Past News Items

Robert R. Nathan Associates, Inc., has been awarded a contract by the Department of the Interior to head up a team of independent consulting groups which will prepare a study and report on various characteristics of the Alaska Native community and on selected Federal programs, it was announced today.

WASHINGTON – Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason will appear November 1 at the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) 62nd Annual Convention in Tulsa, Okla. The NCAI convention is the oldest and largest annual meeting of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal leaders held in the United States.

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It was almost a year ago, in the spring of 1962, that your director, Mrs. Mary Jeffries Burt, asked me to be one of the speakers at the Sunday Evening Forum for the current season. When I look over your roster of speakers for the 1961-62 season I realize why some of my good friends have called this the outstanding community forum in the Nation. I am honored to join such distinguished company.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of James P. Howell, 53, enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, Okla., to the post of Superintendent, San Carlos Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, with headquarters at San Carlos, Ariz.

Howell moves to this field position from one of Equal Employment Opportunity Officer of the Bureau in Washington, D.C., a position he has held since August 1972.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director W. Patrick Ragsdale will be the keynote speaker this week at the 14th Annual Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial taking place on May 5 at the United States Indian Police Academy in Artesia, N.M.

William A. Mehojah, a Kaw Indian, has been appointed superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Turtle Mountain Agency in Belcourt, North Dakota, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash announced today. The agency serves the Fort Totten and Turtle Mountain Reservations.

Mehojah, a career employee with more than 24 years of service, has served since 1962 as administrative manager of the Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, North Dakota. At Belcourt he succeeds Leonard Lay, who has transferred to the Bureau's Aberdeen Area Office as housing development officer.

Secretary of the Interior Thomas S. Kleppe and officers of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation today approved an agreement paving the way for the first major conveyance of land to Alaska Natives under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - President George W. Bush has signed into law a measure championed by U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado and supported by Interior Secretary Gale Norton that will reform American Indian probate rules and will help facilitate the consolidation of Indian land ownership across the nation. The legislation introduced by Sen. Campbell, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, was passed by both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate under 'unanimous consent' rules - meaning no member of Congress expressed opposition to the measure.

The Department of the Interior today announced award of a $5,402,994 contract to build a two-mile tunnel near Aztec, N. Mex., first major work on the $135 million Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, which the Bureau of Reclamation is building for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Fenix &Scisson, Inc., of Tulsa, Okla., lowest of 16 bidders, was awarded the contract.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced that he has appointed Ignatius L. Billy, 57, a Pomo Indian of Hopland, California, to be Personnel Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.

"Billy comes to his post with a wealth of experience in all fields of personnel administration," Thompson pointed out. "He demonstrates the development of expert capabilities by American Indians in many professional fields."