Past News Items

A new industry to employ Navajo Indians is being established in the former administration building of the Bureau of Reclamation in Page, Ariz., and Secretary-of the Interior Stewart L. Udall reported today.

Reclamation transferred the building to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as it is no longer needed for Reclamation's activities. The building was the center of activity at Page during construction of the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.

On May 20, 1997 Ms. Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs called an all employees meeting at BIA Headquarters, Washington, DC. The purpose of this meeting was to provide information relative to current matters taking place within the Bureau of lndian Affairs and to present a Summer Action Plan. "I would like to see the Bureau become a dynamic entity accomplishing positive things at the end of this Summer," Ms. Deer said.

The Summer Action Plan

WASHINGTON – Today President Donald Trump proposed a $1.9 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget for Indian Affairs, which, for this request, includes only the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. The Bureau of Indian Education’s (BIE) budget request is presented separately.

"New Mexico's economy is going to be especially hard hit by the U.S. Senate's proposed budget cuts for Indian programs," said Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, yesterday. New Mexico, because it is home to most of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' central office operations, in addition to being the site of two area offices and seven agency offices, will bear a major share of the cuts. Additionally, there are twenty-three tribes in New Mexico, each of which are slated for a 32 percent cut in tribal program funds.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson has announced the appointment of a new Deputy Area Director for the BIA's Aberdeen Area. He is Richard D. Drapeaux, a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe Drapeaux has been the Housing Development Officer for the Area, which includes North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.

A graduate of South Dakota State University, Drapeaux began his career with the Bureau as a high school teacher on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1952.

President Bill Clinton's fiscal year 1994 budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs proposes to spend $2.4 billion, an increase of $261.3 million over the current year, according to documents released today by the Department of the Interior. This is a significant change from budget requests of the last decade, which often proposed substantial funding reductions for the Bureau.

Kent Frizzell, Acting Secretary of the Interior, today ordered acceleration of the Central Utah Project and Department action on specific related requests submitted August 13 in a resolution by the Ute Indian Tribe

Frizzell directed:

--award by the Bureau of Reclamation of a $26.9 million contract for construction of Vat Tunnel--the largest contract awarded to date for the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project;

Ownership of the 170-acre campus of the former Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City, Utah will be formally returned to the city in a ceremony to be held in the City Hall January 28.

John W. Fritz, the Interior Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, will give Mayor Peter C. Knudson a quit claim deed to the Congressman James V. Hansen CR. Utah) and the Brigham City council will be present.

Wyman J. McDonald, a member of the Flathead Indian Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Mescalero Agency in New Mexico. His appointment will be effective March 30.

He has been since 1971 executive director of Tri-State Tribes, Inc., in Billings Montana. This organization has been involved in training and other work with Indian Community Action Programs in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

The Assistant Secretary— Indian Affairs has made a final determination to acquire 10.36 acres, more or less, into trust for the Indians of the Tejon Indian Tribe. The Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs made the final determination on September 1, 2020.