Past News Items

Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith announced today new assignments for four Bureau of Indian Affairs area directors all of them members of the Federal Government's senior executive service.

The new appointments are as follows:

Sidney Mills, the Albuquerque area director, has been named director of the Bureau's Office of Trust Responsibilities in Washington, D. C.

Vincent Little, director of the Bureau's Portland, Oregon area office, replaces Mills in Albuquerque.

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin will visit New Mexico on Tuesday, February 4, 2003, to inspect two Bureau of Indian Affairs-operated schools – Wingate High School in Ft. Wingate, N.M., and Baca Community School in Prewitt, N.M. – that are on the Bureau’s list of schools slated for replacement within the next few years.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Bush has proposed a $2.31 billion budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for Fiscal Year 2004, an increase of $62.0 million over the FY2003 request, to improve the Interior Department’s management of individual Indian and tribal trust assets, to operate new tribally-operated detention centers and to develop tribal economies. The request also maintains the President’s commitment to eliminate the school maintenance backlog and provide tribes with greater opportunities to directly operate BIA schools.

Washington DC – Department of the Interior’s Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Aurene Martin applauds the American Indian firefighting crews that were dispatched to assist with the recovery of the space shuttle Columbia, and its crew. The Shuttle broke apart during re-entry February 1, 2003, and is spread over a 500 square-mile area, much of it heavily wooded.

Washington – The National Indian Country Telecommunications Infrastructure Consortium (NICTIC) will hold a meeting on February 27, 2003, at the Wyndham Washington Hotel, 1400 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20005, starting at 2:30 p.m. in the Ash Lawn North room.

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is part of a three-year Department of the Interior (DOI) agreement with one of the nation’s leading producers of high-tech geographic mapping software that will expand the usage of geographic information system (GIS) technology throughout Indian Country.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Improving Indian student academic achievement through Native language and culture in Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools will be the focus of the upcoming Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) Journeying Home: Language and Culture Preservation Conference. The event, with the theme “Creating Our Future From Our Past,” will be held March 3-6 in Minneapolis, Minn., at the Hilton Minneapolis and Towers hotel.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton will participate in a swearing-in ceremony this week at the inaugural board meeting of an independent foundation chartered by Congress to accept financial and other contributions for Indian students attending Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools.

The board of directors of the Foundation for the Advancement of American Indian Education (FAAIE) will be welcomed on Thursday, March 6 by Secretary Norton, acting Assistant Director - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin, and FAAIE Founding Director Lorraine P. Edmo.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) popular family literacy program, FACE, will be expanded to seven BIA-funded schools in the 2003-2004 school year. The Family and Child Education program, which is administered by the Bureau’s Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP), provides early childhood and adult education programs to American Indian families at home and in school. The FACE program has served over 15,000 infants, children and adults since its start in 1991.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton today conducted a ceremonial swearing-in of the founding members of the American Indian Education Foundation (AIEF) Board of Directors at its inaugural meeting in the Interior Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Congress established the Foundation in December, 2000 under the Omnibus Indian Advancement Act (Public Law 106-568).