Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts announced today the 10 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools eligible for funding for campus-wide replacement. Publication of this list completes the process for identifying the Department’s top priority schools for campus-wide replacement developed through negotiated rulemaking required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

The largest coal supply letter of intent agreement ever negotiated, utilizing Navajo and Hopi Indian coal reserves in Arizona, was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. The coal to be supplied under this agreement will be used in a planned electric generating plant to be built in Clark County, Nevada, by a group of private and public utilities, with Southern California Edison Company as project manager.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and continued commitment to support Native American leaders in building strong, resilient communities, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn today announced the Administration has dedicated nearly $10 million this year to help tribes prepare for climate change through adaptation and mitigation.

The award of a $540,998 contract for remodeling and construction at the 200-man Job Corps Center at Poston, Arizona, on the Colorado River Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. The center is expected to be ready for activation within six months.

PHOENIX, Arizona – As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to cut carbon pollution and create clean energy jobs, on Wednesday, May 7, 2014, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will make several major announcements related to energy development on tribal lands. The announcement will be held at the Heard Native American Museum at 1:00 pm MST.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash today announced the award of a $721,670 contract for further construction on the east-west road now being cut through the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona.

The construction will open up to tourist traffic the 1.5 mile stretch of the old Geronimo Trail which leads through rock-bound Barlow Pass into the pine flats. The flats are the site of the Tribe's projected Point of Pines recreational development.

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.

In line with President Johnson’s war on waste in Government administration, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs has consolidated responsibility for fiscal and management analysis under the Deputy Commissioner and a special assistant. The announcement was made today by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn, speaking on behalf of the entire Department of the Interior, today issued the following statement on the passing of Forrest J. Gerard, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana and the first Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs who served from Oct. 13, 1977 to Jan. 19, 1980:

The first Job Corps Conservation Center in the Southwest--and the second in the entire country-·-will be dedicated at Winslow, Arizona, March 12 by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.

On the periphery of Navajo lands in Arizona, Winslow Center formerly was an Air Force Radar Base. The property is now administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Another camp organized in cooperation with the Department of the Interior was dedicated at Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, two weeks ago. It is administered by the Interior Department's National Park Service.