OPA

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Holbrook Dormitory located in Holbrook, Ariz., on the Navajo reservation.

“President Bush and I are committed to providing all BIA students with healthy and safe schools,” said Interior Secretary Gale Norton. “For far too long, Indian children have been left behind. This budget request shows the Bush Administration’s dedication to creating environments where the minds, spirits and aspirations of thousands of Native American children may flourish. Children can best learn, and teachers can best teach, when they aren’t worrying that their classrooms will fall down.”

The budget request includes $14.5 million for the Holbrook Dormitory Replacement project to replace the current dormitory and gymnasium that were built over 40 years ago to serve 115 students in grades 9-12 from the Hopi and Navajo reservations. The project includes completely replacing the existing dormitory and gym, as well as constructing a bus garage and maintenance shop and demolishing existing buildings. The new facilities will continue to serve 115 students from the two reservations attending Holbrook Public Schools.

The existing facilities are being replaced because they were found to be functionally obsolete and in such poor physical condition that the cost to rehabilitate and maintain them would be prohibitively expensive. Problems such as leaky roofs, burst pipes, and technological breakdowns created risks for students and faculty that will be alleviated with the building of new facilities. The BIA’s 185 schools and dormitories have suffered for decades from neglect and disrepair. The five additional schools slated for replacement in FY2002 are: Polacca Day School, Polacca, Ariz.; Wingate Elementary School, Ft. Wingate, N.M.; Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe, N.M.; Ojibwa Indian School, Belcourt, N.D.; and Paschal Sherman Indian School, Omak, Wash.

The President’s request for BIA education also includes $5.0 million for advance planning and design of future replacement schools, $161.6 million to fund maintenance and repair projects to reduce the backlog of needed repairs to BIA school buildings, $504.0 million to fund BIA school and dormitory operations, and a $1.0 million increase for operating grants to 25 tribally controlled community colleges.

The BIA’s mission is to fulfill its trust responsibilities and promote self-determination on behalf of Tribal governments, American Indians, and Alaska Natives.As part of its mission, the BIA provides services to approximately 1.4 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who are members of the 561 federally recognized Tribes in the 48 contiguous United States and Alaska.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Polacca Day School located in Polacca, Ariz., on the Hopi reservation.

“President Bush and I are committed to providing all BIA students with healthy and safe schools,” said Interior Secretary Gale Norton.“For far too long, Indian children have been left behind. This budget request shows the Bush Administration’s dedication to creating environments where the minds, spirits and aspirations of thousands of Native American children may flourish.Children can best learn, and teachers can best teach, when they aren’t worrying that their classrooms will fall down.”

The budget request includes $19.9 million for the Polacca Day School Replacement project that will replace the current facility as a way to eliminate unsafe conditions, alleviate severe overcrowding, and accommodate a projected increase in student enrollment. The school’s main building and cafeteria were built in 1956 with portable classrooms added in 1975 and 1995.At present, the K-6 school serves 188 students from the Hopi Tribe, 80 percent of whom are housed in the portable classrooms that are too small for teachers to provide an optimal level of academic instruction.

The condition of the main school building and portable classrooms are at a point where an unsafe and unhealthy learning environment exists:the building’s exterior walls have deteriorated and are not insulated, the mechanical system cannot provide needed air circulation or heating, the electrical system and power supply are inadequate to support educational and office equipment, and the plumbing system is causing problems for students and staff. In contrast, the replacement school will be a safe, modern-day teaching and learning facility serving approximately 375 elementary school students.

The BIA’s 185 schools and dormitories have suffered for decades from neglect and disrepair.The five additional school facilities slated for replacement in FY2002 are:Holbrook Dormitory, Holbrook, Ariz.; Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe, N.M.; Wingate Elementary School Dormitory, Ft. Wingate, N.M.; Ojibwa Indian School, Belcourt, N.D.; and Paschal Sherman Indian School, Omak, Wash.

The President’s request for BIA education also includes $5.0 million for advance planning and design of future replacement schools, $161.6 million to fund maintenance and repair projects to reduce the backlog of needed repairs to BIA school buildings, $504.0 million to fund BIA school and dormitory operations, and a $1.0 million increase for operating grants to 25 tribally controlled community colleges.

The BIA’s mission is to fulfill its trust responsibilities and promote self-determination on behalf of Tribal governments, American Indians, and Alaska Natives. As part of its mission, the BIA provides services to approximately 1.4 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who are members of the 561 federally recognized Tribes in the 48 contiguous United States and Alaska.

