OPA

WASHINGTON, DC – In another step to fulfill President Obama’s commitment to strengthen Indian communities, the U.S. Department of the Interior today announced that the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program) has sent purchase offers to nearly 16,000 individual landowners with fractionated interests in parcels on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Totaling more than $100 million, these offers will provide landowners the opportunity to voluntarily sell their fractionated interests, which would be consolidated and held in trust for the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation.

“The success of the Buy-Back Program is vitally important to the future of Indian Country,” said Kevin K. Washburn, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. “Consolidating and returning these lands to tribes in trust will have enormous potential to unlock tribal community resources. While we know that it will be a challenge to reach all landowners, we are committed to exhausting all efforts to make sure that individuals are aware of this historic opportunity to strengthen tribal sovereignty by supporting the consolidation of tribal lands.”

The goal of the Buy-Back Program is to strengthen self-determination and self-governance for federally-recognized tribes. The Program implements the land consolidation component of the Cobell Settlement, which provided $1.9 billion to purchase fractionated interests in trust or restricted land from willing sellers at fair market value. Individuals who choose to sell their interests will receive payments directly in their IIM accounts. Consolidated interests are immediately restored to tribal trust ownership for uses benefiting the reservation community and tribal members.

Land fractionation is a serious problem across Indian Country. As individually-owned lands are passed down through several generations, they gain more and more owners. Many of these tracts now have hundreds and even thousands of individual owners. For many of these owners with fractionated interests, the land has very little practical value. Because it is difficult to gain landowner consensus on the use of these lands, the parcels often lie idle and cannot be used for any beneficial purpose.

The Pine Ridge Reservation is one of the most highly-fractionated land ownership locations in Indian Country. The vast majority of landowners with purchasable interests have received offers– and have been located in 46 states across the country.

Interior has worked cooperatively with the Oglala Sioux Tribe over the past several months to conduct outreach to educate landowners about this unique opportunity, answer questions and help individuals make a timely decision about their land. Many owners have already been paid in response to offers delivered in December 2013.

Early purchases from willing sellers at Pine Ridge have resulted in the consolidation of thousands of acres of land for the tribe and in payments to landowners exceeding $10 million. While the amounts offered to individuals have varied, some owners have received more than $100,000 for their interests. On average, payments to individuals have been made within seven days after Interior received a complete, accepted offer package.

Purchase offers are valid for 45 calendar days. Owners must accept and return current purchase offers for fractionated lands on Pine Ridge by May 2, 2014.

For information about outreach events at Pine Ridge where landowners can gather information in order to make informed decisions about their land, contact the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s Buy-Back Program at 605-867-2610.

Landowners can contact their local Fiduciary Trust Officer or call the Trust Beneficiary Call Center at 888-678-6836 with questions about their purchase offers.

Sellers receive fair market value for their land, in addition to a base payment of $75 per offer, regardless of the value of the land. All sales will also trigger contributions to the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund. Up to $60 million will go to this fund to provide scholarships to Native American students. These funds are in addition to purchase amounts paid to individual sellers, so contributions will not reduce the amount paid to landowners for their interests. The Scholarship Fund will be governed by a board of trustees and administered by the American Indian College Fund in Denver, Colo., with 20% going to the American Indian Graduate Center in Albuquerque, N.M.

Interior holds about 56 million acres in trust or restricted status for American Indians. The Department holds this land in more than 200,000 tracts, of which about 93,500 – on nearly 150 reservations – contain fractional ownership interests available for purchase by the Buy-Back Program. There are more than 245,000 landowners, holding more than 3 million fractionated interests in parcels, eligible to participate in the Program.

Individual participation is voluntary. A decision to sell land for restoration to tribes does not jeopardize a landowner’s ability to receive individual settlement payments from the Cobell Settlement, which are being handled by the Garden City Group.

