Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced that President Bush intends to nominate Eddie Frank Brown to be Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. Brown will assume his post at Interior following hearings before the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs and confirmation by the full Senate. He will be responsible for Interior programs serving more than 1.4 million Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States.

An April 24 White House announcement that a supplemental appropriation of $10.9 million for law enforcement on Indian reservations was being requested from the Congress by the Administration was welcomed by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson.

"The Indian community will be pleased to know that this request is being submitted to the Congress," he said. "The upgrading of law enforcement services, including the operations of the tribal courts, is badly needed."

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke today announced the appointment of 20 primary and 18 alternate members to the Department of the Interior’s Royalty Policy Committee (Committee) that will serve a critical role in advising the Secretary on policy and strategies to improve management of the multi-billion dollar, federal and American Indian mineral revenue program. The Committee’s first meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 4.

A Bureau of Indian Affairs concept paper on reducing costs at the central office and area office levels by consolidating administrative functions and making other changes has been sent to Indian leaders for review and counsel, 'Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith said today.

The concept paper on "streamlining the Bureau of Indian Affairs" has been sent to nine tribal leaders, appointed by NTCA and NCAI in March to function as an Indian Policy Review Team for Smith and Interior Secretary James Watt.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today that Raymond W. Mayotte has been appointed Superintendent of the Minnesota Agency at Bemidji. He succeeds Edwin Demery who is now the BIA area director for the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa.

ANCHORAGE – U.S. Department of the Interior Deputy Secretary Michael L. Connor today signed an agreement with officials from the Ahtna Intertribal Resources Commission (AITRC) which coordinates natural resource management issues for the eight federally recognized tribes in the Ahtna region to create a cooperative wildlife management demonstration project on federal and Ahtna Corporation lands in Southcentral Alaska.

Dr. S. Gabe Paxton, Jr., a Choctaw Indian, has been appointed to serve as Deputy Director, Office of Indian Education Programs, Kenneth L. Smith, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, announced today.

Most recently, Paxton held positions of Area Vocational Development Officer and Area Indian Self Determination Officer at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Muskogee Area Office in Muskogee, Oklahoma. In 1977 he was the Associate Deputy Commissioner for Indian Education in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus, accompanied by his Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Forrest Gerard, will visit the lower Klamath River area in northern California next Thursday, September 7, for meetings with Indian leaders concerned about fishing controversies in that region.

WASHINGTON, DC – With a transfer of nearly $1 million, the Department of the Interior today announced that total contributions to the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund have surpassed $5 million for 2014. The Scholarship Fund was authorized by the historic Cobell Settlement and is funded in part by the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program). The Scholarship Fund will provide financial assistance through scholarships to American Indian and Alaska Native students wishing to pursue post-secondary education and training.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt announced today that Roy H. Sampsel, a Choctaw Indian from Portland, Oregon, has been appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.

Sampsel has worked in Indian Affairs as a consultant, as executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, as a reservation program officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior.