Past News Items

The Interior Department is requesting budget increases for fiscal 1983 to continue construction of essential water projects in the West, upgrade deteriorated facilities at national parks, and improve access to energy and other minerals on multiple-use Federal lands, Secretary of the Interior James Watt said today.

Another significant budget initiative is increased grants to States for surface mining regulation and abandoned mine land restoration, the Secretary said.

(WASHINGTON) – Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today praised Indian Country’s outstanding generosity as our nation rebounds from this week’s tragic terrorist attack.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of innocent people lost or injured by this act of enormous horror,” McCaleb said. “An attack on America is an attack on Indian Country. I am gratified, but hardly surprised, that so many tribes have quickly offered support to the victims and their loved ones.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will be a guest speaker today on Native America Calling, the national public affairs and news radio program on the American Indian Radio on Satellite (AIROS) and National Public Radio networks. He will address Indian Country’s response to calls for rescue and recovery support following last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the appointment of Robert D. Ecoffey, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, as its lead law enforcement officer. As director of the Bureau’s Office of Law Enforcement Services, Ecoffey will oversee a 750-person department that provides uniformed police services, detention operations and criminal investigations of alleged or suspected violations of major federal criminal laws in Indian Country.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced he has issued a Notice of Proposed Finding whereby he proposes to decline to acknowledge that the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians of Dudley, Mass., (petition #68B) exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced he has issued a Notice of Proposed Finding whereby he proposes to decline to acknowledge that the Nipmuc Nation headquartered in Sutton, Mass., (petition #69A) exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced he has issued a Notice of Final Determination whereby he declined to acknowledge that the Duwamish Tribal Organization of Burien, Wash., (petition #25) exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will help to distribute more than 500 teddy bears collected by school children in Oklahoma for children in Washington, D.C., personally affected by the September 11 attacks.

Assistant Secretary McCaleb served as the Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation at the time the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the appointment of Wayne R. Smith, 52, as the Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. Mr. Smith is of American Indian heritage, Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux – his mother was born and lived on the Tribe’s reservation in Fort Thompson, S.D., until her graduation from high school. “I welcome Wayne to my team,” McCaleb said. “His extensive Indian gaming, administrative, legal and policy experience will be invaluable as we work to shape Indian Affairs in the 21st century.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Wayne R. Smith will be a guest speaker this Thursday, October 25, on Native America Calling, the national public affairs and news radio call-in program of the Koahnic Broadcast Corporation. He will address the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ role in the Federal Acknowledgment Process. The program will air live starting at 1:00 p.m. (ET).