It is a very great honor to appear before this distinguished audience.

I know that you are aware that the problems of Native Americans are gathering, day by day, an increasing and long overdue awareness and commitment in the conscience of all Americans - and certainly with the United States government.

NOTE: This text is the basis of Secretary Weinberger's oral remarks. It should be used with the understanding that some material may be added or omitted during presentation.

¬But I am sure that even at this late hour, we still do not fully comprehend all that needs to be done to make our constitutional pledge of equality a living and meaningful reality for Indians,

I do believe, however, that our failings now are more of omission than commission more from misunderstanding of the needs, rather than any plot to deny rights and needed programs, and one of the things I hope to learn more about, and quickly is your real needs.

I hope and I trust that our awareness of those needs will us to develop that basic understanding necessary for beginning on a new Indian era in which - as president Nixon has declared - "The Indian future is determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions,"

We think we may have made such a start, l would like to talk to you today about our department's expanding role in Indian affairs.

Is a department which serves people: and even more important helps people help themselves.

Our people are experienced in dealing with the basic problems that plague you - such as poverty, bad health, isolation, discrimination, inferior education, negligible economic opportunity, alcoholism and matters of social welfare - problems that are not unique to any one people or race,

So the very fact that some additional Indian programs are now lodged with hew is a step forward - the Indian programs. In hew will be nurtured, sustained and enhanced by all our other programs and people who deal every day with the problems of the disadvantaged,

As we work more with you on these matters of grave mutual concern, he will be doing so with an acute awareness of the treaty relationship and the deep obligation we have to you as native citizens of this land.

In particular, l want to allay any fears you might have that, in our concern for you as a people, we might lose sight of your traditional concern for and desire to retain natural Resources. We know of your never-ending struggle to enjoy them,

We can assure you that our delivery of hew services will never depend on the relinquishment by you of any of those natural resources.

While we stand ready to acknowledge that all our problems both historic and contemporary have not been solved. There has been some progress and that should not be overlooked.

Total federal funding for Indian affairs has substantially increased. But more important is the fact that Indian are given more control over how that money will be spent. It is increasingly being put in the hands of tribal governments and other Indian organizations. This is true with economic development funds and it is true with HEW programs and money.

In recognition of your convention theme, "restoration now," we should note that some lands are being restored to their rightful native American owners - 48,000 acres of sacred land near blue lake to the Taos pueblo; 21,000 acres to the Yakima nation; the use of pyramid lake waters to the Paiute tribe; and most recently, the house overwhelmingly passed A.

That would restore land and government services to the Menominee tribe of Wisconsin, as the president made clear in his message to the convention, we sincerely hope that this will pass the Senate so it may be signed by the president.

I am aware that one reason why l was invited to address the convention is because you are looking to my department as

A new ally in the struggle to improve the living conditions and opportunities for the Indian people, it is right that you should,

- for 18 years, we have administered the Indian health program since it was transferred from the interior department,

- last year, the Indian education act gave our office

Of education new responsibilities,

- and this year, we acquired the office of economic opportunity's Indian program.

I want to mention here that our department has taken over more from the office of economic opportunity than just some of the OEO programs, our undersecretary of hew - the department's second officer - is Frank Carlucci, the former director of OEO who has been intimately involved in the management of Indian programs for a number of years,

Frank and I work together constantly, and his advice to me on policy development is invaluable, thus you may be certain that our continuing scrutiny of Indian programs takes place at the top, as well as in the various operating bureaus and agencies.

So HEW obviously is gaining a greater stake in your future. I can assure you that we are making every effort to bring greater knowledge and even more effort to the programs we administer for the benefit of the Indian people.

In order to help me assess our total efforts in Indian programs, I will be looking to the new office of Native American programs under the assistant secretary of human development,

This new assistant secretary ship was created right after I came to the department to establish a central place at the highest level of the department to work on sensitive human problems in which we have a special interest.

The new office will administer the special Indian self-determination programs but a major change will be made in the way these programs operate this fiscal year, the grants will be made directly to tribal councils, who may then select administering agencies or use the funds in other ways that will carry out the administration's policy of self-determination for Indians.

An expanded budget in this program will enable tribal councils to determine their own priorities, and fund them

Accordingly, we do intend, as well, to give special emphasis to urban Indian centers.

A new responsibility entrusted to the department is the program of grants authorized by the Indian education act.

Which congress enacted last year, the program will be administered by a deputy commissioner of Indian education, we actively solicited and are now reviewing the suggestions of the national advisory council on Indian education for a person to be appointed to this high post.

