Past News Items

(TULSA, Okla.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb was named last night as the 2001 Native American Newsmaker of the Year by the Native American Times, Oklahoma’s largest Indian-owned newspaper. McCaleb received the newsmaker award during the Oklahoma Native American Business Development Center awards banquet at the Gilcrease Museum here. The center holds the annual awards ceremony to recognize individuals and companies from the Oklahoma Indian business community.

The Department of the Interior announced today the appointment of Charles J. Rives as superintendent of the San Carlos Indian Agency, San Carlos, Ariz., effective December 13. He succeeds Thomas H. Dodge who transferred last November to the superintendency of the Osage Agency at Pawhuska, Okla. His appointment was recommended by the San Carlos Tribal Council.

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton today praised President Bush’s intention to nominate Neal A. McCaleb to serve as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. The announcement is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate, once the official nomination is made by the President.

Cash income from Indian-owned forests in the United States has trebled in the last decade and the interest of Indian tribes and individual Indians in the scientific management of their woodland assets has greatly increased during the same period, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Bison and the American Indian people have a symbiotic relationship that needs to be honored and respected. After a visit to the Ft. Belknap Indian reservation in Montana, Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover is encouraging American Indians everywhere to let their voices be heard in determining the outcome of the current controversy over the management of the bison herd in Yellowstone National Park.

Award of a $309,000 contract for the construction of a gymnasium at the Cherokee Indian School operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Cherokee, North Carolina was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

President Clinton has signed an executive order that expands opportunities for federal assistance to tribal colleges and universities that serve approximately 25,000 American Indian and Alaska Native students. At the request of the White House, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt made the announcement in Phoenix, AZ, today before the opening session of the National Congress of American Indians.

Award of a $51,625.00 contract for improving 5.7 miles of the Mineral Center Grand Portage Road, on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, Cook County, Minnesota, was announced by the Department of the Interior today.

The project will provide all-weather transportation facilities for the residents of the Village of Grand Portage and will encourage tourist travel to this Indian village. The road also serves as a farm-to-market outlet, and mail and school bus route. It is the only road outlet for the residents of the Village.

Rising enrollment at Bureau of Indian Affairs schools and a decline in federal funds per student mean that American Indian children will experience such serious problems as fewer teachers and less time in the classroom next fall.

"American Indian children deserve a decent education in accredited classrooms and safe, uncrowded dormitories to prepare them for the challenges of the 21st Century. These outrageous cuts are especially egregious because our schools already are drastically underfunded; says Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Ada Deer.

The Department of the Interior announced today award of a contract by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for $324,650 to build a 200-pupil dormitory at Oglala Community School, Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

The successful bidder was D. L. Moffitt Company of McCook, Nebraska. Thirteen higher bids, ranging in price from $328, 401 to $397,450, were received.

Oglala Community School, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is a reservation boarding and day school, with a present enrollment of 457 boarding and 349 day school pupils in grades 1 through 12.