Past News Items

WASHINGTON - Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb today joined a ground blessing ceremony for a $38 million classroom and dormitory complex in Santa Fe, New Mexico, emphasizing President Bush's Indian Education Initiative and commitment to nationwide educational reform.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced his approval of the reconsidered final determination in favor of Federal acknowledgment for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe of Washington. The reconsidered final determination, which McCaleb signed on December 31, 2001, affirms the final determination signed by his predecessor, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin Gover, on February 14, 2000 acknowledging that the Cowlitz Indian Tribe exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law.

Speaking on Monday, December 18, 2000, at the opening of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) new offices in Reston, Virginia, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Kevin Gover pondered on what Ely S. Parker, the first American Indian to be appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, would think of being honored 130 years after his tenure by the naming of a Department of the Interior building for him. Mr.

On Monday, December 18, 2000, at 11:00 a.m. (EST), Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Kevin Gover will formally open the Ely S. Parker Building, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) new facility in Reston, Virginia, with the unveiling of a plaque naming the building for the first American Indian to serve as Commissioner for Indian Affairs. The facility will house the BIA’s Office of Management and Administration and Office of Information Technology, and the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Business Center (NBC).

On a chilly, overcast day, leaders from twenty-nine tribal nations stood next to Bureau of Indian Affairs officials, a pen was put to paper and a historic agreement establishing the first government-to-government consultation policy between the BIA and the tribal nations was signed on December 13, 2000 in Seattle, Washington.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has received $2.1 billion in funding for FY2001, a 15% increase over FY2000, the largest increase in several years. The BIA administers programs for and provides services to federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and individuals. BIA programs receiving significant increases include new school construction, trust fund management and law enforcement.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a historic signing ceremony to formalize consultation procedures for the agency, as to agency actions effecting the 558 federally recognized tribes. The procedures establish guidelines to be used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs when consulting with the tribes on policy, regulatory statutes and executive orders. The ceremony is being held on December 13, 2000 at the Daybreak Star Center, Discovery Park in Seattle, Washington.

The Department of the Interior provided its determination to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the bones of the 9,000 year-old human skeletal remains known as Kennewick Man be given to the five Indian tribes that have collectively claimed him as their ancient ancestor. The decision was announced in a letter from Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera and represents the culmination of a thorough process of scientific examinations and investigations. The U.S.

In a powerful and moving speech at a ceremony commemorating the Bureau of Indian Affairs' l75th anniversary, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Kevin Gover today apologized for the ethnic cleansing and cultural annihilation the BIA had wrought against American Indian and Alaska Native people in years past. Speaking before an estimated audience of 300 people, most of whom were BIA employees, he observed that the event was not an occasion for celebration, but a time for reflection and contrition.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will celebrate its 175th Anniversary tomorrow, Friday, September 8, 2000, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT) at the U.S. Department of the Interior headquarters, 1849 ‘C’ Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., in the Sydney R. Yates Auditorium with the theme “Reconciling the Past, Trusting the Future: A Renewed Commitment to Indian Tribes for the 21st Century.” The program will include a discussion on the BIA’s past, present, and future.