So that the school districts can develop their funding plans, I am announcing today that the 1974 funds - $40 million have been released and will be allocated by hew.

To assure Indian participation in this new program, the act requires that all projects receiving funds must be developed in cooperation with the Indian population to be served, including tribes, parents and, where applicable, the students themselves.

The office of education will continue to provide additional funds under the more traditional impact aid program and title

I of the elementary and secondary education act which focuses money on disadvantaged children, but we hope that under the leadership of a deputy commissioner, who is himself a Native American, that all our education programs will better meet

What you perceive to be the needs of your children.

Education is a key to self-determination and education will receive heavy hew emphasis as we move down the road that leads to full self-determination,

Another new effort we have under way is being administered by a special Indian-Alaska native desk within our national institute of alcohol abuse and alcoholism.

We are well aware of the concern you have for alcoholism, the abuses and desolation your people have suffered is underlined by the fact that this problem affects an estimated 50 to 80 percent of all Indian families. We know the havoc this creates disrupting both family ad tribal life-exactly as it also affects millions of non-Indians. We know it a disadvantage and we intend to fight it as a disease that can be co trolled or cured

Alcoholism among Native Americans is a priority effort within the NIAAA, currently we are funding 140 projects, a third of which are serving urban Indians arm the remainder are based on reservations. About so of these 'projects were transferred last year from the office of economic opportunity, last year funding totaled $6,8 million and this year we expect to spend nearly $7 million on alcoholism treatment and rehabilitation services for Indians and Alaska Natives at the community level - in larger cities rural areas, and on reservations.

This special program was something we initiated administratively by ourselves. There has no legislation mandating such a program. Our approach basically is to give the Indian and Alaska native people the resources so they may themselves solve their alcoholism problems, we also made a grant to the American Indian commission on alcoholism. Drug abuse, which has an all-Indian staff and is providing technical assistance to the individual projects.

As far as the general health program is concerned, I think know well the gains it has brought about in the past 18 years - the increasing numbers of people being served and favorable impact this has had on death rates and the reduction of serious illness, but you also know that we are intensifying our efforts in this struggle of ours to bring the health of native Americans up to that of the general population, that is why we are spending more money on Indian health, building more hospitals, and bringing more Indians into the service than ever before,

Obviously, this is no time to slacken our momentum and we have no intention of doing so, we expect to spend over $200 million this year - almost double the 1969 level, our goal is to raise the health of the 489,000 American Indians and Alaska natives for whom we are responsible, to the highest possible level.

Toward this end, we have greatly expanded opportunities for Native Americans to build health careers within the Indian health service.

At the present time, more than 53 percent of the 7,142 full-time personnel of IHS are Indians and Alaska natives. Many of these people have been trained in our special schools and courses conducted by IHS, all-Indian tribal boards participate fully with IHS staff in planning, operating, and evaluating the health program at every administrative level.

Our office of health manpower opportunities has trained more than 4,000 Indians and Alaska natives as allied health professionals, more than 1,600 have been trained in health leadership and health management positions and for further advancement into the health professions - including physician training, registered nurse programs for practical nurses, and special nurse training in obstetrics,

In our recent reorganization of the health area, we moved from an advocacy type structure to a functional approach, previously one person had represented each principal minority group, including one for the American Indians on a functional basis, however, recognizing the unique relationship between the federal government and the American Indian, we made special provisions for the American Indian by establishing a liaison office for Indian affairs in the new health resources administration whose responsibility it would be to coordinate the activities of that agency with the Indian health services in hew, the bureau of Indian affairs in DOI and so forth.

there are noteworthy developments in the activities of HEW's office for civil rights, which is responsible for administering title vi of the civil rights act of 1964 for many years this office was totally absorbed by the effort to bring about the elimination of the Southern - black white - "dual school system,"

The last three years, however, the office of civil rights has articulated and begun to enforce actively a policy, which requires school districts to remove barriers to equal educational services for Indian children - resulting from the failure by school districts to appreciate and reflect the rich cultural and linguistic heritage of Indian Children.

We believe the educational development and achievement of Indian children should not be restricted by the failure of school districts to create educational environments which reflect and value the language and cultural heritage of Indian children just as they reflect and value the language and cultural heritage of non-Indian children, compliance activities underway in Wisconsin, Arizona, and New Mexico have stressed this very important point, in the area of financial assistance to Indian students in colleges and universities, the office of civil rights will soon release a memorandum which will address the concerns raised by many Indian students regarding the distribution of federal financial aid for higher education, our objective is to eliminate discrimination wherever we find it.

