Past News Items

Washington - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is requesting individuals who are interested in serving on the National Advisory Council (NAC) to apply for appointment. The NAC is an advisory committee established to ensure effective and ongoing coordination of federal preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation for natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters.

Three separate actions affecting the office of principal chief of the Choctaw, Seminole and Cherokee Indian Tribes of Oklahoma, were announced today by Acting Secretary of the Interior Ralph A. Tudor.

A run-off election will be held by the Bureau of Indian Affairs between September 20 and October 10 so that members of the Choctaw Tribe many express their preferences between Harry J. W. Belvin and Hampton w. Anderson, who received the highest number of votes in the balloting held last June. Mr. Belvin has been principal chief of the tribe for the past several years.

Hiram E Olney, an enrolled member of the Yakima Indian Tribe, has been appointed Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Yakima Agency, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

Olney, whose appointment was effective February 15, has been superintendent of the Fort Hall Agency in Idaho. The Yakima Agency is at Toppenish, Washington.

WASHINGTON – As part of President Obama’s commitment to empower tribal nations and strengthen their economies, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced final regulations that will streamline the leasing approval process on Indian land, spurring increased homeownership, and expediting business and commercial development, including renewable energy projects.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the appointment of Richard Do Butts as superintendent of the Red Lake Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, at Red Lake, Minn. Butts will be succeeded as superintendent at the Umatilla Agency, Pendleton, Oregon by Clarence W. Ringey realty assistant at Consolidated Chippewa Agency, Case Lake, Minn.

Butts succeeds Frell M. Owl who was recently transferred as Red Lake superintendent to the same position at the Northern Idaho Agency, Lapwai, Idaho.

Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B Morton today announced the appointment of Marvin L. Franklin, 56, an Oklahoma City business executive and member of as Assistant to the Secretary for the Iowa Indian Tribe Indian Affairs, a new position in the Interior Department.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of President Obama’s efforts to expand domestic energy production and strengthen American Indian communities, on Wednesday, October 10, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will join Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Donald E. “Del” Laverdure, Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Mike Black and Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall to make an announcement regarding energy development on tribal lands in North Dakota.

Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced several major personnel shifts in the Bureau of Indian Affairs as part of the administrative reorganization of the Bureau recently recommended by a survey team and now actively under way.

Allan G. Harper, area director at Window Hock, Arizona, is being transferred to Washington as a member of the Commissioner's coordinating staff, where his broad background of experience in Indian Affairs and intimate knowledge of Navajo administration will be directly available to Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons.

The Department of the Interior today proposed legislation which would enable all of its Indian, programs to be granted to tribes for their administration and would channel an additional $25 million in bloc grants for economic and tribal development.

Prior Lake, Minn. — The third of five in a series of listening sessions will be held in the afternoon of Thursday, August 23, 2012. The Obama Administration recognizes that the protection of sacred sites on federal lands is integral to traditional religious practices, tribal identities and emblematic of sovereign tribal nations.