Past News Items

Forrest J. Gerard was ceremonially installed as the Department of the Interior's first Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs October 13.

Before an audience of Indian leaders, Congressional representatives and Interior Department officials, Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus formally administered the oath of office to Gerard.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, the Departments of Interior and Justice applauded the final approval by U.S. Senior District Judge Thomas F. Hogan of the settlement of Cobell v. Salazar, a long-running and contentious individual American Indian trust class-action lawsuit. The court’s approval of the $3.4 billion settlement paves the way for payments to be made to as many as a half-million individual American Indians who had Individual Indian Money accounts or an interest in trust or restricted land managed by the Department of the Interior. The suit has been pending for 15 years.

The Department of the Interior today announced a proposed revision of Federal regulations to remove restrictions against read construction that have applied for more than 20 years on 283,000 acres of Indian reservation land in Arizona and Washington.

The lands that would be affected are the Goat Rocks Area of 105,000 acres and the Mount Adams Area of 48,000 acres, both on the Yakima Reservation in Washington, and the Mount Thomas Area of 130,000 acres on the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona.

William P. Ragsdale, a Cherokee Indian, has been appointed Superintendent of the Uintah and Ouray Agency, Fort Duchesne, Utah, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Ragsdale replaces William Streitz who was transferred to the Phoenix Area Office as Indian Trust Protection Officer.

A graduate of Central State College, Edmond, Oklahoma, Ragsdale has been Acting Superintendent at the agency and has been a participant in a Superintendent Intern program at the area office.

WASHINGTON—The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will hold a memorial ceremony on Wednesday, May 11, 2011, to honor the first Native American, post-Prohibition era, ATF investigator killed in the line of duty. The name of William Louis Pappan, a member of the Kaw Nation, who was killed 75 years ago, will be unveiled at the ATF Headquarters Memorial Wall in Washington.

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.