Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson will join Secretary Gale Norton, officials of the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management and other government and private-sector partners at the “Get Fit With US” kick-off event for Summer 2004 under President Bush’s HealthierUS Initiative that will be held June 5 at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul, Minn., starting at 10:00 a.m. (CDT).

The Department of the Interior today announced the award of two road construction contracts in South Dakota by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to replace existing reservation roads to be inundated by Oahe Dam Reservoir on the Missouri River.

Totaling $477,387, the contracts are part of the Bureau's diversified rehabi1itation program designed to alleviate distress to area residents of the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Reservations of South Dakota as the reservoir project advances.

Two changes in the Federal regulations governing the mineral leasing of land owned by Indian tribes and by individual Indians were announced today by the Department of the Interior.

Underlying purpose of the changes is to provide better protection for the interests of the Indian landowners in the light of current economic conditions in the mining industry.

WASHINGTON – Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been awarded $32.4 million in three grants from the U.S. Department of Education to improve student reading, school performance and teacher quality in BIA-funded schools under President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Business, industry, and Government in the Washington, D.C., area now have a convenient source of Indian skill, talent and labor, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs said, in announcing the opening of a Field Employment Assistance Office, in the Bureau of Indian Affairs building, 1951 Constitution Avenue, NW.

This is the eighth such "Indian Employment Agency" to be run by the Bureau, the Commissioner pointed out. The others operate in Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Oakland-San Francisco, and San Jose, Calif.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – President Bush’s pledge on education that “no child shall be left behind” was reaffirmed today with the release of his Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $2.2 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The request includes $292.5 million for BIA school construction – an increase of $162,000 over the 2001 enacted level – of which $122.8 million is to replace six aging BIA school facilities around the country, including the Santa Fe Indian School located in Santa Fe, N.M.

WASHINGTON – Interior Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) recognizes the leadership of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas (KTTT), selected by tribal members on October 28, 2002, as the tribe’s provisional governing body. The recognition accepts the Traditional Council members selected through last month’s ‘Vote of Conscience’ for the purpose of maintaining the tribe’s government-to-government relationship with the United States.

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.