Past News Items

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons today commended the Navajo Indian Tribe for its “statesmanship” in appropriating tribal funds for projects which the Federal Government would normally carry out.

The appropriations included $545,000 to build major law and order facilities at Tuba City and Chinle, Arizona, and Shiprock, New Mexico, and small detention facilities at Bitter Spring and Lupton, Arizona, and Tohatchi, New Mexico.

WASHINGTON – Special Agents Craig Janis and Mario Redlegs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Law Enforcement Services (OLES) were recognized today by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) for their efforts that helped lead to the eradication of a major marijuana cultivation site last year on the Yakama Nation Indian Reservation in Washington State.

Promotion of Don Y. Jensen to superintendent of the Indian Bureau's Northern Cheyenne Agency, Lame Deer, Montana, effective September 8, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Jensen has been for the past year land operations officer at the Bureau's Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, N. Dak. Previously he served for one year at Blackfeet Agency, Browning, Montana, and eight years at the Crow Agency in Montana as a soil conservationist and land-use planner. He was born at Castle Dale, Utah, in 1920 and is a graduate of Utah State College.

Legislation that would restore about 65,000 acres of land now in Federal ownership to five Indian tribal groups in California, Idaho, Montana and Washington is needed 1tin simple justice 11 to these people, the Department of the Interior said today in announcing endorsement of H. R. 3490 and S. 1757, bills that would accomplish this purpose.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On June 27, 2003, the Department of the Interior (DOI) will conclude its month-long schedule of presentations to employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) on the reorganization of both agencies with briefings at the Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Billings, Mont. and the Southern Plains Regional Office in Anadarko, Okla., the last of the BIA’s 12 regional offices to be visited.

Portland area office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced the retirement of Jasper W. (Jap) Elliott, superintendent of Warm Springs Indian Agency, and transfers of three other Oregon and Idaho agency superintendents.

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin will observe Earth Day 2003 during a visit she will make to the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) on April 23 at 2:20 p.m.(local time) to view its new Science and Technology Building and reforestation project. SIPI is a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) funded, two-year institution located in Albuquerque, N.M., that provides general education, business, science and technical instruction at the associate degree and certificate levels for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Award of a contract for construction of a pumping station and rehabilitation of irrigation works on the Modoc Point Project of the Klamath Indian Reservation in Oregon to C. H. Strong Engineering and Construction, Eugene, Oregon, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Strong's bid of $129,297.50 was the lower of two received. The other bid was for $154,828.45.

(Washington)-- Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will participate in a ground breaking ceremony held by the Muskogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma for a six million dollar office building that will house a Bureau of Indian Affairs regional office. "This project is an example of federal and tribal governments working to ensure needed services continue in a cooperative effort." said Perry Beaver, Principle Chief of the Creek Nation. The ground breaking ceremony will take place in Muskogee, Oklahoma on Friday, December 14, 2001 at 10:00 a.m.