WASHINGTON - Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts, who leads the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, joined Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy to announce the transfer of 24,959 acres previously acquired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the construction of the Garrison Dam project to the Department of the Interior, which will hold the land in trust for the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. The acres, now excess to the project, consist mostly of undeveloped grasslands situated above the maximum flood control pool for Lake Sakakawea.

“It is a tremendous honor to take the land previously acquired for the Garrison Dam project into trust for the Three Affiliated Tribes,” Roberts said. “I want to recognize our BIA staff in the Great Plains Region for their hard work over many years along with Assistant Secretary Darcy for her leadership. We believe this transfer provides strong protections for existing land uses, whether it’s housing, recreational, or the Corps’ continued mission at Lake Sakakawea, while also ensuring there is recognition of the Tribes’ sovereign authority to manage these lands going forward.”

“I am so pleased to transfer the Garrison Dam project lands taken from the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation into trust held by the Department of the Interior. The Army Corps worked very hard to see this through,” stated Assistant Secretary Darcy. “The Tribes will now have all of the associated economic, environmental and cultural benefits that come with trust land for generations to come.”

“The return of these lands is an important step toward mending a historic injustice,” said Mark Fox, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. “Half of our adult men were fighting for their country and their homes in World War II when the federal government began making plans to take our lands for the Garrison Dam. The flood caused by the Dam displaced 90 percent of our people from their homes. It literally destroyed our heartland. Our people have been fighting to have the surplus lands returned to the Nation for years. I am grateful that this goal has been accomplished, and the hard work of so many of our leaders has finally paid off.”

The transfer was made possible as a result of the Fort Berthold Mineral Restoration Act. The transfer protects lawful public access, including access for recreational purposes. Current lessees will continue to enjoy their existing rights while Interior and the Tribes will handle future leases. As such, Interior stands ready to record and implement any new rights-of-way that parties may negotiate across the transferred lands.

The Army Corps of Engineers will continue its role as an active resource manager in the Lake Sakakawea area through its retained right to flood and erode the lands. The Tribes will collaborate with Interior and the Army Corps of Engineers to manage natural and cultural resources. All federal laws and regulations will continue to apply, but now, Interior will be the lead federal agency instead of the Army.

The Obama Administration has been committed to the restoration of tribal homelands. When Secretary Jewell took office, she set an ambitious goal to restore 500,000 acres of land into trust for tribes. In October 2016, Jewell announced the Bureau of Indian Affairs has processed 2,265 individual trust applications and restored more than 500,000 acres of land into trust since 2009.

Congress originally passed the Fort Berthold Mineral Restoration Act, Public Law No. 98-602, Title II, Section 206 (b) in 1984, which authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to transfer excess lands no longer needed for the Garrison Dam project back to the Tribes. In 2015, Interior and Army Civil Works signed a memorandum of agreement that outlined the process the agencies used to implement the land transfer.

The Secretary of the Interior is authorized by the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934 to acquire land into trust for federally recognized tribes. Lands held in federal Indian trust status, which cannot be sold, alienated or transferred to non-Indians or non-Natives, benefit their American Indian and Alaska Native tribal owners who are eligible for federal program assistance for business development, housing, and environmental and cultural protection. Typical uses of trust land include governmental operations, cultural activities, agricultural/forestry projects, housing, economic development, social and community services, and health care and educational facilities.

The Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is headed by a director responsible for managing day-to-day operations through four offices – Indian Services, Justice Services, Trust Services, and Field Operations. These offices directly administer or fund tribally based infrastructure, economic development, law enforcement and justice, social services (including child welfare), tribal governance, and trust land and natural and energy resources management programs for the nation’s federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. The BIA carries out its responsibilities in managing federal Indian trust lands through the Office of Trust Services.

For information about the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, visit the ASA(CW) website.

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WASHINGTON – Lawrence S. Roberts, who is leading the Office of the Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs, announced today awards of $8.7 million to 63 federally recognized tribes and tribally chartered organizations under the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Tribal Climate Resilience Program. The awards will support tribally based efforts to address climate change and its effects on tribal lands and resources.

