Past News Items

Robert Abbey will hold a news media teleconference regarding domestic oil and gas production on public and Tribal lands.

Credentialed media may also participate in the teleconference media roundtable by telephone by dialing 1-888-972-9240 and entering the access code INTERIOR.

A new course of study for young American Indians, based on the strengths and historical significance of their heritage will be used in schools of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior reported today.

Santa Clara Day School in the Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico, will play host as the featured site in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Net Day 1999. Santa Clara Day School and18 other BIA funded schools from eastern Maine to Washington's Olympic Peninsula will celebrate their accomplishments, as well as their connection to each other through the Internet, as part of the Four Directions Project.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall next week will be in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Arizona on water resource and park missions and to see some Indian achievements.

Udall will fly to Denver Tuesday morning, September 5, and will hold a news conference there upon his arrival.

The secretary then will be flown to Cheyenne, where he will meet with Gov. Stanley Hathaway of Wyoming at a noon luncheon.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs (AS-IA) Kevin Gover signed on December 16, 1997, a Final Determination that denies Federal acknowledgment of the Mobile - Washington County Band of Choctaw Indians of South Alabama (MOWA) of Mount Vernon, AL.

The Department of the Interior has recommended that Congress pass a bill to increase appropriation authorization for Indian vocational education.

Labeling the current vocational training program as "one of the stable contributing factors in solving Indian problems," the Department said it is giving more emphasis to it. A bill now in Congress would increase the annual authorization from $15 to $25 million.

Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs is thrilled to announce that there is $34.6 million in loan guarantee authority currently available to assist tribal and individual enterprises on or near Indian reservations.

A plan for the use and distribution of $4.6 million awarded to the Winnebago Indians by the Indian Claims Commission is being published in the Federal Register, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The award represents payment for lands in Wisconsin and Illinois ceded by the Winnebago Tribe to the United States between 1829 and 1837.

The plan, approved by Congress and made effective October 30, 1975, divides the award between the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and the Winnebago Tribe of Wisconsin on the basis of current tribal rolls.

--First of all, I don't think I have to tell you that there has literally been an explosion in Indian gaming during the last one to two years. No one -- not Congress, Interior, BIA, the Indian people, or anyone else anticipated this tremendous growth. The 1988 legislation did not provide for a time period after it became law for all the safeguards and rules and regulations to be put into place. Neither did it provide time for anyone to hire the necessary expertise to monitor all the things for which we were given the responsibility.

Leaders of Indian-owned-and-operated manufacturing firms will have the opportunity to meet and talk business with representatives of some of America's corporate giants in Chicago, October 15-16.

Host firms for the two-day session, designed to assist the Indian manufacturers develop new markets, will include the Quaker Oats Company, Zenith Corporation, Illinois Tool Company, the Brunswick Corporation and Standard Oil of Indiana. Representatives from the Santa Fe Railroad, Sears, Montgomery Wards and other companies will participate in the program.