Past News Items

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.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced a major proposal to realign the management organization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) to improve services to individual Indian and tribal trust beneficiaries.

SALEM, Ore. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson shared his message of hope and the philosophies he credits for the personal and business successes in his life at a visit today with the students, faculty and staff of Chemawa Indian School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs-operated boarding school for grades 9-12 located just outside of the city of Salem. This was the new assistant secretary’s first visit to the school since his swearing-in last month.

WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, November 26, 2002, Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb will be joined by The Honorable R. Perry Beaver, Principal Chief, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, in dedicating the new headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) Eastern Oklahoma Regional Office in Muskogee, Okla. The BIA will be the sole tenant of the two-story facility, which was built, and is owned, by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma.

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Interior will celebrate this year’s National American Indian Heritage Month on Thursday, November 21, with an observance of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), the nation’s only Congressionally chartered school for American Indian and Alaska Native arts. IAIA President Della Warrior, a member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe in Oklahoma, will be the keynote speaker at the Department’s event, which will start at 10:00 a.m. (EST) in the Sydney R.

WASHINGTON - In an official proclamation issued by the White House, President George W. Bush has declared November “National American Indian Heritage Month.” President Bush praised American Indian heritage and Indian role models who serve as a central part of America’s history, including Sacagawea and the Navajo Code-talkers of World War II.

On September 10, 2002, the Department of the Interior received a Class III gaming compact executed by the Seneca Nation of Indians and the State of New York. Under the terms of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), the Secretary may approve or disapprove the compact before the date that is 45 days after receipt of the compact. If the Secretary does not approve or disapprove the compact by that date, the compact is considered to have been approved, but only to the extent that its terms comply with the requirements of IGRA.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) today issued the following statement relating to a DOI notification to federal court officials on behalf of Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb. “

WASHINGTON – Charlotte P. Begay, the adult education coordinator with the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) Wingate Elementary School’s Family and Child Education Program (FACE) in Ft. Wingate, N.M., was honored yesterday as one of the state’s two winners of the Milken National Educator Award. She and Suzanne Harper, principal of Colinas Del Norte Elementary School in Rio Rancho, received their $25,000 awards at surprise notification ceremonies at their respective schools. Each can use their award in any way they choose.

WASHINGTON - Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the formation of the National Indian Country Telecom Infrastructure Consortium (NICTIC) to coordinate an effort to build and improve the telecommunications infrastructure throughout Indian Country. "Creating this consortium supports the President's National Strategy for Homeland Security by providing critical direction to improving the telecommunications infrastructure in Indian Country," said Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb.