Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Deputy Secretary of the Interior Michael Connor today announced a schedule through 2015 for the continued implementation of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Program) that identifies locations representing more than half of all the fractional interests and half of all owners across Indian Country.

Louis R. Bruce, Commissioner of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior, today announced the names of 28 tribes that will initially participate in BIA’s Reservation Acceleration Program (RAP).

RAP is a process by which tribes negotiate changes in existing loca1BIA budgets to insure that these programs support the tribes t own priorities.

In announcing the first 28 tribes, Commissioner Bruce emphasized that funds will not be taken from non-participating tribes to finance the operation.

Award of two contracts totaling $264,444 for road improvement projects on Fort Totten Reservation in North Dakota and Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota was announced today by Commissioner Philleo Nash of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON, DC – As part of President Obama’s commitment to help strengthen Native American communities, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced the latest step in the implementation of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program), as the Department signed its next cooperative agreement, this time with the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation located in northeastern South Dakota and in southeastern North Dakota.

Tribes of the Salt and Gila River Indian Reservations in Arizona will use satellite and high altitude aircraft photography to aid in the management of, reservation lands and resources, the Department of the Interior announced today.

The project linked to the Interior Department's EROS (Earth Resources Observation Systems) program, technically administered by the U. S. Geological Survey, is aimed at using conventional photography and other remote sensing data that will be relayed by a NASA earth resources survey satellite, which is scheduled for launching before summer.

For an invention that dramatically reduces accident risks and at the same time results in sizeable cost reductions, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall has awarded the highest incentive payment in the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to an engineering technician on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana.

Frank H. Roderick, a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee, received a check for $1,350 in recognition of the usefulness of his design for a new type irrigation canal check.

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services will hold its first tribal court trial advocacy training session for tribal court personnel in 2014 on Jan. 27-30 in Albuquerque, N.M., which includes a case study on a sexual assault on an adult.

Alonzo T. Spang, 38, director of Indian Studies Program and assistant professor at the University of Montana and a member of r the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe has been named superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquartered at Lame Deer, Mont. He will assume the post within the coming month.

Spang replaces John White, who has taken the position of Commonly Development Officer in the Billings Area Office of the Bureau.

The Department of the Interior has recommended to Congress that legislation be enacted to distribute $2,500,000 in judgment funds to the Klamath Indians of Oregon.

The amount was settled upon by attorneys for the United States and for the Indians and represents redress for insufficient payment for lands ceded to the United States under Treaty in 1864. The case was adjudicated by the Indian Claims Commission last year and funds were appropriated by Congress in June 1964. The additional legislation is now needed to authorize final disposition.

WASHINGTON – The Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform will hold its final public meeting on Nov. 20, 2013, via webinar. The Commission is completing a comprehensive evaluation of the Department of the Interior’s management and administration of Indian trust assets within a two-year period and will offer recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior of how to improve in the future.