“Through the BIA’s Tribal Climate Resilience Program, we’re aiding tribes in their struggles to address the ways climate change is affecting them now and in the future,” Roberts said. “In addition to the funds and resources the program provides, its positive effects are magnified across many tribal communities because award recipients are encouraged to share their insights, experiences and knowledge about confronting and building resilience to the effects of climate change.”

Along with their recipients, the 85 awards announced today will also directly support about 200 additional tribes through cooperative planning and shared information and tools. At least another 100 tribes are expected to be reached through tribally designed and delivered training awards.

The BIA established the Tribal Climate Resilience Program in Fiscal Year 2013 to fund tribal climate change adaptation planning, ocean and coastal management planning, youth internships, and climate change activities. The program supports tribal and trust resource managers by providing funds for adaptation planning, vulnerability assessment, training, and access to data and tools. Awards are available annually, subject to funding availability.

These funds enable tribal resource managers to mitigate climate risk for valued and vulnerable tribal resources during a project’s design phase, and to build infrastructure resilience to climate change within natural and human systems.

Between FY 2013 and FY 2015, the BIA awarded over $16 million in Tribal Climate Resilience Program (then known as the Tribal Cooperative Landscape Conservation program) funding to 108 tribes and intertribal organizations through 145 awards out of a total tribal request of over $48 million. The FY 2016 solicitation generated 221 tribal proposals requesting more than $26.5 million. The BIA was able to provide about one-third of the FY 2016 requested funding, reaching approximately half of the applicants.

“The year-over-year increases in the number of proposals the BIA receives indicates a growing unmet need as more tribes emerge as leaders in adaptation planning, and as the recognition and local impact of climate risks inspire still more tribes to engage in adaptation planning to protect their people, lands and resources,” Roberts said. In addition to direct support for adaptation planning, the BIA also provides tribal managers with access to climate change adaptation information and tools, such as:

• The Tribal Climate Resilience Resource Guide, an accessible compendium of federal government-wide resources for tribes released by White House Council on Native American Affairs’ (WHCNAA) Climate Subgroup in 2016; and
• The Guide’s Tribal Climate Resilience Fact Sheet, tailored to each tribe, that can help in navigating federal programs and lists funded projects, adaptation plans and other work products, including stories and tools, in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit Tribal Nations topic.

Along with the Tribal Nations theme in the Climate Data Initiative, these online publications form an interconnected resource network that provides tribal leaders and resource managers with access to the best available science, tools and examples of climate adaptation management. These resources can aid tribes in improving their resilience to accelerating climate change, which currently affects a growing number of critical tribal assets, irrevocably altering tribes’ long-held cultural patrimony.

A Summary of FY16 Climate Awards by tribe, title, funded amount, project description, and total requested but unfunded amount is provided on the FY 2016 BIA Tribal Climate Resilience Program homepage.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs oversees the BIA, which is headed by a director who is responsible for managing day-to-day operations through four offices – Indian Services, Justice Services, Trust Services and Field Operations – that administer or fund tribally based infrastructure, law enforcement, social services, tribal governance, natural and energy resources, and trust management programs for the nation’s federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages through 12 regional offices and 85 agencies.

SELLS, Ariz. – Today, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Mac Lean Sweeney reopened the Santa Rosa Ranch School (SRRS), located on the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation. The school provides education for grades K-8 and serves approximately 66 students. The school had been closed since December 13, 2018, when the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) leadership and safety personnel identified several high priority deficiencies during a campus walk-through.

“I am proud to return to the Santa Rosa Ranch School after working closely with Tohono O’odham Chairman Edward Manuel and I was delighted to welcome back our students, teachers and staff today. I applaud the diligent and expedited response made by our leadership, staff and the SRRS Community to improve the school’s facilities and upgrade its equipment,” said AS-IA Tara Sweeney. “My priority is for our BIE students to receive a quality education and study in safe facilities and environments, and I continue to look forward to working with the community on future improvements.”

