Past News Items

An old Indian saying goes, "Give us good roads and we'll take care of our other problems."

While more than roads are needed to meet the many problems of the Indian people, a vigorous road-building program is doing much to improve the living conditions on the Navajo Reservation, largest and most heavily populated in the country, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Before 1950, the vast interior of the Navajo Reservation, which is roughly equivalent to the size of West Virginia, was virtually devoid of roads.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that he has named Kevin J. Martin, an enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma, as Director of the Indian Affairs Office of Budget Management (OBM). The Director, who reports to the Chief Financial Officer for Indian Affairs, is responsible for all aspects of the Indian Affairs budget process including planning, formulation, presentation, justification and execution. His appointment became effective September 26, 2010.

Burton Rider, a Gros Ventre-Cree Indian, has been named Assistant Area Director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Billings, Montana office, Acting Deputy Commissioner Sidney L. Mills said today.

Rider, 49, has been Superintendent of the Fort Peck Agency at Poplar, Montana. His appointment in the area office will be effective October 21 He succeeds Maurice W. (Bill) Babby who has accepted a position in the Office of the Commissioner in Washington, D.C.

Mrs. Stewart L. Udall and the District of Columbia Committee for National Library Week, April 17-23, are presenting a dual exhibit of art works, "This Is Our Library," by school children of Metropolitan Washington and displays depicting new trends in library services.

The free exhibit will be in the Interior Department Art Gallery and will be open to the public from April 18 to 28.

A reception and preview celebrating the opening of the exhibit will be held Sunday, April 17, from 3 to 5 o'clock in the Art Gallery for invited guests.

WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Michael S. Black today announced that he has named Bryan L. Bowker as Regional Director of the BIA’s Western Regional Office in Phoenix, Ariz. Bowker, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, had been serving as Project Manager of the Bureau’s San Carlos Irrigation Project in Coolidge, Ariz. The Western Regional Office oversees 13 agencies and one federal irrigation project serving 44 federally recognized tribes located within the states of Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah.

A public meeting will be held in the Eisenhower College Athletic Center, Seneca Falls, New York, September 11 to discuss the proposed Cayuga Indian Land Claim Settlement announced on August 20.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. The time is a half hour earlier than originally announced and the place has been changed from the Delavan Little Theatre to allow ample room and time for all who wish to comment on the proposed settlement.

From prosperity to poverty and back again--three times! That’s the story of North Carolina's Cherokee Indians, as told in a new booklet published this week by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

“Indians of North Carolina," second in a series of regional brochures devoted to the life and times of American Indians, traces Cherokee history in the State from the 18th century to date. According to the booklet, progress of the tribe has been phenomenal in almost every field. For example:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that the Indian Affairs Office of Acquisition and Property Management (OAPM) will conduct tribal consultation with the federally recognized tribes on draft regulations to implement the Buy Indian Act (25 U.S.C. 47), which provides authority to set aside procurement contracts for qualified Indian-owned businesses. A letter announcing the meetings was sent to tribal leaders on March 26, 2010. A notice announcing the meetings was published in the Federal Register also on March 26.

Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus and Edward E. Hopson, Sr., President of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation in Alaska, today signed an agreement conveying land to the Arctic Slope Eskimos mandated by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.

"In addition to resolving major land issues, this agreement "is the first in the history of the Native Claims Settlement Act in which private lands are placed under the Endangered Species Act," Andrus noted

Features of the pact include:

The Department of the Interior has recommended to Congress enactment of legislation designed to amend the Indian Long-Term Leasing Act of 1955.