Past News Items

The nomination of Harrison Loesch, a Montrose, Colo., lawyer specializing in land and water law, to the post of Assistant Secretary for Public Land management in the Department of the Interior was announced today.

The announcement, on behalf of President Nixon, was made by Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel.

WASHINGTON – Today, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney announced that the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) published its Standards, Assessments and Accountability System (SAAS) Final Rule under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The SAAS Rule will provide the BIE with the ability to operate under a single unified assessment system intended to bolster professional development and student performance.

WASHINGTON – Building sustainable tribal economies and creating jobs will be the focus of the National Summit for Emerging Tribal Economies, which will take place September 16-19, 2002 in Phoenix, Ariz., at the Phoenix Civic Plaza. The Summit, which will be hosted by Secretary Gale Norton, is a major initiative that will seek ways to create 100,000 jobs in Indian Country by 2008 and establish sustainable, market-driven tribal economies by 2020.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Buford Morrison, formerly superintendent of/the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Horton Agency, Horton, Kans., has been appointed superintendent of the Miccosukee Agency, Homestead, Fla.

He will fill the position left vacant by the recent transfer of Lawrence J. Kozlowski to the post of superintendent of the Jicarilla Agency, Dulce, N.M.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Tara Katuk Sweeney today announced she has approved leasing regulations for the San Pasqual Band of Diegueno Mission Indians in California.

WASHINGTON – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced that he has confirmed Aurene Martin as his Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs. She had been acting deputy assistant secretary since May 28, 2002. Ms. Martin, a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, came to the Interior Department in October 2001 as Counselor to Assistant Secretary McCaleb.

Five Bureau of Indian Affairs offices have been presented awards for rescue and supply operations following the December snow and rain storms in the Southwest, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Receiving the unit awards for excellence of service were staffs of the Navajo and Phoenix Area Offices and of the Hopi, Fort Apache and Papago Agencies, all headquartered in Arizona.

WASHINGTON - A cooperative agreement between the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of the Interior's (DOI) Indian Affairs eGovernment initiative will allow Federally recognized Indian tribes to participate in a program that will provide a domain name suffix identifying the tribe on the World Wide Web as a government entity.

Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, Chairman of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, announced at the Council's first meeting, July 16 that a commemorative stamp saluting the American Indian will be issued by the Post Office Department.

Humphrey said he was informed of the new issue by Postmaster General W. Marvin Watson who said first sales of the stamp are planned for October.

The 6-cent stamp will carry a portrait of Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce warrior who reluctantly fought U.S. troops in 1877 as the Indian wars entered the last tragic phase.

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.