Past News Items

(WASHINGTON) – With the stroke of a pen today, President George W. Bush signed into law the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,” the historic education bill that for the first time will bring to BIA-funded schools the four pillars of his education reform plan: accountability and testing, flexibility and local control, funding for what works and expanded parental options for children attending failing schools.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation (Tribes), The Montana Power Company (MPC), PPL Montana (PPLM), Trout Unlimited (TU), and the U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) announce that they have reached an agreement to settle the Montana Power Company v. FERC lawsuit, currently pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona will join Hopi and Navajo leaders at a historic signing ceremony in Phoenix, Ariz., tomorrow. Representatives of the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe will sign a compact resolving a long-standing dispute over access to sites for traditional tribal religious observances.

Signing the agreement will be Todd .Honyaoma, Vice Chairman of the Hopi Tribal Council, and Joe Shirley, President of the Navajo Nation. The signers, Secretary Kempthorne and Rep. Renzi will make remarks.

Today in Billings, Montana the Bureau of Indian Affairs unveiled the Trust Assets Accounting Management System. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt hit the switch that officially started the pilot project of TAAMS. The program designed by the Trust management employees of the BIA and implemented by Applied Terra Vision, Artesia Systems Group, worked perfectly.

Three Denver based Offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) are assisting tribes to prepare for the 21st Century by providing access to state-of-the-art science in resource management. The Division of Energy and Mineral Resources, Geographic Data Service Center, and the Division of Forestry's Branch of Forest Resources Planning provide highly technical assistance and services to the Indian Community. "These offices offer the latest technology and software programs available.

Strengthening local tribal programs, Indian education, and critical infrastructure projects are among the key components of the Fiscal Year 1998 Bureau of Indian Affairs' $1.73-billion budget request.

Ada Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the u.s. Department of the Interior, has accepted an invitation from U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson to attend a public forum he is sponsoring in Ledyard Connecticut on September 18. The Assistant Secretary will appear to explain the general process involved in accepting lands into trust and how such applications are evaluated. "My administration is dedicated to building partnership and fostering understanding between Indians and non-Indians on issues that concern us all, Deer said.

Interior Secretary Don Hodel today announced the appointment of LaDonna Harris, a nationally known enrolled member of the Comanche Tribe, as the U.S. representative "to the Inter-American Indian Institute (III.).

Effort will update 40-year old regulations to comport with HEARTH Act and TERAs, supports tribal self-governance and self-determination.

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ross Swimmer said today the President's fiscal year 1988 budget request of $985 million for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will enable the Bureau to carry out its responsibilities to the Indian people of this country and still hold the line against increased deficit spending.

The FY 1988 budget request for the main operating account, Operation of Indian Programs, totals $910.2 million, about $11 million less than the current 1987 estimate or about a one percent reduction.