Past News Items

PUBLIC WEBINAR MEETING #8

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm (Eastern Standard Time)

ADDRESS TO REGISTER

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/774101625 (No longer valid)

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WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene Martin today announced her final decision to acknowledge that the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, as defined in the Assistant Secretary’s final determination, meets the regulatory requirements for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Northern Cheyenne Agency on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation has deployed Tribal Access Program (TAP) biometric/biographic kiosks at its offices in Lame Deer, Montana. This state-of-the-art equipment will help the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe ensure the safety of on-reservation American Indian children in foster care through expedited background checks on foster parents and the adults in their homes prior to placement.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Historical Trust Accounting (OHTA) has mailed detailed accounting statements to 560 Individual Indian Money (IIM) account holders in Arizona. OHTA Executive Director Bert Edwards says the mailing is the first phase of an effort to notify thousands of IIM account holders across Indian country that their trust fund balances have been investigated, audited and reconciled.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney announced today that she has signed reservation proclamations for two land parcels totaling approximately 222.63 acres for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a federally recognized tribe in Minnesota located southwest of the city of Minneapolis. The parcels will be added to the tribe’s existing reservation under the authority of the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984; 25 U.S.C. 5110).

WASHINGTON – The Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform will hold its next meeting on July 22-24, 2002 in Portland, Ore. The task force was established in February of 2002 to review and propose plans for improving the Department’s management of individual Indian and tribal trust assets.

WASHINGTON - Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb today joined a ground blessing ceremony for a $38 million classroom and dormitory complex in Santa Fe, New Mexico, emphasizing President Bush's Indian Education Initiative and commitment to nationwide educational reform.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced his approval of the reconsidered final determination in favor of Federal acknowledgment for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe of Washington. The reconsidered final determination, which McCaleb signed on December 31, 2001, affirms the final determination signed by his predecessor, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Gover, on February 14, 2000 acknowledging that the Cowlitz Indian Tribe exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law.

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon (Tribes), Portland General Electric Company (PGE), and the U.S. Department of the Interior today approved an agreement providing for the Tribes and PGE to share the 408-megawatt Pelton Round Butte hydroelectric project near Madras, Ore. Before the signing of the agreement, Warm Springs tribal elder, Delvis Heath, provided a beautiful traditional blessing for the ceremony.

Members of Tribes overwhelmingly approved the agreement in a referendum election held on March 28, 2000.

WASHINGTON, DC - At a press conference at the National Press Club today, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced budget increases for Indian Country initiatives and joined Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson and other Administration officials and Indian leaders in announcing a new Native American-focused training course. Called "Working Effectively with Tribal Governments," the online course is now available to federal employees.