Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced the establishment of a new Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform that will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of Interior’s trust management and provide recommendations on how to improve performance. The announcement kicks off a 30-day period during which Secretary Salazar is seeking nominations and input from the public on individuals to serve on the new commission, as well as comments on the commission’s proposed charter.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced the appointment of Norman L. Tippeconnic as Superintendent of the San Carlos Indian Agency, Arizona. His appointment is effective August 28.

Tippeconnic, a Comanche, has been Superintendent of the Hoopa Agency in California since 1971.

Tippeconnic, 44, attended Oklahoma State University. He came to work for the BIA in 1959 at Gallup, New Mexico. He was the Supply Management Officer at the Bureau's Data Center in Albuquerque before taking the Hoopa job.

NEW YORK, NY—Donald “Del” Laverdure, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, today addressed the United Nations on U.S. support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He emphasized that President Obama holds his Administration to a high standard of action on Native American issues.

Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus announced today that he has decided to take no action on the proposed Navajo-El Paso/Consolidation Coal lease and mining plan until the royalty rate is renegotiated.

In a letter to Peter MacDonald, chairman, of the Navajo Tribal Council, Andrus said: "I have concluded that, as trustee, I cannot approve a lease which would return to the beneficiaries of the trust less than I would be required by law to charge for the trustee's, in this case the Nation's, identical resources."

WASHINGTON, DC -- Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that the Court-ordered process of notifying individuals of their right to participate in the $3.4 billion Cobell settlement is underway.

Wilson Barber has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Agency on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, Acting Deputy Commissioner Raymond V. Butler announced today.

Barber, a Navajo, has been Superintendent of the Cheyenne River Agency at Eagle Butte, South Dakota.

Barber, 35, attended the University of New Mexico. He worked for the Navajo Tribe and for the BIA on the Navajo Reservation before going to Cheyenne River in 1975.

His appointment of the Mescalero Reservation in south-central New Mexico becomes effective June 5.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that a Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) college professor from the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, N.M., was named New Mexico Professor of the Year for 2009. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) selected Dr. Nader Vadiee from more than 300 top professors in the United States.

Proposed rules governing the adoption of tribal water codes on Indian reservations were published March 17 in the Federal Register, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs Raymond v. Butler announced today.

The regulations, designed to preserve and protect Indian water rights, establish the standards which tribal codes must meet to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior when such approval is required.

WINDOW ROCK, Arizona -- Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar told Navajo Nation officials today that President Obama’s major goals for working with Indian Country include improving educational opportunities for American Indian children, strengthening law enforcement and advancing self-sustaining economic development for tribal communities.

Stanley M. Speaks, a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, has been appointed Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Anadarko, Oklahoma area, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ben Reifel announced today.

The Anadarko area includes the western half of Oklahoma and the State of Kansas. Speaks whose appointment was effective January 16, has been Superintendent of the BIA agency at Anadarko, one of the area's five agency offices.

In the 1974-75 school year Speaks was the Acting Superintendent of the Intermountain Indian School at Brigham City, Utah.