Past News Items

Assistant Secretary of the Interior Roger Ernst today urged congressional enactment of legislation to authorize extension of the irrigation distribution system of the Coachella Valley County Water District of Riverside County, California, to about 10,000 acres of Indian land on the Augustine, Cabazon and Torres-Martinez Reservations.

WASHINGTON – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has been awarded a Reading First grant by the U.S. Department of Education totaling $27 million over the next six years. Office of Indian Education Programs Director Edward Parisian officially received the award today from Education Department officials at the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians 50th annual conference in Pendleton, Oregon.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced the Bureau of Indian Affairs has awarded contracts totaling $51,582 to furnish transformers, substation equipment and steel framework for a substation at the Portneuf pumping station of the Michaud Irrigation Division near Pocatello, Idaho.

The contracts were for $31,187 to the R. E. Uptegraff Manufacturing Company, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and for $20,395 to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Portland, Oregon.

The Uptegraff and Westinghouse combination bid compares with the next lower acceptable bid of $60,300.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that James H. McDivitt, Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs (Management), will retire this month after a 35-year career in the Federal government. His retirement will be effective June 13, 2003. “Jim McDivitt has been a tremendous asset to the Bureau of Indian Affairs because of his experience as a Federal manager and dedicated public servant,” Martin said. “He proved himself invaluable to the Bureau and the Department, and he will be sorely missed.”

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced the awarding of a $73,948 contract to the Ruud Construction Company, Spokane, Washington, for the construction of seven bridges on the Colville Indian reservation in central Washington.

The bridges are part of a construction program for the summer of 1957 which will provide better farm-to-market and school bus and mail route roads on the reservation.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton will participate in a swearing-in ceremony this week at the inaugural board meeting of an independent foundation chartered by Congress to accept financial and other contributions for Indian students attending Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools.

The board of directors of the Foundation for the Advancement of American Indian Education (FAAIE) will be welcomed on Thursday, March 6 by Secretary Norton, acting Assistant Director - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin, and FAAIE Founding Director Lorraine P. Edmo.

Award of a $40,900 contract for construction of 20 deep-pit-type circular charcos (earthen stock water tanks) in the Sells and Gu Achi Districts of the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona to L. P. McCrite & Son, Gilbert, Arizona, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The McCrite bid was the lowest of 18 bids received. The others ranged from $41,600 to $193,700.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – In remarks at the 2001 National Tribal Roads Conference held last week in Albuquerque, N.M, Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb reaffirmed the authority of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, otherwise known as the TEA-21 Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, to develop proposed regulations and a new funding formula for the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Indian Reservation Roads Program, while acceding to the committee’s request for more time to complete its work.

Award of a $216,700 contract to Fairbanks Morse and Company of Portland, Oregon, for irrigation pumps for the Michaud Unit of the Fort Hall, (Idaho) Indian Irrigation Project was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

The project is planned for completion in 1962 at an estimated total cost of $5,500,000.

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service has awarded one of the largest tribal contracts in history to a 100% owned American Indian business. The $100 million contract, awarded to Wyandotte NetTel, offers telecommunications and information technology products and services to the federal government.

In today’s ceremony in Washington, D.C., executives from Wyandotte NetTel, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Minerals Management Service, and the Small Business Administration celebrated the contract agreement.