"The Nation has been very pleased to work with Assistant Secretary Sweeney and BIE to facilitate the prompt improvements and reopening of the Santa Rosa Ranch School,” said Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Edward D. Manuel. “Providing our youth with safe, accessible places to learn and grow is vitally important. We will continue working with our federal partners to ensure that schools on the Nation meet that standard.”

ASIA Sweeney toured the school’s new five modular units and refurbished buildings, which include several classrooms and a kitchen. Additional improvements at the school include:

• The installation of new access ramps, access platforms and stairs.
• The installation of fencing around the campus area.
• The installation of a new fire alarm system.
• The installation of six new classrooms.
• The new kitchen includes a dining room facility with new furniture, appliances and ice machine.
• Preexisting buildings received new doors and fresh paint.
• The Indian Affairs Office of Information Technology (IT) installed new computers with internet access and landline phones.

While the Office of Facilities, Property and Safety Management for Indian Affairs made improvements, the BIE provided daily transportation for displaced students and teachers to the nearest BIE school, Santa Rosa Day School, where the facilities include a gym, computer lab and cafeteria. Indian Affairs leadership and the Tohono O’odham leadership worked closely together to ensure an efficient time table was planned and followed for the SRRS to reopen on the target date set for when the students returned from Spring Break.

The Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs advises the Secretary of the Interior on Indian Affairs policy issues, communicates policy to and oversee the programs of the BIA and the BIE, provides leadership in consultations with tribes, and serves as the DOI official for intra- and inter- departmental coordination and liaison within the Executive Branch on Indian matters.

The Office of Facilities, Property and Safety Management for Indian Affairs is responsible for policy, oversight, and technical assistance for facilities management, facilities construction, asset management, safety management, property management, and real property leasing for all of Indian Affairs, including Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). These responsibilities are carried out through the Division of Facilities Management and Construction, Division of Safety and Risk Management, Division of Property Management, and the Real Property Leasing Program.

The Bureau of Indian Education implements federal Indian education programs and funds 183 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools (of which two-thirds are tribally operated) located on 64 reservations in 23 states and peripheral dormitories serving over 48,000 students. BIE also operates two post- secondary schools, and administers grants for 30 tribally controlled colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges, and provides funding for higher education scholarships to Native youth.

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PUBLIC MEETING #5

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PUBLIC MEETING #6

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Members of the public who wish to attend the Commission's meeting, please RSVP by June 3, 2013, at the following address: trustcommission@ios.doi.gov

Award of a $1,140,230 contract for construction of school facilities at Porcupine, S. D., located 26 miles northeast of Pine Ridge, S. D., on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett said that the construction, when complete, will provide classrooms adequate for a total enrollment of 330 elementary school children.

The facilities will include an instructional materials center, administrative offices, multipurpose-kitchen, a pump house building and quarters.

Other work will include site grading, utilities, sewage lagoons, drives, curbs and gutters, streets, walks and other related work.

The successful bidder was R & S Construction Co., of Rapid City, S. D. Eight higher bids, ranging up to $1,320,000, were received.

WASHINGTON – A graduation ceremony for members comprising the inaugural class of a federally supported pilot project to train American Indians in the commercial building trade will be held December 19, 2008, near the city of Chicago. The event is the result of an agreement between the Indian Affairs Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) and United Association (UA), the 326,000-member journeymen and apprentice plumbers and pipe fitters union in North America, to offer unemployed and underemployed American Indians from economically challenged tribal communities in the U.S. the chance to acquire new job skills that can lead to job opportunities back home or elsewhere.

