Past News Items

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash today told a group of 200 Bureau personnel and high-ranking officials of other Federal agencies that the Administration's projected war on poverty "may…stimulate us to review, appraise, and revise our own ideas" relative to Indian social and economic aid.

He addressed a conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, of all superintendents of Indian reservations, the second since 1938 and a sequel to one held in Denver, Colo., shortly after Nash became Commissioner in 1961.

The Office of the Secretary previously announced that it will conduct a listening session on the status of implementation of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations. The purpose of the session is to meet with Indian tribes to discuss progress to date and receive feedback. Indian landowners may also attend to provide input. This notice corrects the previously published notice to provide RSVP and testimony information and an agenda.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will speak on April 20, 2004 at the Baca/Dlo’ay azhi Community School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs operated day school located in Prewitt, N.M., on the Navajo Nation reservation, at a ceremony celebrating the school’s designation as both the first Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEEDTM) building in the state and the first BIA school to be a “green” certified building. The certification was issued by the U.S.

Much has happened in our country since the last annual conference of the National Congress of American Indians--much of tragedy and much of accomplishment.

I am sure I do not need to recall to you that shattering event of last November. The friendship of the late President Kennedy for the American Indians and his warm, personal interest in seeing that the full resources of the Federal Government were employed in their behalf is well known to you. Our loss is great.

SELLS, Ariz. – Today, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Mac Lean Sweeney reopened the Santa Rosa Ranch School (SRRS), located on the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation. The school provides education for grades K-8 and serves approximately 66 students. The school had been closed since December 13, 2018, when the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) leadership and safety personnel identified several high priority deficiencies during a campus walk-through.

WASHINGTON – The Joint Tribal Leaders/DOI Task Force on Trust Reform will hold its final meeting on December 16th and 17th at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C. At this meeting, task force members will provide closing comments and review their work over the past 11 months that has been aimed to improve trust management systems and processes to better serve American Indian and Alaska Native tribal and individual trust account beneficiaries.

Awards totaling about $36 million were granted 13 American Indian groups by judgments of the Indian Claims Commission during 1968, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported today.

Congress has appropriated funds for $30.6 million of the total granted. The appropriated funds earn interest for the tribes involved while the funds are on deposit to their credit.

WASHINGTON – President Trump today proposed a $1.9 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 budget for Indian Affairs, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the awarding of a $460,518 grant to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, to support the Tribes’ efforts to enter the oil refining business by building a Clean Fuels Petroleum Refinery (CFPR) on its reservation. “With the right help, tribes can find innovative ways of developing and using their natural resources to build a strong economic base and provide jobs for their people,” McCaleb said.

Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel has announced the publication, in the Federal Register, of a list of 83 Indian tribes which conduct their own local law enforcement and are therefore eligible for assistance under the I Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968.

"These are the tribes which have clear-cut jurisdiction over law and order on their reservations," Hickel said, "and this publication makes it possible for them to make timely applications for Federal assistance in improving local crime control."