Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus today announced two top Indian Affairs appointments in the Department of the Interior.

George Vincent Goodwin, Jr., a member of the White Earth Chippewa Tribe now a Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Director at Minneapolis, was named Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, and Thomas w. Fredericks, a member of the Mandan-Hidatsa Tribe, was appointed Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today issued a final determination not to acknowledge the petitioner known as the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation (Petitioner #84A) as an Indian tribe. This petitioner, located in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., has 1,940 members.

The Department of the Interior today recommended enactment of legislation for construction of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project and the initial stage of the San Juan-Chama Project.

In a report to Congress, the Department supported R.R. 2352 and R.R. 2494, identical bills authorizing construction and maintenance of the two projects as participating projects of the Colorado River Storage Project.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus and Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Wayne Ducheneaux jointly announced today that the Department of the Interior has agreed to adopt environmental regulations enacted by the tribe to govern mineral development and oil and gas leasing activities on tribal and allotted land within the tribe's reservation in South Dakota.

Washington, D.C. – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced the schedule for the month of December for the Interior Department’s series of tribal consultation meetings to develop a Department-wide tribal consultation policy.

The December schedule of tribal consultation meetings is as follows (all times are local time):

Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Times: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon/1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Location: Hilton-Anchorage, 500 W 3rd Ave., Anchorage, Alaska, 99501 907-272-7411

The Department of the Interior said today it has recommended enactment of Federal legislation (8.2384) that would bring greater benefits to Navajo Indians living in San Juan County, Utah, from the leasing of reservation lands for oil and gas development.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus told Bureau of Indian Affairs employees March 31 that he has taken no position - pro or con - on the American Indian Policy Review Commission recommendation to remove Indian affairs from the Department of the Interior in favor of a separate, independent agency.

WASHINGTON–Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that he will visit the Rough Rock Community School on Wednesday, Sept. 16, where he will be joined by Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley to attend a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Phase II portion of the Rough Rock Community School Replacement Project.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash, accompanied by other Indian Bureau officials, will travel extensively through Indian areas of North Dakota in early May, and Minnesota in early June, to consult with Government officials and Indian leaders and visit with Indian families in their homes.

For draft documents recommending ways to improve Indian education programs are now available for review and comment by interested persons, the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Director of Indian Education Programs William Demmert announced today.

Demmert said that the papers deal with "major matters of immediate concern to me." He said that he hoped Indian tribal governments, school boards, parents and other citizens would take the opportunity to read the documents and make their suggestions.