Past News Items

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of Federal legislation to provide for disposition of a $29.1 million award to the Mission Indians, the Pitt River Indians, and certain other eligible Indians of California to be identified later should a bill be passed by Congress.

The judgment was made by the Indian Claims Commission and represents additional compensation for lands in California to which the Indians involved held aboriginal title and which were taken by the United States March 3, 1853.

WASHINGTON – Deputy Secretary of the Interior Michael Connor today announced that the Department has signed three additional agreements to facilitate the purchase of individual interests in fractionated trust lands and consolidate ownership for the tribes with jurisdiction.

The proposed increase of $4.8 million in welfare assistance funds reflects the continuous rise in caseload and a small increase in unit cost. An additional 500 employable assistance recipients be enrolled in the Tribal Work Experience program during fiscal year 1973.

INDIANS LEARN JOB SKILLS WITH BIA

A total of 11,000 Indian men and women have received special job-skill training, either in accredited institutions or on-the-job, since the Bureau of Indian Affairs adult vocational training program for Indians began in 1958. Currently, trainees are learning skills in more than 100 different occupational categories.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – On Thursday, April 17, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will address the 2014 graduating class of the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), a National Indian Community College and Land Grant Institution located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“We are honored to have Secretary Jewell join us for commencement, as we celebrate this important milestone in the lives of our students and their families,” said Dr. Sherry Allison, SIPI President.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce announced today that he has directed the establishment of a reconnaissance patrol along certain portions of the border between the Hopi reservation and the area that is jointly used by the Navajo and Hopi tribes.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced that his Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs, at the request of the Hoopa Valley Indians of California, has approved a $600 per capita distribution to tribal members from the Tribe's emergency reserve fund. Many Hoopa Valley families suffered severe economic setbacks, including loss of homes, in the series of floods which swept the region early this year.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tomorrow, Thursday, January 30, 2014 Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Chairman Ronald Trahan of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, located in Montana, will announce a cooperative agreement to implement the Land Buy Back for Tribal Nations Program (BuyBack Program) on the Flathead Indian Reservation. The Buy-Back Program will purchase trust or restricted interests from willing sellers and transfer those interests to the Tribes in order to unlock lands for tribal development and other priorities.

Stanley D. Lyman, 58, former Superintendent of the Fort Peck, Montana and Uintah and Ouray, Utah, Bureau of Indian Affairs agencies was today named Superintendent of the Bureau's Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota, borne of the Oglala Sioux Indians, by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce, himself a member of the Oglala Sioux as well as the Mohawk Indian tribe.

Lyman will assume his post October 17.

He replaces Brice L. Lay, who recently became Chief of the Bureau’s Division of Public School relations in Albuquerque.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today petitioned the Federal Power Commission seeking to intervene on behalf of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation in Montana in their application for increased payments from the Montana Power Company for use of tribal lands at Kerr Dam.

The Secretary is trustee for lands owned by the Confederated Tribes. The Kerr license specifically provides that any change in terms of the license that may affect the Indians' interest shall be subject to his approval.