Similarly, a memorandum of understanding among the office of civil rights, the Indian health service, and the medical services administration of hew has been finalized which will prohibit any state or local hospital or extended care facility from turning away Indian patients who choose to be treated there because such patients are also eligible for benefits from the Indian health service, further, the memorandum of understanding establishes a system to prevent Indian people from being turned away from state and local health care facilities because of an alleged inability to pay.

I hope that you can see as we do in all these various steps a beginning of that new Indian era of self-determination that we all seek, but possibly more important than individual programs and funds - in the long range - might be our basic approach, instead of telling you what we are going to do, l am interested in asking you what you believe we should be doing - and what you think we are doing wrong, I came here fully as much to learn as to talk.

This month, the hew office of Native American programs began a series of six regional meetings to receive Indian advice and recommendations - and complaints - on activities the new office should undertake, such meetings already have taken place at the reservations at warm springs, Oregon, and fort Berthold, North Dakota.

I urge you, and all Indians, to take a full, unconstrained part in these sessions - let us have your recommendation and suggestions and ideas, we plan to consult you on a regular basis and we want our programs to reflect Indian needs and desires.

In the past, I fear, the federal approach was that we knew the answers and we proclaimed those answers with the bold and total confidence that only uninformed people can project.

Now, at least, we are conceding that we don't know the answers, and we are setting out to learn, work on education programs for us as we work on education programs for you.

So there are some signs of new directions and we trust that our listening and learning can be counted as one of the most promising.

We know that our efforts are late by decades, not by months or weeks.

We know that our past efforts have been only partial and tentative successes.

But we also know of the depth of our commitment and that can be the most important fact of all, because our long story has demonstrated at least one thing: we can do what we want to do.

So I pledge you our very best efforts at compassion that works, compassion works that is built on deeds and not words. And I pledge you my total personal involvement, commitment and cooperation.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Indian Affairs provides services directly or through contracts, grants, or compacts to a service population of more than 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who are enrolled members of 567 Federally recognized tribes in the 48 contiguous United States and Alaska. The extensive scope of Indian Affairs programs is authorized by numerous treaties, court decisions, and legislation and covers virtually the entire range of Federal, state and local government services. Programs administered through Indian Affairs include social services, natural resources management, economic development, law enforcement and detention services, administration of tribal courts, implementation of land and water claim settlements, replacement and repair of schools, repair and maintenance of roads and bridges, repair of structural deficiencies on high hazard dams, and land consolidation activities.

The mission of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is to enhance the quality of life, to promote economic opportunity, and to carry out the responsibility to protect and improve the trust assets of American Indians, Indian Tribes, and Alaska Natives. The Bureau administers and manages 55 million surface acres and 57 million acres of subsurface minerals estates held in trust by the United States for individuals and Tribes. The mission of the Bureau of Indian Education is to provide quality education opportunities from early childhood through life in Indian Country for individuals attending Bureau schools. The Bureau provides education services to approximately 41,000 Indian students through 183 schools and dormitories and provides funding to 31 colleges, universities and post-secondary schools.

In the event that a funding measure is not enacted, Indian Affairs needs to prepare for a lapse in appropriations and as such has created a Contingency Plan for essential operations. The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs will be responsible for implementing and adjusting the plan to respond to the length of the appropriations hiatus and changes in external circumstances. The Plan:

• Provides planning guidance for the following offices: Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs; the Bureau of Indian Affairs: and the Bureau of Indian Education.
• Provides operational direction for the Indian Affairs Contingency Plan team.
• Identifies the Excepted personnel and the Exempt personnel that would be able to continue operations with non-appropriated funds.

The Plan is supported by plans at the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education organizational levels. Each Bureau Director has concurred with the Plan in the event of a lapse in appropriations. Denoted below is a summary of the Indian Affairs organizations (by total employees) should the respective Contingency Plan(s) be effected.

Denoted below is the breakout of Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs employees in the event the Plan is activated. Total encumbered employees are 215 as of mid-September, 2015. Under the Plan, a total of 78 employees funded by annual appropriations have been identified to be on duty as Excepted Employees. A total of 137 employees would be subject to furlough status.

Estimate of the time to complete the shutdown: For all three organizations, it is estimated a half day (4 hours) will be required to implement the Plan on day 1.

