Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney today announced that she has approved the probate code of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in California. The Department of the Interior’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) will now apply the code when probating trust or restricted lands within the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation.

Codes such as Agua Caliente’s allow tribes to determine how trust or restricted assets within their reservations pass to heirs upon an individual’s death.

Washington - The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb commended Walker River Paiute Reservation Chief of Police Ray East for his courageous act of rescuing the 10-year old California girl abducted from her home in Riverside, CA on Tuesday morning.

"It's great that the incident ended with the little girl safely being returned to her family," said the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs. "I commend Chief of Police East for his heroic effort and I believe his actions speak to the caliber of tribal police officers we have working remote reservations nationwide."

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that a purchase agreement has been reached with the owners of the last parcel of land needed to establish Piscataway Park on the Potomac River across from Mount Vernon.

WASHINGTON - Interior Secretary Gale Norton will meet with American Indian leaders in Bismarck, N. D., June18, 2002, as part of ongoing consultations to review plans for improving the Department of the Interior's management of Indian trust assets. Members of the Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform recently presented Secretary Norton a report on the group's efforts to evaluate proposals from tribal groups on ways to improve Interior's management of Indian trust funds and assets.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett will be in New York Friday, March 8, for an Indian Industrial Forum.

They will be among the guests of honor at a luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel sponsored by 14 industrial firms which have plants operating on or near Indian lands and by two banks interested in industrial development in Indian areas.

William W. Keeler, president of the Phillips Petroleum Company and Principal Chief of the Cherokee nation of Indians, will be master of ceremonies.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The FY2003 request for the Bureau of Indian Affairs is $2.3 billion, including $22.9 million for the legislative proposal to shift to the agencies the full cost of the CSRS pension system and the Federal employee health benefits program. Without the legislative proposal, the request is $2.2 billion, an increase of $22.9 million over the FY2002 level, for the BIA to carry out its responsibility for providing services to Federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and individuals.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, announced today approval of a change in the Code of Federal Regulations regarding Indian college scholarships to conform to a new law recently signed by President Johnson.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said the new law eliminated a prohibition against Federal scholarships for Indian students at sectarian schools and the Code change carries out the intent of the law.

"On June 23, the parties to the case, Schaghticoke Tribal Nation vs. Bruce Babbit, Secretary of the United States Department of lnterior, and Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, United States Department of lnterior, filed a joint stipulation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia."

"The stipulation states the Department of Interior will decide by August 8, 2000, on the Schaghticoke tribe's request for concurrent consideration of its petition with the petition of the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe."

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that the Department's Distinguished Service Award will be presented June 4 to 42 outstanding employees and former employees and Valor Awards to 9 others for acts of bravery in which they risked their own lives in successful rescues. Award ceremonies will be in the Interior Building Auditorium, Washington, D.C., at 2 p.m.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – As part of President Obama’s commitment to fulfilling this nation’s trust responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska Natives, the Office of the Secretary of the Interior will convene the Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform’s third public meeting on June 11-12, 2012.