Past News Items

It is good to be back in Alaska where I spent three of the most memorable and worthwhile years of my life: worthwhile because the experience of working for and with the native peoples of this State gave me new and deeper insight into the nature of cultural differences among American peoples; and memorable because, as you know, this land of the frozen tundra can warm your heart while almost freezing your marrow.

WASHINGTON – In a speech before tribal leaders this week on improving economic conditions in Indian Country, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb called on tribes to choose prosperity over poverty. “We can choose between poverty and prosperity,” McCaleb said. “Most of us would choose prosperity, so why has Indian America remained mired in poverty?” The Assistant Secretary spoke on June 18 at the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) 2002 Mid-Year Conference in Bismarck, N.D.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that a new outdoor furniture plant to employee up to 300 workers will be established on the Colorado River Reservation in Arizona by Prest Wheel, Inc., of South Grafton, Mass.

Bennett said the firm will be located in an existing industrial building which the firm will purchase from the Economic Development Administration. Area Indians will be given on-the-job training to qualify for jobs in the new plant, he said.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced his decision to acknowledge that the historical Eastern Pequot Tribe, of the Lantern Hill Reservation, North Stonington, Connecticut exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. The historical Eastern Pequot Tribe meets all of the mandatory criteria under 25 CFR Part 83, the Federal acknowledgment regulations, for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

A new "exemplary" Indian school, set up to pioneer new teaching techniques; will open this fall at Concho, Okla., Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has announced.

The 256 pupil boarding school, to be operated.in a new $2.5 million building complex, will be used to develop new educational method's' to overcome the cultural and linguistic differences which often handicap Indian children in a traditional learning experience, Bennett said.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will celebrate its 175th Anniversary tomorrow, Friday, September 8, 2000, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT) at the U.S. Department of the Interior headquarters, 1849 ‘C’ Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., in the Sydney R. Yates Auditorium with the theme “Reconciling the Past, Trusting the Future: A Renewed Commitment to Indian Tribes for the 21st Century.” The program will include a discussion on the BIA’s past, present, and future.

The internationally famous exhibition of American Indian arts and crafts which was shown in Europe at International Festivals of the Arts in both Edinburgh, Scotland and Berlin, West Germany, is to have a Latin-American tour, starting this spring.

The exhibit has also been shown in London, England; Ankara, Turkey; Santa Fe, N.M.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Alaska, during last year's centennial there.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announces that the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians of Dudley, Massachusetts does not exist as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. This notice is based on a determination that the petitioner does not satisfy criteria 83.7(a), 83.7(b), and 83.7(c) of 25 CFR Part 83 and therefore, does not meet the requirements for government-to-government relationship with the United States. Criterion Part 83.7(a) requires that the petitioner have been identified as an American Indian entity on a substantially continuous basis since 1900.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will prepare a roll of Brotherton Indians of Wisconsin who are entitled to share in the distribution of over $1 million in judgment funds awarded these Emigrant New York Indians by the Indian Claims Commission, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Emigrant New York Indians are those Indians who voluntarily left the New York area for Wisconsin in the 1800's. They include the Oneida Tribe and the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Community of Wisconsin.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs received a prestigious Government Information Technology Agency Award from Government Computer News for the development of the Trust Assets Accounting Management System, or TAAMS. Government Computer News, a trade magazine for the Information Technology industry dealing with the United States Government issues awards annually for excellence in information resources management to federal agency organizations in the application of information technology to improve service delivery.