Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Acting Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that she has confirmed Terry Virden, a member of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, as Deputy Commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). "Terry Virden has been a strong advocate for the BIA," said Martin. "I am confident that he will continue to guide the Bureau with a steady hand now and into the future." The Deputy Commissioner is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the nearly 180-year-old federal agency.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Acting Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced she has issued a Notice of Proposed Finding whereby she proposes to decline to acknowledge that the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe (petition #81) in Trumbull, Conn., exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law.

This report provides a portrait of the American Indian and Alaska Native population in the United States and discusses the largest specified tribal groupings, reservations, Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs), and areas outside reservations and ANVSAs (outside tribal areas) at the national level. It is part of the Census 2000 Special Reports series that presents demographic, social, and economic characteristics collected from Census 2000.

Charles Chi bitty of Tulsa Oklahoma, the last surviving member of the Comanche Code Talkers, will receive the Citizen's Award for Exceptional Service from the Department of the Interior in a ceremony that will take place in the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon on November 30, 1999. The. Ceremony is to honor his role as a Comanche Code Talker during World War II where he and his fellow Comanche Indians were instrumental in saving many lives during the Normandy Invasion.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Kevin Gover announced today that he is transferring the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Division of Accounting Management from BIA's regional office in Albuquerque to a new Policy, Management and Budget Office in Washington, D.C. The new office will assist him in more effectively allocating BIA's resources.

In an effort to close solid waste dumps located on tribal lands and help tribes develop alternative solid waste management options, the National Tribal Solid Waste Interagency Workgroup is seeking proposals from tribes for solid waste projects. The workgroup, representing 8 federal agencies, provides funding for tribes to assist with solid waste management and closing open dumps. There are over 1,100 open dumps on Tribal lands in the United States. The deadline for submitting a pre-proposal is November 19, 1999, with the final proposal due February 25, 2000.

For Halloween, beyond increasing their presence on the streets during that holiday, law enforcement officers from the Crow Agency, Northern Cheyenne Agency, Wind River Agency and Spokane Agency went into schools to talk with children from kindergarten to sixth grade about safety when trick-or-treating. They distributed Halloween bags filled with candy, pencils, pens, rulers and crayons to each student. The officers at the Crow Agency and Northern Cheyenne Reservation sponsored a Spook House for the children of the community.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs received a prestigious Government Information Technology Agency Award from Government Computer News for the development of the Trust Assets Accounting Management System, or TAAMS. Government Computer News, a trade magazine for the Information Technology industry dealing with the United States Government issues awards annually for excellence in information resources management to federal agency organizations in the application of information technology to improve service delivery.

Santa Clara Day School in the Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico, will play host as the featured site in the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Net Day 1999. Santa Clara Day School and18 other BIA funded schools from eastern Maine to Washington's Olympic Peninsula will celebrate their accomplishments, as well as their connection to each other through the Internet, as part of the Four Directions 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.