The graduates, representing tribes from across the country, have spent the past 16 weeks in intensive in-class instruction and hands-on training. IEED funding has enabled them to spend the required time away from their homes and families. The ceremony, which will be followed immediately by a luncheon, will take place starting at 11:00 a.m. (Central Time) at the Pipe Fitters Training Center, Local 597, 10850 West 187th Street in Mokena, Ill.

The Secretary of the Interior created the IEED to encourage economic development in Indian Country. Its mission is to foster strong Indian communities by creating jobs, Indian-owned businesses, and a trained workforce, and by developing Indian energy and mineral resources, and increasing access to capital.

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

-DOI-

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today issued final determinations for two petitioners under the existing Federal Acknowledgment process. The decisions include a final determination to acknowledge the petitioner known as the Pamunkey Indian Tribe (Petitioner #323) as a federally recognized Indian tribe, and a final determination on remand to decline acknowledgment for the petitioner known as the Duwamish Tribal Organization (DTO) (Petitioner #25).

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe, located in Virginia, was found to have met all seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment as set forth in 25 CFR Part 83.7. This is the second federal acknowledgement to take place during the Obama Administration. “This work reflects the most solemn responsibilities of the United States,” Washburn said. “Our professional historians, anthropologists, and genealogists spent thousands of hours of staff time researching and applying our rigorous acknowledgment criteria to these petitions.”

Specifically, the Department determined that the Pamunkey Indian Tribe has:

• Continuously identified as an American Indian body since 1900;
• Existed as a distinct community and maintained political influence over its members since historical times;
• Provided governing documents describing its governance procedures and membership criteria;
• Provided a list of its current members who descend from a historical Indian tribe and who are not also members of another federally recognized tribe;
• Never been subject to congressional legislation that expressly terminated or forbade the federal relationship.

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe has occupied a land base in southeastern King William County, Virginia - shown on a 1770 map as “Indian Town” - since the Colonial Era in the 1600s. Today, the area exists as a state Indian reservation. The Tribe has a current membership of 203 individuals and elects its own leaders.

The Department also issued a final determination on remand declining to recognize the Duwamish Tribal Organization. The Department reached the same conclusion in September 2001, declining to acknowledge the DTO following an evaluation under its 1978 regulations. The U.S. District Court in Western Washington vacated that decision in 2013 and remanded it back to the Department for review under 1994 revisions to the regulations or “explain why it declines to do so.” This final determination on remand concludes the administrative process: the DTO petitioner does not meet the requirements for Federal acknowledgment as an Indian tribe under either the 1978 or 1994 regulations. The DTO, which first formed in 1925, is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs has responsibility for fulfilling the Interior Department’s trust responsibilities and promoting self-determination on behalf of the federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments.

The Assistant Secretary also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is responsible for providing services to approximately 1.9 million individual American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes, and the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, which administers the Federal Acknowledgment Process. The Department recently issued new regulations governing the Federal Acknowledgment Process (25 CFR Part 83). Those regulations will be effective July 31, 2015.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In keeping with President Obama’s commitment to empowering tribal nations and strengthening their economies, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that he has approved land leasing regulations from the Makah Indian Tribe and the Squaxin Island Tribe in Washington State pursuant to the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership (or HEARTH) Act.

“As more tribes see the possibilities of using their lands that the HEARTH Act has made available to them, the Department will be able to further support their goals of meeting their communities’ needs and achieving economic self-sufficiency,” Washburn said. “I congratulate the leadership of the Makah Indian Tribe and the Squaxin Island Tribe on this success as they continue working for the greater economic good of all their peoples.”

The Assistant Secretary’s action authorizes the two tribes to enter into land leases without having to obtain approval by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA): Neah Bay-based Makah Indian Tribe for residential, business, wind and solar development, and other authorized purposes, and the Squaxin Island Tribe, headquartered in Shelton, Wash., for business.