OVERVIEW

The purpose of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Contingency Plan is to ensure the continuous performance of essential functions, continued leadership of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Indian Education and provide for an orderly means of addressing problems and keeping essential operations running smoothly. To do so, the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs has incorporated the following key continuity concepts into operational procedures to ensure a robust continuity capability exists:

• Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs essential functions
• Clear lines of authority
• Necessary communications capabilities

The Plan encompasses Indian Affairs offices regardless of physical location. It also encompasses all resources and capabilities that will be used in support of the mission such as other Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs and Bureau facilities, personnel, or communications infrastructure needed to support such essential operations. This plan assumes a shutdown of no more than approximately 30 calendar days or 22 work days.

EXCEPTED PERSONNEL

The Plan identifies Excepted Personnel in the following three categories: Protection of Human Life; Protection of Federal Property; and Preventing Harm. These personnel are the minimum required to enable the Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs to provide vital services, exercise civil authority, and maintain the safety of the general public.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Essential Functions

Coordinate emergency response activities on tribal and allotted lands.

Coordinate critical services that address health and safety of tribes and Indian Affairs employees.

Manage and coordinate allegations of child abuse.

Coordinate law enforcement and detention operations on Indian lands under Federal jurisdiction, coordinate Tribal law enforcement activities, and enforcement of Federal laws.

Protect Federal facilities and infrastructure.

ESSENTIAL SUPPORT ACTIVITIES

Essential Support Activities are those things that are necessary to enable the execution of Essential Functions by designated Excepted Personnel.

Essential Support Activities

Provide finance and accounting activities to support trust activities and excepted services and personnel.

Provide acquisition and logistics support for excepted personnel.

Provide financial system support necessary to support excepted personnel.

Communicate with Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs employees, providing information on the status of operations.

Operate and maintain facilities for the health and safety of Federal employees and the protection of property.

Account for status of the workforce and recall employees to duty, as required.

Provide communications and the information technology service that allows the function. Coordinate approval of emergency funding transfers, and reprogramming requests to ensure funding is in place to sustain essential operations.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Assistant Secretary- Indian Affairs

The Assistant Secretary- Indian Affairs:

• The Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary will ensure the adequacy of the Contingency Plan and be the primary liaison to the Department and implement any changes to the Contingency Plan.

Deputy Assistant Secretary – Management

The Deputy Assistant Secretary – Management is responsible for the following:

• Executes essential functions related to the Deputy Assistant Secretary – Management programs, including Budget, Information Technology, Financial Systems and Human Resources.

Assistant Director for Information Resources – Indian Affairs

The Assistant Director for Information Resources – Indian Affairs is responsible for the following:

• Supports the Secretary of the Interior and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs through the implementation of telecommunications and network services.
• Maintains network support and server infrastructure for Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs.
• Provides technical assistance to Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs offices and Bureaus.

Director, Office of Human Capital Management

The Director, Office of Human Capital Management, has the following responsibilities:

• Effect shutdown and furlough procedures.
• Answer employee inquiries, including provide an employee Frequently Asked Questions (informational bulletin) to be distributed via e-mail and posted on the Bureau of Indian Affairs Website to answer Plan related questions.
• Be prepared to execute procedures to bring employees back to work.

Director, Office of Budget

The Director, Office of Budget has the following responsibilities:

• Provide budget briefings and manage budget activities including the execution of non-lapsing appropriations.
• Support funding determinations from non-lapsing appropriations
• Respond to congressional inquiries.

Directors, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education

The Heads of Bureaus are responsible for effective management and execution of Excepted Personnel/Essential Functions within their respective Bureaus and the coordination of such with the Chief of Staff. In line with this function, the Directors of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education:

• Ensure readiness of the Bureau to implement its Bureau specific Contingency Plan.
• Ensure assigned personnel execute the Plan responsibilities should implementation be required.
• Provide Contingency policy advice.
• Provide the Bureau-specific Plans.
• Oversee management of Bureau functions, facilities, infrastructure, and personnel.

Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Continuity Team Members

Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Contingency Team Members bear the overall responsibility for maintaining the Department’s essential functions during Contingency operations. Contingency Team members are as follows:

• Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs
• Chief of Staff
• Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs
• Deputy Assistant Secretary – Management
• Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Director, Bureau of Indian Education

ALERTS AND NOTIFICATION

If the Plan is activated, notification will be communicated to all employees by internal telephone tree (specific to each office), e-mail and/or website posting. The Chief of Staff will implement the notification procedures.

