Past News Items

The Department of the Interior favors legislation giving the White Mountain Apache Indian Tribe of Arizona beneficial ownership of 7,579 acres of Federal land on the Fort Apache Reservation, Assistant Secretary Roger Ernst announced today.

The acreage involved was originally set aside many years ago as the Fort Apache Military Post and has more recently been used as the site of an Indian Bureau school. The lands, exclusive of improvements, were appraised in 1958 at an estimated value of $141,000.

Ross Swimmer, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, today announced the appointment of Nancy Garrett as Director of the Office of Administration in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Garrett, a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) since 1978, currently serves as Deputy-Comptroller in BIA's Office of Indian Education Programs. Her new appointment is effective December 22.

The Department of the Interior today announced a proposed revision of Federal regulations to remove restrictions against road construction that have applied for more than 20 years on 310,000 acres on four Indian reservation areas in three States.

Under Secretary of the Interior Ann McLaughlin announced today that the Administration has accepted the agreement for funding the Animas-La Plata Project.

"While the agreement that has been reached contains several elements that are quite different from those we requested at the opening of negotiations, I believe that we have reached the best agreement possible with the states of Colorado and New Mexico and the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Tribes," McLaughlin said. "Considerable concessions were granted on all sides during the formulation of this agreement.

Plans for a change in the Federal regulations to permit more extensive leasing of Indian lands for underground storage of oil and gas were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The proposal covers both tribally and individually owned lands in Federal trusteeship or restricted status and could include lands which are currently under oil and gas production lease as well as those which are not. Under present regulations storage leases have been possible only for lands not under lease for oil and gas development.

Interior Secretary William Clark announced today that Kenneth L. Smith, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, has submitted his resignation to President Reagan, effective December 7.

A Wasco Indian from the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon, Smith was the first Indian from a reservation background to direct the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Before coming to Washington in 1981 he served for ten years as the general manager of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation.

Further exploration of coal resources in the lands of the Navajo Indian Reservation that may lead to a development expenditure of more than $1,000,000 and employment of as many as 200 Indians is now definitely in prospect, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is publishing in the Federal Register July 15, 1982, regulations governing treaty Indian fishing · for sockeye and pink salmon in Fraser River waters coming under the Convention between the United States and Canada.

The regulations are designed to be consistent with the United States' obligations to Canada under the Fraser River Convention and with the obligation to the treaty tribes to provide the opportunity to catch one-half of the United States' share of the fish.

The Navajo Indian Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior are working closely together to meet all emergency needs resulting from the recent heavy snows and extremely cold weather on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash reported today.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has published an updated report on American Indian reservations populations. The booklet includes estimates on unemployment.

Dated December, 1981, the report shows a population of 734,895 living on or near Indian reservations, including former reservations in Oklahoma. It also includes 64,047 Eskimos, Aleuts and Indians in Alaska.

The reservation population, which constitutes the BIA's service population, is 52 percent of the 1.4 million total Indian population counted in the 1980 census.