Past News Items

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today urged those American Indians who can qualify as members of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin -no matter where they may be living today --to participate in the election of a nine member Menominee Restoration Committee March 2, 1974.

"About 3, 000 Menominee Indians are believed to be living in Wisconsin," Thompson pointed out. "Another 3,000 are believed to be living elsewhere. We hope that all Menominee will help to restore their tribal government - terminated in 1961 - by participating in this election," he said.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today issued a Final Determination in which she declined to acknowledge as an Indian tribe a group known as the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe of Indians headquartered in Trumbull, Conn. The Golden Hill Paugussett petitioning group did not demonstrate that it meets all seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment as an Indian tribe under Part 83 of Title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations, “Procedures for Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe.”

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today that the Department of the Interior has proposed to Congress an amendment of Public Law 280 of the 83d Congress which governs the extension of State criminal and civil jurisdictions to Indian reservations and other similar Indian areas.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced he has issued a Notice of Proposed Finding to decline to acknowledge that the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa, Inc. (BLB), from Brutus, Mich., a petitioner under the federal acknowledgment process, exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of federal law. The proposed finding is based on a determination that the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa, Inc.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Holbrook Dormitory located in Holbrook, Ariz., on the Navajo reservation.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced a major proposal to realign the management organization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) to improve services to individual Indian and tribal trust beneficiaries.

WASHINGTON – This week, Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney issued two separate decisions taking lands into trust for the Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria and the Catawba Indian Nation.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced that President Bush’s Special Assistant for Domestic Policy, Aquiles F. Suarez, and Jennifer Farley, the White House Associate Director for Inter-Governmental Affairs, will join Interior Secretary Gale Norton in leading a host of Federal speakers at the National Summit on Emerging Tribal Economies to be held September 16-19, 2002 in Phoenix, Ariz. Also representing the Department will be Assistant Secretary McCaleb and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget and Finance Nina Hatfield.

Originally Published by: The Cherokee Phoenix

By: Tara Katuk Sweeney, U.S. Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs

WASHINGTON - Interior Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced that he has signed a reconsidered final determination which declines to acknowledge the Chinook Indian Tribe / Chinook Nation (formerly the Chinook Indian Tribe, Inc.) of Chinook, Washington, as an Indian tribe for federal purposes. This decision concludes that the Chinook petitioner did not demonstrate that it meets all seven mandatory criteria to be acknowledged as a tribe with a government-to-government relationship with the United States.