sent to the Polk Family at 673 Baseline Road, Winterhaven, California, 92283, and donations to the AEA Federal Credit Union in Yuma County under the name Anthony Polk and donation account number 1613510-010.

The memorial service is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. local time at the Quechan Community Center. A wake is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Friday, June 15, at the Yuma Mortuary Chapel followed by funeral services at 5:00 p.m. at Cry House in Winterhaven.

-DOI-

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Thursday, August 18, Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs for Policy and Economic Development Jodi Gillette and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Director Michael Black will attend the second regional government-to-government regional tribal consultation regarding the Trust Land Consolidation component of the Cobell 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.

WHO: Jodi Gillette, Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs for Policy and Economic Development Michael Black, BIA Director Tribal Leaders from the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains regions

WHAT: Second Regional Tribal Consultation

WHEN: Thursday, August 18, 2011, Registration begins at 7am; meeting will start at 8:30 am (CDT).

WHERE: Mystic Lake Casino Hotel 2400 Mystic Lake Boulevard Prior Lake, MN 55372

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NOTE: All media must present government-issued photo I.D. (such as a driver’s license) and valid media credentials.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald E. “Del” Laverdure today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (OJS) has issued a handbook on best practices for reducing crime in Indian Country. The publication, “Crime Reduction Best Practices Handbook: Making Indian Communities Safe 2012,” was developed by the OJS based on the successful deployment of its strategy to meet the Department’s goal of reducing violent crime on four reservations.

“Reducing violent crime in tribal communities is among Secretary Salazar’s most important commitments to Indian Country, and Indian Affairs vigorously supports this effort,” Laverdure said. “The BIA Office of Justice Services’ ‘Crime-Reduction Best Practices Handbook: Making Indian Communities Safe 2012’ is a valuable new resource for tribal leaders, their police departments and their law enforcement partners, containing ideas and techniques they can use right away to fight crime and improve public safety in their communities.”

Through his Safe Indian Communities initiative, Secretary Salazar in 2010 established as a DOI High Priority Performance Goal (HPPG) initiative the reduction of violent crime by at least five percent over 24 months on four reservations that were experiencing high rates of violent crime: the Rocky Boy’s Reservation in Montana, the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico, the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, and the Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota. The effort resulted in a 35 percent decrease in violent crime across the four sites.

The performance goal was achieved by implementing a comprehensive strategy involving community policing, tactical deployment and critical interagency and intergovernmental partnerships. The handbook is a compendium of best practices from that strategy intended to guide law enforcement entities operating throughout Indian Country. It includes strategies that worked and those that didn’t, and the information it offers ranges from general approaches to details necessary to implement specific crime-reduction plans.

In addition to information about lessons learned and remaining challenges to reducing crime, the handbook also includes demographic profiles of the four targeted reservations; a glossary of acronyms; findings from the HPPG initiative on various issues affecting crime incidence; and an appendix with useful guides, templates, crime statistics, and a listing of OJS contacts.

The OJS’s approach to crime-reduction combines elements of short-term enforcement actions with longer term prevention, and considers having strong working relationships with tribes, community service providers, other law enforcement entities, and the at-large community as instrumental to building an ongoing service capacity in Indian Country that can address and correct conditions that contribute to crime.

The BIA-OJS Crime-Reduction Best Practices Handbook is posted on the Office of Justice Services webpage at www.indianaffairs.gov/WhoWeAre/BIA/OJS/index.htm.

The BIA Office of Justice Services’ mission is to enhance public safety and protect property in Indian Country by funding or providing law enforcement, corrections and tribal court services to the nation’s federally recognized tribes. It also coordinates emergency preparedness support on federal Indian lands by working cooperatively with other federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies throughout Indian Country. It also operates the Indian Police Academy in Artesia, N.M., which provides training and professional development to BIA and tribal law enforcement personnel.

-DOI-

WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that Bureau of Indian Education Director Keith Moore will be leaving his position at the Department of the Interior. Selected by then-Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk, Director Moore led the nation’s only federal education system for American Indian and Alaska Native students and implemented President Obama’s national initiatives for educational advancement in Indian Country.

“Over the past two years, Keith has provided great leadership and direction for the Bureau of Indian Education, carrying forward President Obama’s programs to improve the lives and quality of education for American Indian and Alaska Native people,” Secretary Salazar said. “He is a dedicated educational administrator and we thank him for his exceptional service to Indian Country and the Nation.”

Moore will be returning to his home state of South Dakota to serve as state director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Following Moore’s departure this month, BIE Chief of Staff Brian Drapeaux will serve as Acting Director until a new Director is named.

Under the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, the Obama Administration has coordinated federal agency programs to improve educational opportunities for American Indian and Alaska Native students. The Administration has also made strategic investments in Indian education under the American Recovery and Investment Acts, funding significant new school construction and repairs.

“It has been an extremely rewarding experience to lead the Bureau of Indian Education,” Moore said. “I want to thank Secretary Salazar for the opportunity to direct the BIE and to implement initiatives to help improve the lives of thousands of students through the power of education.”

The BIE operates a federal school system for Indian students, overseeing 183 facilities on 64 reservations in 23 states, consisting of 123 grant schools and 3 contract schools controlled by tribes, and 57 schools directly operated by the BIE. About 42,000 students are educated in BIE-funded elementary and secondary schools throughout the country. The BIE implements federal education laws, such as the No Child Left Behind Act.