“The Makah Tribal Council is looking forward to implementing the HEARTH Act. We will now be able to efficiently streamline the approval of leases that are of the utmost importance to our tribal development priorities,” said Makah Indian Tribe Chairman Timothy J. Greene Sr. “This exercise of sovereignty will encourage investment and economic development throughout our community.”

“It’s great to see leasing approval back with the Tribe,” said Squaxin Island Tribe Chairman David Lopeman. “I’m hopeful this new tool will help the Squaxin Island Tribe benefit the region with new jobs and opportunities.”

The HEARTH Act restores the authority of federally recognized tribes to develop and implement their own laws governing the long-term leasing of Indian lands for residential, business, renewable energy, and other purposes. Upon one-time approval of their regulations by the Department of the Interior, tribes then have the authority to process land leases without BIA approval, thereby greatly expediting leasing approval for homes and small businesses in Indian Country.

In addition, the principles supporting the federal preemption of state law in the field of Indian leasing and the taxation of lease-related interests and activities applies with equal force to leases entered into under tribal leasing regulations approved by the federal government pursuant to the HEARTH Act.

In accordance with Section 5 of the Indian Reorganization Act (25 U.S.C. 465) and the Department’s regulations governing the surface leasing of trust and restricted Indian land, permanent improvements, leasehold or possessory interests, and activities on land leased under DOI-approved HEARTH Act tribal leasing regulations are subject to tribal, not state and local, taxation.

As the HEARTH Act was intended to afford tribes the flexibility to adapt lease terms to suit their business and cultural needs and to enable them to approve leases quickly and efficiently, assessment of state and local taxes would obstruct these express federal policies of supporting tribal economic development and self-determination as well as threaten tribal interests in effective tribal government, economic self-sufficiency and territorial autonomy.

With their new authority, the two tribes, whose reservations include fractionated lands, may now consider what uses they may wish to pursue with regards to fractional interests in trust land that were repurchased and restored to them by the Department under the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations. The Buy-Back Program, which was established by the historic Cobell Settlement, represents a federal policy initiative to restore tribal homelands in support of tribal sovereignty and self-government to the maximum extent possible on tribal trust lands. The fractional interests received by the Makah Indian Tribe and the Squaxin Island Tribe are equivalent to approximately 64 acres and 155 acres, respectively.

The Assistant Secretary’s action brings to 22 the number of federally recognized tribes whose land leasing regulations have been approved by the Department under the HEARTH Act. The tribes with approved leasing regulations are:

• Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, Calif. (Business)
• Pueblo of Sandia, N.M. (Business)
• Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Mich. (Residential)
• Ak-Chin Indian Community, Ariz. (Business)
• Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians, Calif. (Business)
• Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Okla. (Business)
• Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians, Calif. (Business)
• Kaw Nation, Okla. (Business)
• Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Washington State (Business)
• Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, Calif. (Business)
• Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Okla. (Business)
• Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut (Business)
• Navajo Nation General Leasing Regulations, Ariz., N.M. and Utah
• Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Calif. (Business)
• Seminole Tribe of Florida (Individual Business and Residential Ordinances)
• Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Washington State (Business)
• Oneida Indian Nation, N.Y. (Business)
• Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin (Business, Residential and Agricultural Codes)
• Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma (Business)
• Rincon Band of Luiseno Mission Indians, Calif. (Business)
• Makah Indian Tribe, Wash. (Residential, Business, Renewable Energy)
• Squaxin Island Tribe, Wash. (Business)

Both the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe’s and the Rincon Band of Luiseno Mission Indians’ regulations were approved in June 2015.

Congress passed the HEARTH Act with overwhelming bipartisan support, and it was signed by President Obama on July 30, 2012.

The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs oversees the BIA, which is headed by a director who is responsible for managing day-to-day operations through four offices – Indian Services, Justice Services, Trust Services, and Field Operations. These offices directly administer or fund tribally based infrastructure, law enforcement, social services, tribal governance, natural and energy resources, and trust land and resources management programs for the nation’s federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes through 12 regional offices and 81 agencies.