Past News Items

PHOENIX - Tribal leaders, federal officials and leaders of national Native organizations came together this week at the National Native American Economic Policy Summit, agreeing upon 314 economic policy recommendations for Indian Country.

Three Oklahomans will take on new responsibilities April 1 in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in a series of related personnel transfers announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Graham E. Holmes, area director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Muskogee, Okla., for the past year, has been named Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau in charge of legislative activities.

New regulations for a program affecting 100,000 Indian children in 435 public school districts and 23 states were published in the Federal Register August 21, 1974. "These regulations reflect the vast changes and development in the Indian community of the past several years," said Commissioner Morris Thompson of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W. Patrick Ragsdale today announced that he has named Omar C. Bradley as the Regional Director for the BIA’s Navajo Regional Office in Gallup, N.M., which serves the 16 million­ acre Navajo Reservation located in western New Mexico, northeastern Arizona and southern Utah. Mr. Bradley, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, had been serving as the acting regional director since May 2006. His appointment was effective February 4, 2007.

Adoption of regulations for preparing a membership roll of the Ponca Indian Tribe of Nebraska was announced today by the Department of the Interior.

The roll is to be compiled under a 1962 law giving enrolled tribal members an opportunity to express themselves for or against division of the tribal assets among themselves. Those on the roll would be the beneficiaries if division of the assets is approved.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Jose A. Zuni, 53, full-blooded Isleta Pueblo Indian, and Superintendent of the Nevada Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, to be Director of Administration of the Bureau.

WASHINGTON – Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason today announced that the Department of the Interior declined to acknowledge that the groups known as the Eastern Pequot Indians of Connecticut (EP) and the Paucatuck Eastern Pequot Indians of Connecticut (PEP) are Indian tribes within the meaning of Federal law.

New high levels of conservation accomplishment designed to meet the unprecedented and still increasing demands being placed on America’s basic natural resources by the Nation’s rapid growth were outlined today in the Department of the Interior’s annual report entitled “New Horizons in Natural Resource Conservation.”

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Elmer F. Compton, 53, Rosebud Sioux tribal member and former officer and economic development officer of the Rosebud Agency, Bureau of He has been acting in that Indian Affairs, to the post of Superintendent. He has been acting in that capacity since October 1972.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton has upheld a June 2004 decision by former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin, who declined to acknowledge as an Indian tribe a group known as the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe of Indians. The petitioning group, headquartered in Trumbull.
Connecticut, did not successfully demonstrate that it meets all seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment as an Indian tribe under Federal regulations.