Past News Items

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today praised President Obama’s signing of the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership Act (HEARTH Act) which grants greater authority to federally recognized tribes to develop and implement their own regulations for leasing on Indian lands. The Act passed the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law today by President Obama.

Promotion of Benjamin Reifel, a Sioux Indian and doctor of philosophy in public administration, to be area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Aberdeen, S. Dak., was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

He will succeed William O. Roberts, area director at Aberdeen since February 1954, who retires on August 31 after 38 years of continuous and progressively responsible service with the Indian Bureau.

Indian young people have little or no difficulty gaining admission to the college or university of their choice. They tend to enroll immediately after they graduate from high school, drop out for a year or two, and then return to their undergraduate studies. Education and social work are their most common majors. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is their greatest source of financial help

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald “Del” Laverdure today posted on the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs blog “The First Anniversary of Let's Move! in Indian Country Brings Together Renowned Panelists and the Positive Accomplishments in Indian Country’s Quest for Healthier Living and Eating.”

A proposed draft of legislation that would terminate Federal supervision over a two-year period in four Indian communities of southern Minnesota with a combined population of roughly 300 has been submitted to Congress for consideration, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay said today.

Groups covered by the proposal are the Lower Sioux Community in Redwood and Scott counties, the New Upper Sioux Community in Yellow Medicine County, the Prairie Island Community in Goodhue County, and about 15 individuals living on restricted tracts in Yellow Medicine County.

­­"Miss Indian America XX", Maxine Norris, 21, Papago Indian of Casa Grande, Arizona, will visit Washington, D.C. November 10 through 16 as the guest of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Marvin L. Franklin, and Assistant to the Secretary tor Indian Affairs announced today.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Director Keith Moore announced today that the Circle of Nations-Wahpeton Indian Boarding School from Wahpeton, N.D. has been selected to receive the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Green Ribbon Schools award.

A new emergency program for distributing feed grains to Indian stockmen in previously designated drought-stricken areas of the Southwest was announced today by the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior.

WASHINGTON — Yesterday, U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney and Gila River Indian Community (Community) Governor Stephen Lewis signed a lease for the Gila Crossing Community School, the Community’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) K-8 school located in District 6 on the Reservation. An innovative partnership between DOI and the Community resulted in the first-of-its-kind lease in Indian Country that will educate and empower future generations of Community children.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk expressed his deepest condolences to the family and friends of the late Richard M. Milanovich, the Chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, praising him as a great American Indian leader who represented his people with heart and soul.