Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tomorrow, Thursday, January 30, 2014 Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Chairman Ronald Trahan of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, located in Montana, will announce a cooperative agreement to implement the Land Buy Back for Tribal Nations Program (BuyBack Program) on the Flathead Indian Reservation. The Buy-Back Program will purchase trust or restricted interests from willing sellers and transfer those interests to the Tribes in order to unlock lands for tribal development and other priorities.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today petitioned the Federal Power Commission seeking to intervene on behalf of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation in Montana in their application for increased payments from the Montana Power Company for use of tribal lands at Kerr Dam.

The Secretary is trustee for lands owned by the Confederated Tribes. The Kerr license specifically provides that any change in terms of the license that may affect the Indians' interest shall be subject to his approval.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Michael S. Black has named Weldon “Bruce” Loudermilk as Regional Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Alaska Regional Office in Anchorage. Loudermilk, an enrolled member of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana, had been serving as regional director of the Bureau’s Great Plains Regional Office in Aberdeen, S.D., since June 20, 2010.

A total of $38.5 million was awarded eight Indian tribes in judgments handed down by the Indian Claims Commission during calendar year 1964, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported today. Appropriations to meet the judgments were made during the year in six of the eight cases.

Judgment funds from land claims settlements are held in trust for the tribes by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Programs for use of the funds are developed by tribal governing bodies and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) today announced a $940 million proposed settlement with a nationwide class of Native American Tribes and tribal entities that, if approved by the federal district court, would resolve a 25-year-old legal dispute related to contract support costs for tribal agencies. The proposed settlement would address claims that the United States contracted with tribes to run programs but did not pay the full amounts required by law.

Dr. William J. Benham, a Creek Indian, has been named to head up the Bureau of Indian Affairs education programs on the Navajo Reservation. In this capacity, he will serve as one of three Assistant Area Directors for the Bureau's operations in the Navajo area.

Dr. Benham, a native of Holdenville, Okla., is a veteran of the Navajo education program. He joined the Bureau in 1950 and has served as both teacher and principal in various BIA schools for Navajo children. From 1963 until his recent reassignment he was Director of Schools for the Gallup Area Office.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today issued final determinations for two petitioners under the existing Federal Acknowledgment process. The decisions include a final determination to acknowledge the petitioner known as the Pamunkey Indian Tribe (Petitioner #323) as a federally recognized Indian tribe, and a final determination on remand to decline acknowledgment for the petitioner known as the Duwamish Tribal Organization (DTO) (Petitioner #25).

NEW INDUSTRY FOR NORTHERN CHEYENNE -- It may be mid-summer, but it looks like Christmas on Montana's Northern Cheyenne Reservation.

Fourteen tribal members are working to fill a large order for Christmas trees which are fashioned from pine cones and are scheduled for delivery to a San Francisco candy company.

LAVEEN, AZ – More than 150 tribal leaders and individual landowners joined Department of the Interior Deputy Secretary Michael Connor and Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn at the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program) 2015 Listening Session yesterday. The event, held on the Gila River Indian Community, allowed Interior officials to share updates and hear directly from tribal communities about how the Program can best be implemented across Indian Country.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, has announced transfers of four men which will affect two field offices and two Central Office posts.

William T. Schlick of Iowa has been promoted to a newly established position of Assistant to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. He will be staff assistant for liaison and program coordination with other Federal agencies, including the Office of Economic Opportunity. Since January, 1965, Schlick has been the Bureau's Job Corps Conservation Center Officer.