Past News Items

Ralph F. Keen, a Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma, has been appointed Acting Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Trust
Responsibilities, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson has announced.

In this position, Keen is responsible for the administration of more than 50 million acres of tribal lands held in trust by the United States.

On Thursday, February 12, 2009, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will testify before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on his views and priorities on American Indian issues. The full committee hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room SD 628.

Who: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar

What: Secretary Salazar’s testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee

When: 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has approved an order extending until January 1, 1969, the period of trust on Indian lands, both tribal and individually owned, in cases where the trusteeship or restrictions would otherwise expire in the years from 1964 through 1968.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that John J. Pereau, a Sioux Indian from the Fort Peck Reservation, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Crow Creek Agency in South Dakota. Pereau, Economic Development Officer at the agency, has been functioning as the Acting Superintendent since April of this year.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today issued a final determination not to acknowledge the petitioner known as the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of Abenakis of Vermont as an Indian tribe. This petitioner, located in Franklin County in northwestern Vermont, has 1,171 members with enrollment files completed to the petitioner’s satisfaction.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash will make his first official visit to Indian Bureau installations and native villages in the State of Alaska January 20 through 29, the Department of the Interior announced today.

Mr. Nash will dedicate new school buildings constructed by the Bureau at Kotzebue on January 21 and at Barrow on January 23, attend the inauguration of Governor William Egan in Juneau on January 26, and visit the Bureau's Mount Edgecumbe boarding school near Sitka on January 28.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Frankie E. Paul, 40, full blood Navajo, to be superintendent Tuba City Agency, Arizona. He has been acting in that capacity since April of this year.

Paul, born and raised in Ramah, New Mexico, is a graduate of Los Angeles State College with a B.A. degree in Education Administration.

WASHINGTON - Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman today announced the departure of Michael D. Olsen, currently the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs, who is going to work for the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management in the Department of the Interior where he will assume the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management. Artman also announced that effective Monday, April 2, 2007, George T.

Award of a $398,800 contract for the construction of a dormitory and related facilities at Aztec 1 New Mexico that will make it possible for 128 additional Navajo Indian pupils to attend the public schools at nearby Farmington was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The contract calls for the construction of one 128-pupil dormitory; a 256- pupil kitchen-dining-multipurpose building; and a utility building. Sidewalks utility connections and other site improvements are also included in the contract.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced that a $1.1 million contract for grading and surfacing about 13.55 miles of road on the Yakima Indian Reservation, Washington State, has been let to Materne Bros. Company, Spokane.

The proposed work will take place about a mile southwest of White Swan, Washington, on Signal Peak Road. Thee road provides access to such popular recreational areas as Lincoln Plateau, Klikitat River, and Mount Adams.