Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk will be leaving the Department of the Interior after nearly 3 years of leadership. Echo Hawk, an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, will resign his position effective April 27, 2012 to assume a leadership position in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Michael S. Black today announced that he has named Hankie Ortiz Deputy Bureau Director of the BIA’s Office of Indian Services at the Bureau’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Ortiz is an enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma with Caddo and Comanche ancestry as well. She had been serving as director of the Office of Tribal Self-Governance at the Indian Health Service (IHS) since September 2007. Her appointment with the BIA became effective on March 26, 2012.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Director Keith Moore announced today that the Circle of Nations-Wahpeton Indian Boarding School in Wahpeton, N.D. and the Baca/Dlo' Ay Azhi Community School in Prewitt, N.M. have been nominated to receive the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Green Ribbon Schools award.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced he has issued a final determination (FD) regarding the petition of the Central Band of Cherokee (Petitioner #227) for federal recognition as an Indian tribe. The final determination found that the petitioner, located in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., did not meet the mandatory criteria for acknowledgment under the Code of Federal Regulations.

CATOOSA, Okla. – The Justice and Interior Departments today completed the first in a series of national level training courses, “Criminal Jurisdiction in Indian Country” (CJIC) to strengthen the ability of tribal and local law enforcement to participate in the investigation and enforcement of federal crimes in Indian country, fulfilling a key training requirement under the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 (TLOA).

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Department of the Interior today announced that there is a 15-day extension to the public comment period on the Cobell Land Consolidation Draft Plan. The public comment period will now end on April 3, 2012.

The Cobell Land Consolidation Program will not be implemented until all court approvals are final; however, Interior has prepared the draft plan to continue the tribal consultation on the development of the program.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk expressed his deepest condolences to the family and friends of the late Richard M. Milanovich, the Chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, praising him as a great American Indian leader who represented his people with heart and soul.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk was awarded the 2012 Governmental Leadership Award from the National Congress of American Indians for his leadership on behalf of the tribal nations and his work building the foundation for a new era in nation-to-nation relations.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced $8.4 million in grants to 131 American Indian tribes to support Tribal Historic Preservation Offices under the National Historic Preservation Act. The National Park Service awards grants to these tribes to assist in carrying out national historic preservation program responsibilities on tribal lands.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of President Obama’s commitment to fulfilling this nation’s trust responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska Natives, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will convene the first meeting of the Commission established to undertake a forward looking, comprehensive evaluation of Interior’s trust management.