Past News Items

WASHINGTON — With the goal of better preserving and enhancing the natural and cultural heritage of the nation’s public lands and waters, five U.S. government agencies today joined the National Geographic Society in a ceremony at Society headquarters unveiling a ground-breaking framework to formally adopt the principles of geotourism.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons announced today that he has asked the Solicitor1s Office of the Department of the Interior for advice on questions of law involved in a proposed 25-year oil and gas development contract between the Navajo Indian Tribe and the Delhi-Taylor Oil Corporation of Dallas, Texas.

The proposed contract, which covers about 5,000,000 acres or nearly a third of the entire Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, was recently submitted to Commissioner Emmons by Chairman Paul Jones of the Navajo Tribal Council.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman, Seminole Tribe of Florida Vice-Chairman Richard Bowers and Mashantucket Pequot Vice-Chairman Kenneth Reels have signed a partnership agreement that will utilize the tribes’ purchasing power to promote Indian Country business development under DOI’s intertribal economic consortium initiative.

In an effort to learn more about the problem of alcoholism among Indians, and how to deal with it more effectively, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons today announced the appointment of a special three-man commission which will begin in the near future a three-month study on the Navajo Reservation (of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah) and other Indian reservations of New Mexico and Colorado.

WASHINGTON – Today at the 63rd Departmental Honor Awards Convocation held in the Sydney R. Yates Auditorium at the U.S. Department of the Interior, it was a time for the Department to honor its own – those who have served with sudden seconds of valor and long years of excellence. At the ceremony a private citizen and three Bureau of Indian Affairs employees were among the many to be awarded for their bravery, outstanding contributions and dedicated service to the Department. Edward D.

Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today formally welcomed delegates to a Washington conference on Indian youth being held by Arrow, Incorporated, a nonprofit organization, and read to them a telegram of greeting from President Eisenhower.

Washington – Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason today announced that the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED), in the Office of the Assistant Secretary Indian Affairs is a sponsor of the 20th Annual National Reservation Economic Summit & American Indian Business Trade Fair better known as RES 2006. The four day event is hosted by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development (NCAIED), and will be held on February 6-9, 2006 at Las Vegas, Nevada.

Award of a $351,746 contract for construction of enlarged dormitory facilities to accommodate 58 additional Indian children at Huerfano, on the Navajo Indian Reservation, near Bloomfield, New Mexico, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The successful bidder is Anchor Construction Company, Roswell, New Mexico. Eight higher bids ranging from $356,590 to $473,400 were submitted by contractors from New Mexico and Illinois.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton has appointed Christopher B. Chaney as associate solicitor for the Division of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior. Chaney, a member of the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, previously worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, serving with the United States Attorney’s office in Salt Lake City, Utah, and, more recently, at the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys in Washington, D.C.

Regulations governing a new vocational training program for Indians between 18 and 35 years of age and residing on reservations ware announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The new program is being initiated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs with an appropriation of $1.5 million, contained in the Department’s fiscal 1958 appropriations measure signed by the President on July 1. Authorization for the program was provided by the 84th Congress in Public Law 959.