Past News Items

Over a million acres has been added to the land holdings of Indian tribes throughout the country in the past three years as a result of Congressional enactments and administrative section by the Department of the Interior, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons announced today.

WASHINGTON - The Department of the Interior has submitted plans to a federal court outlining a proposed $335 million effort to conduct an historical accounting of individual American Indian and Alaska Native trust accounts as well as a separate blueprint to guide the future management of Interior's trust obligations to American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Award of a contract to Yuma Rock and Sand, Yuma, Arizona, for construction of a concrete waste way structure as a key element in the Colorado River Indian Irrigation Project at Parker, Ariz., was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Yuma Rock and Sand’s bid of $83,615 for the job was the lowest of five received by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The other four ranged from $111,366 to $125,747.20.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the appointment of Robert D. Ecoffey, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, as its lead law enforcement officer. As director of the Bureau’s Office of Law Enforcement Services, Ecoffey will oversee a 750-person department that provides uniformed police services, detention operations and criminal investigations of alleged or suspected violations of major federal criminal laws in Indian Country.

The Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton today announced the award of a $3,178,412 contract for construction of new boarding school facilities for more than 600 additional Indian children in the elementary grades at Leupp, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation.

The new plant will have a capacity of 672 pupils. It will replace a 67-pupil school now operated by the Bureau at Leupp. Upon completion of the new facilities, the present school will be abandoned.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb will appear on C-SPAN’s live nationwide public affairs call-in program “Washington Journal” on Sunday, July 15, 2001, at 9:15 a.m. (EDT). He will be speaking on contemporary American Indian issues, tribal economic development, education and his goal of shaping the Bureau of Indian Affairs into a 21st century service agency responsive to the agency’s customers: federally recognized tribes and American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Award of a $375,000 construction contract that will more than double the capacity of an Indian Bureau school at Cove, Ariz., on the Navajo Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior

The project covers construction of a four-classroom building, a kitchen and multipurpose room, a storage and generator room, and expansion of all utilities.

One tribe’s 22-year journey through the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) process for federal recognition ended this afternoon when Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Gover signed the final determination in favor of federal acknowledgement for the Chinook Indian Tribe/Chinook Nation of Washington State in a ceremony at the Department of the Interior’s main building in Washington, D.C.

Selection of Glenn R. Landbloom, a veteran Indian Bureau employee, as general superintendent of the Navajo Agency at Window Rock, Ariz., was announced today by Glenn L. Emmons, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior.

Mr. Landbloom, assistant area director for the Bureau at Aberdeen, S. Dak., since 1954, is expected to report for duty at Window Rock around September 1. He succeeds G. Warren Spaulding, who retires August 31 after more than 30 years of service with the Bureau and four years as head of the Navajo Agency.

The Department of the Interior has presented to Congress an initial report that outlines proposed legislative settlement options for resolving disputed balances in Tribal trust accounts. The report and recommendations are in response to a five-year study by a national accounting firm which examined billions of dollars in Tribal trust fund transactions handled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a 20-year period beginning in 1972.