Past News Items

The Department of the Interior today announced its endorsement of legislation that would permit the leasing of Indian lands on the. Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah for periods up to a maximum of 99 years.

Members of eight Washington State Indian tribes will be provided an extra day each week, under long standing treaty rights, to fish for sockeye and pink salmon this season which begins June 26, the Department of the Interior reported.

WASHINGTON, DC: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today released the following statement regarding the proposal in the House of Representatives to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has sent a letter of congratulations to the Papago Candy Stripers, a group of 18 Arizona Indian girls who recently won first place honors from Parents' Magazine for youth group achievement in teenage public service.

On November 24 the Indian Hospital at Sells, Arizona, was the setting for a ceremony at which the Papago Candy Stripers were presented with the first place plaque and a cash prize of $500 for their outstanding volunteer work in the hospital.

Regulations governing the administration of funds to assist Indian irrigation projects and fisheries under the Drought Emergency Act of April 7, 1977, are being published in the Federal Register, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler announced today.

The regulations tell how qualified applicants may obtain funds to remedy some detrimental effects of the 1976-77 drought. Provisions are made for short-term actions to increase water supplies and to repair, or improve water supply facilities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – There is not enough evidence to meet the legal requirements for federal recognition of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs George T. Skibine said today. The Department of the Interior, therefore, has issued a final determination not to acknowledge the petitioner group as a federally-recognized Indian tribe.

Although I have been in office only a little over seven months, it has been an extremely crowded period. So I really welcome the opportunity to back off here in a somewhat more cloistered atmosphere and cast an appraising eye on our present situation in Indian affairs.

The appointment of Rebecca H. Dotson as Assistant Area Director for Education in the Navajo area was announced today by Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond V. Butler.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that the Bureau of Indian Education, Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) in Lawrence, Kan., and the Haskell Indian National Board of Regents have formed a partnership to develop a post secondary education learning model to improve the educational experience of Haskell students. HINU is one of two BIE-operated post secondary institutions of higher learning for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Appointment of Roderick H. Riley, former economic advisor to the U. S. Information Agency, as assistant and economic advisor to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash was reported today by the Department of the Interior.

A career civil servant and native of Antigo, Wisc., Riley entered Federal service in 1933 as research assistant to the late Senator Robert M. La Follette, In He has been with USIA for the past two years.