Past News Items

WASHINGTON – The National Park Service today announced nearly $40,000 in repatriation grants under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to assist museums, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations in returning ancestral human remains and cultural objects to their people.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson and Office of Indian Education Programs Director Edward F. Parisian are traveling this week to North and South Dakota as part of their continuing tour of Bureau of Indian Affairs funded schools. Starting today, Anderson and Parisian will be attending an honor roll banquet at the Turtle Mountain High School in Belcourt, N.D., where the assistant secretary will stress the importance of encouraging and inspiring all BIA students to grow through learning.

I am grateful for the opportunity of discussing our mutual concern for a sound program for American citizens of Indian ancestry at this conference. The backdrop of our discussions is a national concern, and national action, on what John Kenneth Galbraith has called "insular poverty". Insular poverty, as distinguished from "case” poverty, is the poverty of an area or a region, of a community or of an Indian reservation. It has its roots in economic dislocations, changing technology, declining resources of water or soil, or geographic or cultural isolation.

(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 Polacca Day School located in Polacca, Ariz., on the Hopi reservation.

WASHINGTON - Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today issued a proposed finding to decline to acknowledge a Derby, Conn., group, the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, as an Indian tribe.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett announced today that Barney Old Coyote, Interior Department Job Corps Conservation Center Coordinator since December 1964, has returned to the Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs as Assistant Director of its Sacramento, Calif., Area Office.

"Mr. Old Coyote has demonstrated his ability to work effectively and harmoniously with the Indian people," Bennett said, "and I know he will continue this record in California."

WASHINGTON – President Trump today proposed a $944.5 million Fiscal Year 2021 budget for the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The BIE’s budget request is presented separately, continuing the historical action in FY 2020 to recognize the distinct and separate responsibilities and missions of the Indian Affairs’ two bureaus. The FY2021 budget request will continue to advance BIE reform, provide autonomy and accountability, streamline services, maximize efficiency, and build capacity.

PHOENIX – In an address yesterday before a large crowd of tribal government and business leaders attending the National Summit on Emerging Tribal Economies, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb drew upon his 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur to point out the importance of partnerships between tribes and federal agencies and corporations.

“Partnerships are a powerful tool” for tribal businesses to use, McCaleb said, citing the role they play in the business world as a mechanism for creating profits and expanding market share.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel, on behalf of President Richard Nixon, today announced the nomination of the following:

Hollis M. Dole, 54, of Portland, Oregon, to be Assistant Secretary for Mineral Resources;

Dr. Leslie L. Glasgow, 54, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to be Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks and Marine Resources; and

Charles H. Meacham, 43, of Juneau, Alaska, to be Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife.

Also appointed today by Secretary Hickel were:

BLOOMINGTON, MINN.–Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump and Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Tara Katuk Sweeney established the first of seven offices dedicated to solving cold cases involving missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives.