Past News Items

Albuquerque, NM – Today Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget at the Department of the Interior Rhea Suh delivered welcoming remarks at the Federal Employment Workshop: Accessing Employment with the Department of the Interior at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Federal Employment Workshop is part of Secretary Ken Salazar’s Youth in the Great Outdoors Initiative aimed at employing, educating, and engaging youth in America’s great outdoors.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has signed a $12,000 contract with Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity, a non-profit organization with headquarters in Norman, Okla., to finance the recruiting of Indians for Peace Corps work in South America.

In announcing the contract today, Robert L. Bennett. Indian Affairs Commissioner, said: "We are. pleased to cooperate in a joint venture by the Peace Corps and the Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity that will open the doors to many American Indians for Peace Corps service."

WASHINGTON, DC. – As a follow-up to the Tribal Conference held at the Department of the Interior this past November, today Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan met with prominent American Indian educators to discuss the educational challenges and opportunities facing tribal communities and share strategies that have helped to advance opportunities for American Indian students around the Nation.

Yeffe Kimball, an Osage Indian artist, will have an exhibition of her work beginning March 1 through April 7 in the Art Gallery of the Department of Interior.

Sponsored by the Center for Arts of Indian America of which Mrs. Stewart L. Udall is president, the show is entitled, “A 30 Year Retrospective of an American Woman Painter.” It is the first one man showing of Indian art to be sponsored by the Center.

The White House Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release October 24, 2011

Chemawa School at Salem, Oregon is the oldest Indian school in the United States --soon to celebrate its centennial --but it is, in at least one way, like an adolescent.

Chemawa is going through a difficult time of transition.

Washington, D.C. – Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today issued decisions on four tribal gaming applications in California and New Mexico, determining that two of the proposed gaming sites meet the legal and regulatory requirements and two do not.

A proposed revision of the program description for vocational training and the establishment of a program for employment assistance for adult Indians are being published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Interior (DOI) has awarded a contract to Bronner Group, LLC, a small, woman-owned business based in Chicago that specializes in consulting with government and the public sector. The contract for more than $400,000 is on behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), and is to conduct an evaluation of their support services. Bronner will assist the Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs as he oversees a review of functions that support the two bureaus and suggest improvements.

Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus said today he has approved, with some modifications, the mining and reclamation plan by Westmoreland Resources to strip mine Crow Indian and state-owned coal from nearly 2,000 acres in Crow Indian Ceded Lands in south-central Montana.