Past News Items

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Department of the Interior Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs James H. McDivitt will give the keynote address next week at an event commemorating federal law enforcement officers who have given their lives while on duty in Indian Country. The Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial will be held May 3, 2001 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in conjunction with the U.S.

Award of a $94,357 contract for construction of a new water supply system and a new sewage disposal system to serve dormitories housing Blackfeet Indian school children at Cut Bank, Montana, was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract will provide two new drilled wells, discharge lines and chlorination system, and a new sewage lagoon-type oxidation system. This will improve the sanitation conditions affecting the dormitories at Cut Bank which house 106 Indian boys and girls who attend the public schools at Browning, six miles away.

In an address to the Building Economic Self-Determination in Indian Communities conference today, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover attacked the lack of jobs and opportunities on Indian reservations, and pointed out some of the major barriers to economic development on the reservation. "Unemployment on Indian reservations is 49%*. Nearly half of our people are not working, because there are not enough jobs, and not nearly enough opportunity in Indian country. What would happen if half of America were unemployed?

Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Craig, both members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, have been awarded a $59,000 contract by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide hot lunches for 900 Cherokee school children in North Carolina next winter, the Department of the Interior announced today. The couple, who operate Craig’s Restaurant and Motor Court at Cherokee, North Carolina, were the low bidders for the contract. They agreed to provide the noonday meals at 36.5 cents each, the lowest price offered since the private contract system was initiated at Cherokee in 1955.

Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, invites everyone to participate in a POW WOW sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Equal Employment Office and the Bureau's Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) in celebration of National American Indian Heritage Month. The POW WOW will be held outside (weather permitting) and open to the public. This event will feature music, traditional dance, storytelling, cultural displays, and Native American lore. The activity will also feature representatives from various Native American organizations.

Award of a $443,181.87 contract for the construction of 14.375 miles of highway on the Navajo Indian Reservation in the Apache County, Arizona area was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The project will provide an all-weather highway on a section of Route 8, which runs north and south and leads into a vast central portion of the reservation in Arizona. The new road will serve an area of more than 2,500 square miles where no improved roads exist at the present time.

Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs is pleased to announce that on June 3, 1996 the Department of Justice on behalf of the Department of the Interior petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review the Eighth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals holding that Sections of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, (IRA) (25 U.S.C. 461 et seq.), is unconstitutional (69 F.3d 878).

Section 5 of the IRA provides in part that:

Award of a $62,321.94-contract for grading, draining, and crushed gravel surfacing of 2.6 miles of the Nishu North Road and 2.7 miles of the Northeastern Segment Road on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, McLean County, North Dakota, was announced by the Department of the Interior today.

Delzer Construction Company, Selby, South Dakota, won the contract and was the low bidder. Four higher bids were received ranging from $64,838.48 to $69,830.61.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ada E. Deer said today the President's fiscal year 1995 budget request of $2.24 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) continues the shift of resources from the BIA to Indian tribes and strengthens the foundation established last year by President Clinton and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to fulfill the federal Indian trust responsibility and the creation of a government-to-government partnership.

Award of a $162,934.45 contract for the improvement of about six miles of road on the Navajo Indian Reservation at Ganado, Ariz., was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The project will provide the last link of bituminous surfacing on the eastern half of Navajo Route 3 which runs across the big reservation connecting U. S. Highway 666 on the east with U. S. Highway 89 on the west. It will also connect with a recently completed concrete bridge across Ganado Wash.