Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that he has approved the Northern Cheyenne Tribe’s probate code and that the Department of the Interior’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) will now apply the code when probating trust or restricted lands within the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. Codes such as the Northern Cheyenne’s allow tribes to determine how trust or restricted land within the reservation passes to heirs upon an individual’s death.

Interior Secretary James Watt said today President Reagan's budget amendments sent to Congress this week include a reduction of seven percent -- $75.9 million for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the fiscal year 1982 budget presently pending in Congress.

The Administration's Water Policy Message sent to Congress today by President Carter recommended that States put up a front-end share of the cost of all Federal water projects.

The President said that State governments should assume a share of the cost over and above existing cost-sharing of Federal water projects. The proposal was among several initiatives the President announced to achieve a new national emphasis on water conservation, enhance Federal State cooperation, increase attention to environmental quality, and improve Federal water resource programs.

PABLO, Montana – As part of President Obama’s commitment to strengthen the government-to-government relationship with tribal nations and fulfill federal trust obligations, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today issued a Secretarial Order reaffirming the Department of the Interior’s trust responsibilities to federally-recognized Indian tribes and individual Indian beneficiaries and providing guidance for Interior agencies in carrying out their obligations to them.

Appointment of Percy E. Melis, Window Rock, Arizona, as Chief of the Indian Bureau’s Branch of Forest and Range Management, to replace Leroy D. Arnold who retired on July 31, 1953, was announced by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay.

Mr. Melis has had many years of experience in forest and range management work in the Bureau and other Federal agencies. He has been forester in charge of range management at Window Rock area since July 7, 1952.

Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus announced today that a task force has been named to develop a proposed legislative settlement for the Catawba Indian Tribe's South Carolina land claim.

The three-member task force will include Interior Solicitor Leo M. Krulitz; James Moorman, Assistant Attorney General; and Eliot R. Cutler, Associate Director, Office of Management and Budget. Krulitz and Cutler were also members of the Maine Indian Claims task force which developed the proposed settlement of the Passamaquoddy-Penobscot land claims announced in February.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today issued the following statement on the passing of former Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Chief Executive Marge Anderson:

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the transfer of a 45-bed Indian hospital at Hayward, Wisconsin, to a local nonprofit corporation for future operations and maintenance.

The hospital was turned over to the Hayward Memorial Area Hospital Association. It will continue to provide services primarily for members of the Lac Courte Oreilles tribe, and will also serve non-Indians of the area. The hospital will be operated under a policy of equality of treatment and non-segregation.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has requested an increase of $62.1 million in appropriated funds for fiscal year 1979. The Bureau's request submitted January 23 to Congress as part of the President's budget asks for $949.5 million of Federal appropriation. This includes $761 million for the operation of Indian programs; $86.8 million for the construction of irrigation systems, building and utilities; $71.4 million for road construction, and $30 million payments under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (OJS) will hold the second of three training sessions to improve the trial advocacy skills of tribal court judges and prosecutors in dealing with driving-while-intoxicated (DWI) cases. The session, which will provide advanced training in DWI cases, is being held May 1-3 in Flagstaff, Ariz.