Past News Items

RED VALLEY, Ariz. – On the heels of President Obama’s State of the Union address where he committed to focusing on challenges and opportunities that will impact America for generations to come – including in Indian Country – U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced $45 million to build the last previously identified Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) school construction projects.

Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Public Land Management Harrison Loesch today called for accelerated road construction on Indian reservations; stepped-up assistance to improve public land development roads and trails, improvement of national park roads, roadways, and trails; and highway development in the Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa. He testified before the Senate Public Works Subcommittee on Roads.

The Department of the Interior said today a petition from the combined tribal councils of the Ute Mountain and Southern Ute Indian Tribes that the Bureau of Indian Affairs split up the Consolidated Ute Agency at Ignacio, Colo., into the Ute Mountain Agency, Towaoc, Colo., and the Southern Ute Agency, Ignacio, Colo., has been approved.

No additional funds or employees will be needed to accomplish the changes. The division into two separate agencies will give both of the Ute tribes better service, Bureau of Indian Affairs officials said. The change was made effective December 29.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Justice Services (OJS) in collaboration with the United States Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s Office District of Montana, and the Montana Department of Justice will hold the third of its 2014 tribal court trial advocacy training sessions for tribal court personnel on May 19-22 in Helena, Montana.

The March 29, 1972, deadline for filing enrollment applications for members of the Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians has been extended to June 27, 1972, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today.

The roll is being established to determine Pembina Chippewa Indians eligible to share in awards totaling $237,127.82 in land claims funds pursuant to the Act of July 29, 1971 (85 Stat. 158).

The award of a $397,375 contract for the construction of a 200-man Job Corps Conservation Center on the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It will be one of nine such centers to be operated on Indian reservations as part of the massive program of job training and education for unemployed youth being conducted under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that his office will hold the next set of Listening Sessions on the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Guidelines for State Courts on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, at the National Indian Child Welfare Association annual conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and on Thursday, April 24, via teleconference.

A school for campground management for American Indians?

Isn't that like starting an aviation course for birds?

Not completely, said Secretary of the Interior Rogers, C. B. Morton, announcing a new training program by the National Palk service to teach the financial and technical aspects of tourist-oriented campground management to members of American Indian tribes. Graduates will return to their tribal homes to develop and manage public campgrounds on Indian lands.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior today advised that Indians who are eligible to share in the 1961 Cherokee judgment award must file their claims by October 9, 1965.

The net amount to be distributed to the 41,935 tribal members on the Cherokee tribal roll is $11,741,800, under an award granted September 14, 1961 by the Indian Claims Commission. The per capita payment amounts to $280. The award represents additional recompense to the Cherokee Nation for lands in Oklahoma ceded by the Indians to the United States in the past century.

WASHINGTON, DC – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today approved a request by the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria to acquire 626 acres in trust in Butte County, California, near the City of Chico for gaming purposes.