Past News Items

Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Eddie F. Brown will keynote the fourth in a series of regional economic development conferences with Indian tribal leaders May 21-22 in Seattle, Washington. The conference will include tribal representatives from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and California and business and industry leaders from the private sector.

The Department of the Interior today announced the retirement of one Indian Bureau agency superintendent and the transfer of two others in a related series of moves.

The Department of the Interior announced today the opening of competitive bidding to contract for services to strengthen internal management and administration of more than $1.8 billion of Indian trust funds. Ross Swimmer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said the consultation process outlined in an April 15, 1987, Federal Register notice has been completed and it is time to move on to the competitive bidding to procure collection, accounting, advisory investment services and custodial services for funds held in trust for Indian tribes, individuals and others.

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress a proposal for legislation that would add nearly 350,000 acres to the land holdings of 18 Indian tribes or communities in 9 States, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

Interior Secretary Donald Hodel approved June 5 a proposal to move the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Northern California agency from Hoopa to Redding, 80 miles east. As part of the move new sub-agencies will be created at Klamath, near the mouth of the Klamath River, and at Willow Creek, approximately 11 miles of south of Hoopa.

Award of a $663,330 contract for a major road construction project that will provide the final paved link on Route 3 across the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Route 3 is the connecting road between Highway 666 in New Mexico and Highway 89 in Arizona.

The report of the Presidential Commission on Indian Reservation Economies, submitted to the President today, will receive "immediate and thorough review. The Department is committed to improving the economic strength and independence of Indian reservations, 11 Interior Department spokesman Rusty Brashear said today.

Twenty-nine proposals to lease lands on the Dania Indian Reservation in south Florida for commercial or industrial development have been received by the Seminole tribal organization since the availability of the lands for leasing was publicly announced last August, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Interior Secretary James Watt, responding to the President's instructions, today announced formation of a Policy Advisory Group and negotiating teams to spearhead his Department's effort to achieve negotiated settlements for the more than 50 outstanding lawsuits over Indian water claims.

"President Reagan has forcefully indicated his concern that these suits-- which have stalled essential economic progress in both Indian and non-Indian areas--be settled quickly through negotiated settlements that are equitable to all parties," Watt said.

Award of a $1,085,400 contract for the construction of new school facilities at Nenahnezad School on the Navajo Indian Reservation near Fruitland, New Mexico, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Facilities to be constructed include two 160-pupil dormitories, a kitchen-dining building, a multipurpose building, a storage and utility building, employees' quarters, and a 9-stall garage. In addition, the existing school building will be remodeled, the streets and parking areas paved, and all utility systems will be replaced or expanded.