Attachment(s):

1. List of Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Excepted Employees
2. Bureau of Indian Affairs Contingency Plan
3. Bureau of Indian Education Contingency Plan

ASSISTANT SECRETARY – INDIAN AFFAIRS EXCEPTED PERSONNEL

Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, Immediate Office

Key top leadership of Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs are deemed excepted employees should the Plan be effected.

The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs provides overall leadership and direction for all organizational components of Indian Affairs nationwide. As a Senate-confirmed appointee this position is Excepted. This position dictates when the Plan will go into effect and any modifications to it during its implementation and execution.

The Chief of Staff executes the daily administrative responsibilities for the Assistant Secretary and the Immediate Office on the whole. This position is responsible for ensuring the implementation and execution of the Plan on a nationwide basis in addition to ensuring the conduct of essential duties and responsibilities.

The Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs is responsible for advising the Assistant Secretary on policy matters, including position(s) on litigation matters, which may arise during the effect of the Plan. This position serves as the expert policy counsel on these matters.

The Deputy Assistant Secretary – Policy and Economic Development will provide Executive oversight and staff support for subordinate offices which do not have any employees identified as excepted: Office of Federal Acknowledgement and the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development. In addition, the position oversees all Self Governance Compact tribal activities which includes protection of individuals, life and property (i.e., law enforcement, child protection services).

COMMUNICATIONS TEAM

The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs has developed a communications team to work with Tribes and external stakeholders in the event the Plan is implemented and to communicate with employees. A lapse in appropriations for the Federal Government will also have ramifications for the 567 Federally recognized Tribes in their daily operations.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY – INDIAN AFFAIRS OFFICES WITH NO DESIGNATED EXCEPTED EMPLOYEES

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY – MANAGEMENT EXCEPTED PERSONNEL

Immediate Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary - Management

Office of Human Capital Management

Office of Information Management Technology

Office of the Chief Financial Officer

Office of Budget and Performance Management

Office of Facilities, Property, and Safety Management

PUBLIC WEBINAR MEETING #8

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm (Eastern Standard Time)

ADDRESS TO REGISTER

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/774101625 (No longer valid)

Instructions on how to join the webinar will be sent to your email address

Tomorrow, June 1, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. EDT, the White House will host a panel discussion of leaders who have contributed to the progress of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! in Indian Country initiative and whose work can be expanded across Indian Country. The discussion will be streamed online at www.WhiteHouse.gov/live. As a key component of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative, Let’s Move! in Indian Country focuses on four pillars that are essential to building a healthy future for American Indian and Alaska Native youth:

• Creating a Healthy start on Life,
• Creating Healthy Learning Communities,
• Fostering Healthy, Comprehensive Food Systems Policies, and
• Increasing Opportunities for Physical Activity

The featured panelists have demonstrated success in one or more of these pillars and are here to share their stories. They will be joined by the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives and Assistant White House Chef Sam Kass, Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Del Laverdure, and White House Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs Jodi Gillette. Following the discussion, two of our panelists, professional basketball players Ben Strong and Tahnee Robinson, will lead a group of Native American youth through a basketball clinic. The full agenda will include the following panelists:

Alvina Begay (Navajo) – Distance Runner and Olympic Hopeful

After a successful collegiate running career Alvina has finished in the top 10 in six U.S. road Championships, represented the U.S. internationally and finished 10th in the ING New York City Marathon. Alvina recently qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meters.

Jack Burns – Nike N7

Jack is a member of the N7 Fund Board of Directors. Along with Sam McCracken, the General Manager of N7, he was one of many who helped develop the N7 program to bring sport and all of its benefits to Native American and Aboriginal communities in the U.S. and Canada.

Carl Butterfield (Red Cliff) – AmeriCorps Vista Garden Operations

Carl is an AmeriCorps VISTA leader for the Mino Bi Ma De Se Win (Return to the Good Life) Farm. The garden project works to ensure sustainability by encouraging tribal members to play an active role in the development, management, and production of a local food source.

Lise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain) – Circle of Nations Wahpeton Indian School

Gardening is a family tradition for Lise, who serves as the school health officer at Circle of Nations School in North Dakota. She works to encourage healthy choices through the school’s “Green & Growing” local sustainable food project. She is also an accomplished author having written award-winning books for young readers, including her acclaimed work, Sacagawea.

Sheena Kanott (Eastern Band of Cherokee) – Cherokee Choices

Cherokee Choices is a diabetes prevention program that confronts the factors which put Cherokee people at higher risk for diabetes. The program provides social support to increase physical activity and promote well-being to reduce the risk for obesity and diabetes.

