Past News Items

Award of a $777,777 Bureau of Reclamation contract for the clearing of approximately 15,600 acres of land along the border of New Mexico and Colorado, to be inundated by the waters of Navajo Reservoir, was announced by the Department of the Interior today.

The contract went to Universal Grading Company, Incorporated, of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Award of five contracts totaling $878,597 for road and bridge construction on three Indian reservations in South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contracts are for road and bridge construction work on the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations.

WASHINGTON –Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs John Tahsuda, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Director Thomas J. Walters, Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety Director Jesse Delmar and the Department of the Interior-Office of Law Enforcement and Security Director Darren Cruzan, are among federal and Indian Country representatives slated to speak at the 27 th Annual Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service on Thursday, May 3, 2018, at the United States Indian Police Academy in Artesia, N.M.

To have the opportunity to address the group that represents so many of America's first citizens is indeed an honor for the Secretary of the Interior.

It is good to have the opportunity to get away from Washington, D. C. and out in the land, with you - America's first citizens. It is good to join you in celebrating this 25th anniversary of the NCAI.

Through your organization, America's Indians, individually and collectively have made great strides, unfortunately, the NCAI and all of the other Indian groups, for too long have been trying to carve out their niche alone.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that $1 million in funding is being made available to federally recognized tribes through the Bureau of Indian Education’s Sovereignty in Indian Education (SIE) Enhancement Program. The SIE Enhancement Program supports tribes in their efforts to assume control of the BIE-funded schools serving their communities.

An increase in the "standard" royalty rate for oil and gas leases on Indian lands from 12.5 to 16-2/3 percent was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

SPOKANE, WA – U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today joined leaders of the Spokane Tribe of Indians in Washington State to commemorate the tribe’s selection as a Promise Zone, which was announced by President Obama on June 6 as part of the third and final round of Promise Zone designations.

The National Community Christmas Tree for 1965 which will be erected in the Ellipse, just south of the White House in Washington, is being donated by the White Mountain Apache Indians from the Fort Apache Reservation near White River, Arizona, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Secretary Udall added that this marks the first time an American Indian Tribal Council has provided a Christmas Tree for the Pageant of Peace ceremony, and the first tree from the state of Arizona tor this pageant.

ISLETA PUEBLO, N.M. – As part of President Obama’s goal of placing half a million acres of tribal homelands into trust for the benefit of tribal nations, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has placed 89,978 acres of land into trust status for the Pueblo of Isleta. The Administration’s single largest trust acquisition to date brings to nearly 400,000 the total acreage placed in trust on behalf of federally recognized tribes since 2009.

Regulations governing the preparation of rolls for the payment to Creek Indians of two Indian Claims Commission judgments, totaling
more than $4 million, have been approved and published in the Federal Register, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced.