Past News Items

Professional Indian artists and artisans have received 12 first place awards and student Indian artists and craftsmen nine first place awards plus other honors, in the 1967 Biennial Exhibition of American Indian Arts and Crafts. The exhibition is sponsored by the Center for Arts of Indian America, a non-profit organization.

The exhibition is open to the public through December 15 at the Department of the Interior Art Gallery, Interior Building, 18th and C Streets, N. W., Washington, D.C.

In an effort to close solid waste dumps located on tribal lands and help tribes develop alternative solid waste management options, the National Tribal Solid Waste Interagency Workgroup is seeking proposals from tribes for solid waste projects. The workgroup, representing 8 federal agencies, provides funding for tribes to assist with solid waste management and closing open dumps. There are over 1,100 open dumps on Tribal lands in the United States. The deadline for submitting a pre-proposal is November 19, 1999, with the final proposal due February 25, 2000.

William B. Benge, Chief of the Branch of Law and Order, Bureau of Indian Affairs, has been given a temporary assignment as Special Liaison Representative to the Seneca Indian Tribe of Western New York, Commissioner Robert L. Bennett announced today.

Bennett said that Benge's appointment is effective immediately and is expected to last only a few months while a successor is being chosen for Sidney M. Carney, who has been named BIA Area Director for the Anadarko (Okla.) Area.

The Department of the Interior will publish final regulations to deal with Indian gaming compact negotiations between States and Tribes when Tribes have exhausted other federal judicial remedies. A final rule has been sent to the Federal Register for publication. The new regulation will only apply in cases where Tribes and States have been unable to voluntarily negotiate Class III gaming compacts and where States otherwise allow Class III gaming activities and when States assert immunity from lawsuits to resolve the dispute.

Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall today congratulated the Zuni Indian Tribe of New Mexico for their initiative in passing one of the first Indian Sales Taxes collected primarily from Indians.

In placing a one percent tax upon themselves, Udall said, in a letter to Zuni Tribal Governor Robert E. Lewis, the Zuni Tribe has realized "that its local government cannot be a potent force for improvement unless it is able to carry its fair share of needed educational, industrial, social, health and community development program costs."

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ada E. Deer today announced that the Bureau of lndian Affairs will assume the operations of law enforcement for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma effective immediately for a period of approximately two months. This period will allow the Nation to resolve internal difficulties which have recently developed.

A plan for the use of approximately $500,000 awarded to the Navajo Tribe by the Indian Claims Commission was published in the Federal Register, December 23, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The award represents additional payment for certain reserves of helium-bearing gas.

According to the plan, approved by Congress and made effective November 17, 1975, the funds will be used for scholarship grants and other educational purposes as designated by the Navajo Tribal Council.

A meeting with senior Clinton Administration officials and 106 tribal leaders on April 28 marked the one-year anniversary of the historic meeting with tribal leaders and President Clinton. This year's meeting focused on progress and accomplishments being made department-by-department in Indian affairs.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that the Oglala Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota has been given approximately 1,600 acres of excess Government land within the reservation boundaries. Notice of the transfer, under the Federal Property and Administration Services Act as amended earlier this year, is being published in the Federal Register.

Title to the land will be held by the Secretary of the Interior in trust for the tribe.

President Clinton's fiscal year 1994 budget for the Department of the Interior calls for significant new investments in National Parks and natural resource protection, as well as scientific efforts to help the nation protect endangered species without hurting local economies.