Past News Items

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today that Harley G. Little, a Creek Indian, has been appointed Superintendent of the Okmulgee Agency, Oklahoma.

Little, 47, has been Tribal Operations Officer in the BIA's Area Office at Muskogee, Oklahoma. He succeeds Linus Gwinn who has retired after 13 years as Superintendent at Okmulgee.

Little attended Bacone Junior College, earned a B.A. in History and Education at Northeastern State, Tahlequah, Oklahoma and a Masters in Guidance and Education from the University of Oklahoma at Norman.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced $1,483,632 in grants to assist American Indian tribes, Alaska native villages, and museums with implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Of this amount, $1,422,515 is going to 19 recipients for consultation/documentation projects, and $61,117 is going to five repatriation projects.

Work is progressing on plans for the all-Indian halftime program during the Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys National Football League Game in Washington November 27, according to Dr. Louis W. Ballard, Director of Music Programs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Dr. Ballard said he has received applications from more than 600 Indian high school musicians to participate in the halftime show. He said a series of competitions will be held in various parts of the country to select the 150 young musicians who will make up the marching band.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today joined First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House kitchen garden for the planting of the Three Sisters—corn, beans, and squash—a traditional indigenous agricultural method of planting. This activity comes a week after the launch of Let’s Move! in Indian Country (LMIC) and continues to push the message of leading active and healthy lifestyles in Indian Country.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus today announced two top Indian Affairs appointments in the Department of the Interior.

George Vincent Goodwin, Jr., a member of the White Earth Chippewa Tribe now a Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Director at Minneapolis, was named Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, and Thomas w. Fredericks, a member of the Mandan-Hidatsa Tribe, was appointed Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today issued a final determination not to acknowledge the petitioner known as the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation (Petitioner #84A) as an Indian tribe. This petitioner, located in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., has 1,940 members.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus and Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Wayne Ducheneaux jointly announced today that the Department of the Interior has agreed to adopt environmental regulations enacted by the tribe to govern mineral development and oil and gas leasing activities on tribal and allotted land within the tribe's reservation in South Dakota.

Washington, D.C. – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced the schedule for the month of December for the Interior Department’s series of tribal consultation meetings to develop a Department-wide tribal consultation policy.

The December schedule of tribal consultation meetings is as follows (all times are local time):

Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Times: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon/1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Location: Hilton-Anchorage, 500 W 3rd Ave., Anchorage, Alaska, 99501 907-272-7411