Clifton Kenon Jr. – Rosebud Indian Health Service Hospital

As the Maternal Child Health consultant for the Aberdeen Area of the Indian Health Service (IHS), Clifton has worked to implement the ‘Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.’ This initiative will lead to the full accreditation for the first IHS hospital (Rosebud) in July of 2012.

Leatrice Lewis (Zuni) – Zuni Youth Enrichment Project

Leatrice is a co-founder of the Zuni Wellness Center and worked as the Program Manager for fifteen years. Today, she continues her work in tribal wellness and serves as a wellness consultant to Indian tribes and other indigenous groups.

Ted Mala (Inupiat Eskimo) – Southcentral Foundation

Dr. Mala is an Alaska Native physician who comes from a family of traditional healers in Buckland, Alaska. Now as a director of Southcentral Foundation, he bridges traditional Native healing practices with Western medicine providing physical, mental and emotional healing.

Crispen McAllister (Karuk) – Karuk Tribal Council and Distance Runner

Since his retirement from the US Navy after deployment to Iraq, Crispen has been focused on improving the health and well-being of his community. He recently participated in a 230 mile run across the Karuk Ancestral territory to inspire Native Americans to make healthy choices.

Bruce Pecore (Menominee) – Menominee Tribal Council

Bruce helped introduce the Badges for Baseball program to the Menominee Tribe. Recently, he carried out an initiative to bring a grocery store to the reservation by opening the Keshena Save-A Lot which sells fresh produce and provides healthier dietary options to the Menominee people.

Tahnee Robinson (Northern Cheyenne) – Professional Basketball Player

After an outstanding college basketball career at the University of Nevada Reno, Tahnee became the first American Indian woman drafted by the WNBA. She has since played professional basketball in Israel and is contracted to play her next season in Bulgaria.

Valerie Segrest (Muckleshoot) – Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project

Valerie serves on the Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project and as a nutrition educator for the Northwest Indian College’s Traditional Plants Program. She co-authored the book Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit: Revitalizing Northwest Coastal Indian Food Culture.

Ben Strong, Professional Basketball Player

In college Ben was named the NCAA Division III National Basketball Player of the Year. He has played professionally in the Netherlands, Israel and last year with the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League. For eight years he has run Big Ben's Basketball Camp in Red Lake, Minnesota and hopes that his next endeavor will be playing professionally in the NBA.

Please join these outstanding leaders along with Senior Officials in the Obama Administration tomorrow, June 1, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. EDT online at www.WhiteHouse.gov/live.

Charlie Galbraith is an Associate Director in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Robert Abbey will hold a news media teleconference regarding domestic oil and gas production on public and Tribal lands.
Credentialed media may also participate in the teleconference media roundtable by telephone by dialing 1-888-972-9240 and entering the access code INTERIOR.

WHO: Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior Robert Abbey, Director of the Bureau of Land Management
WHAT: Teleconference on oil and gas production
WHEN: 11:00 am EDT; Friday, May 4, 2012
MEDIA: All credentialed media are invited to join the teleconference by dialing 1-888-972-9240 and entering the access code INTERIOR.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM (January 12, 2010) – U.S. Department of the Interior officials today welcomed college football All-American and Rhodes Scholar Myron Rolle to Isleta Elementary School at the Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico, American Indian Reservation to kick off the new Our Way to Health™ Program.

A public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education and the Myron L. Rolle Foundation, the initiative brings an innovative physical fitness and health program into Bureau of Indian Education-funded Native American schools, initially launched at five schools in New Mexico and Arizona.

“The Our Way to Health Program developed by the Myron L. Rolle Foundation is designed to inspire American Indian students to live healthier lifestyles through exercise, outdoor activity, and proper nutrition,” said Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk. “The program will celebrate the uniqueness of their heritage and identity in curriculum, develop trust amongst peers, train leaders and involve the community to ensure their needs are met.”

Rolle met with 143 fifth and sixth graders from Isleta Elementary and San Felipe Pueblo Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon. He explained the Our Way to Health Program, his interest in First Americans, the importance of physical activity and leading a health lifestyle, and answered questions from students, teachers, parents and members of the community. Tomorrow Rolle will kick off the program in Tuba City, Arizona, with an additional 279 Navajo and Hopi Tribe fifth and sixth graders from Tuba City Boarding School, Hotevilla Bacavi Community School and Keams Canyon Elementary School.

“I am inspired by the way First American tribes have persevered and thrived, while retaining their cultural heritage and identity,” Rolle said. “There are, however, significant health concerns that challenge this population -- in particular diabetes and obesity. I am excited to be here to launch the Our Way to Health Program, which we hope will encourage First American children in middle school to begin managing not only their own diet and exercise but, hopefully by extension, influence the adults in their lives to also begin adopting healthy life style changes.”