“Keith was instrumental in establishing a strong partnership with the Department of Education,” Donald “Del” Laverdure, Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs said. “Throughout his tenure he worked hard to give BIE students the opportunity to pursue their dreams and the ability to achieve them.”

In addition, the BIE operates two postsecondary institutions, Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute and provides funds for 26 tribal colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges. Federal funding for the education of American Indian students comes from both the Department of the Interior and the Department of Education.

Prior to becoming the BIE director, Moore, who is an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, had served since August 2009 as the Chief Diversity Officer at the University of South Dakota. Before that, Moore served as Indian Education Director for the South Dakota State Department of Education.

Moore graduated in 1990 from Northern State University in Aberdeen with a B.S. degree in Health and Physical Education/Social Sciences. He received a M.A. degree in Educational Administration from South Dakota State University - Brookings in 2002 and an Educational Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership from Montana State University in 2009.

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WASHINGTON –Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will hold a news media teleconference today to announce a milestone in renewable energy development in Indian Country.

Members of the news media can join the 1:30 pm EDT teleconference by dialing 1-888-790- 1963 and providing the access code INTERIOR

All callers using the above passcode will be placed in listen-only mode. To join the Q&A portion of the meeting, callers are instructed to press *1 on their touch tone phone.

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WASHINGTON – As part of the Obama Administration’s all of the above approach to American energy, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today approved a 350-megawatt solar energy project on tribal trust land of the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians (Tribe) in Clark County, Nevada. The project marks a milestone as the first-ever, utility-scale solar project approved for development on tribal lands, and is one of the many steps the administration has taken to help strengthen tribal communities.

The project is also the 31st utility-scale renewable energy project that Interior has approved since 2009 as part of a Department-wide effort to advance smart development of renewable energy on our nation’s public lands. Prior to 2009, there were no solar energy projects permitted on public lands; today’s approval brings the total to 17 solar projects, 6 wind farms, and 8 geothermal plants. If built by the companies, the renewable energy projects approved by this administration will provide approximately 7,200 megawatts of power to communities across the West, or enough to power nearly 2.5 million homes. These achievements build on the historic expansion of renewable energy under President Obama, with energy from sources like wind and solar doubling since the President took office.

“This trailblazing project is part of the President’s commitment to help build strong, sustainable tribal communities by supporting safe and responsible renewable energy development,” Secretary Salazar said. “Tribal lands hold great renewable energy potential, and smart development of these resources has the power to strengthen tribal economies, create jobs and generate clean electricity for communities across Indian Country.”

The Record of Decision signed today approves the construction, operation and maintenance of a low-impact photovoltaic (PV) facility and associated infrastructure on about 2,000 acres of the Tribe’s reservation, located 30 miles north of Las Vegas. The site represents about three percent of the Tribe’s 71,954-acres, which are held in trust by the U.S. Government. The project is expected to generate about 400 jobs at peak construction and 15-20 permanent jobs.

“This is a great day for the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians, and for Indian Country as a whole,” said Donald “Del” Laverdure, Acting Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs. “As our nation’s energy portfolio continues to grow, it is important that tribal communities have the opportunity to harness the energy of the wind and sun in a way that can power our homes, businesses and economies. Today is a important step in that direction.”

The solar project approved today builds on President Obama’s strong record of supporting rural economies through the White House Rural Council. Established one year ago, the Rural Council has focused on maximizing the impact of Federal investment to promote economic prosperity and improve the quality of life in rural communities, including on tribal lands.

Proposed by K Road Moapa Solar LLC, the project would be built in three phases of 100-150 megawatts. In addition to PV panel arrays, major project components include a 500-kilovolt transmission line to deliver power to the grid and a 12- kilovolt transmission line to the existing Moapa Travel Plaza after Phase 1 is complete. About 12 acres of U.S. public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management would be required for the 500-kv transmission line.

The project will generate lease income for the tribe, create new jobs and employment opportunities for tribal members, and connect the existing tribally-owned Travel Plaza to the electrical grid, decreasing its dependence on a diesel-powered generator. The procurement of construction materials and equipment is expected to generate additional sales and use tax revenues for the county and the state.

In evaluating the proposed project’s compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as the lead federal agency, worked closely with cooperating agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Moapa Band.

To minimize and mitigate potential environmental impacts, a Desert Tortoise Translocation Plan, Bird and Bat Conservation Strategy and Weed Management Plan will be implemented, and natural resources monitoring by qualified biologists will be conducted during all surface disturbing activities. Tortoises found within the project boundary would be relocated within the reservation in accordance with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protocols. No water will be used in the production of electricity, but will be used periodically for cleaning the photovoltaic panels.

Under the Obama Administration’s initiatives to foster tribal energy self-sufficiency and advance economic competitiveness, Interior is also engaged in a sweeping reform of federal surface leasing regulations for American Indian lands that will streamline the approval process for home ownership and spur renewable energy development in Indian Country. As trustee for the land and resources of federally-recognized tribes, Interior is responsible for managing about 55 million surface acres in Indian Country.

A fact sheet on the Moapa Project is available here. A map of the project area is here.