Our Way to Health provides incentive-based learning experiences, team-building physical activities in the outdoors, health education and diabetes awareness sessions. Rolle initially developed the curriculum while a student at Florida State University for Native American fifth graders at a Seminole Tribe charter school in Okeechobee, Florida. Rolle was an All-American safety for the FSU Seminoles football team in 2008-09. He delayed entering the National Football League Draft until 2010, however, to accept the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford. Rolle will earn a Master’s Degree in Medical Anthropology and, after playing in the NFL, plans to pursue a career as a brain surgeon.

Unique features of the six-week program include two in-person visits by Myron Rolle and a trip at the end of the semester for the winning teams to a professional or collegiate sporting event. The curriculum will allow the Bureau of Indian Education to reach students in a new and direct way. The program is competitive, fun, rewarding and is being tailored to meet each school’s individual needs.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) serves 42,000 students in 183 schools and dormitories across the country on 64 reservations in 23 states. The mission statement of BIE reflects its commitment to “manifest consideration of the whole person by taking into account the spiritual, mental, physical, and cultural aspects of the individual.”

The Myron L. Rolle Foundation is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization dedicated to the support of health, wellness, educational and other charitable initiatives throughout the world that benefit children and families in need. The Foundation was established in 2009 by Rhodes Scholar and College Football All-American Myron L. Rolle and his family.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Trust Services, working in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) are planning to hold a series of tribal energy transmission system planning workshops for tribal leaders and tribal resource managers.

“Tribal lands have some of the highest renewable and conventional energy resources potential in our country,” Echo Hawk said. “These workshops will help tribal leaders and tribal resource managers develop energy transmission corridors so that tribes can be a major player in building the twenty-first century power transmission grid.”

Each two-day workshop will provide information and guidance on planning and developing corridors for energy transmission system projects on tribal lands, including both electricity transmission and pipeline projects. The workshops also will provide an overview of the multiple steps involved in transmission projects, guidance on how to address environmental and siting issues, and information about resources available to tribes to assist in developing designated corridors for such projects.

The workshops are designed to assist tribal leaders, staff of tribal resource management departments, and federal employees who work with tribes. Some of the specific workshop elements include:

• Sessions on transmission system planning and interconnection requirements presented by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Western Area Power Administration.
• Detailed guidance for tribes presented by ANL on identifying and designating the most appropriate corridors for electric transmission lines and oil and gas pipelines.
• Access to representatives from the IEED and the BIA’s Office of Trust Services and Indian Affairs.
• Presentations about the Energy Department’s Tribal Energy Program and Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability.
• An overview of the role of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

“It is important that tribes be an integral part in one of the administration’s top energy priorities to build a cleaner, safer, and more efficient national energy grid,” said Echo Hawk. “These workshops are an example of Indian Affairs’ commitment and support of the administration’s energy policy.”

The first workshop will be held January 27-28, 2010, at the Albuquerque Marriott, 2101 Louisiana Blvd., N.E., Albuquerque, N.M. Additional workshops will be held:

• Phoenix, Ariz. – March 3-4, 2010
• Portland, Ore. – April 13-14, 2010
• Bismarck, N.D. – May 19-20, 2010

Space is limited to 30 participants. To pre-register for the workshops, contact Rosalyn Worthan at (202) 208-3567 or rosalyn.worthan@bia.gov. The alternate contact person is Kevin Tennyson at (202) 513-0815 or kevin.tennyson@bia.gov.

The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs oversees the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, whose mission is to foster stronger American Indian and Alaska Native communities by helping federally recognized tribes with employment and workforce training programs; helping tribes develop their renewable and non-renewable energy and mineral resources; and increasing access to capital for tribal and individual American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned businesses. For more information about IEED programs and services, visit http://www.indianaffairs.gov/WhoWeAre/AS-IA/IEED/index.htm.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of Ralph E. Paisano, a Laguna Pueblo Indian, as Superintendent of the BIA's Ramah Navajo Agency, Ramah, New Mexico.

Paisano, who has been an Employment Assistance Specialist in the Albuquerque Area Office, assumed responsibility at Ramah on April 11.

A graduate of Gallup High School, Paisano has been attending the University of New Mexico and has completed extensive management training within the Department of Interior. After four years in the Navy, Paisano began his Civil Service career in 1952.