Past News Items

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.

A plan for the use of $7 million awarded to the Jicarilla Apache Indian Tribe by the Indian Claims Commission is being published in the Federal Register, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The award represents payment for claims of the Jicarilla Apache Tribe against the United States for the general accounting of tribal funds and properties which the Federal Government controlled and managed since the last century.

Demonstrations of two newly established career development programs on the Navajo Reservation will be opened to visitors July 9 and 10.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson said that the programs at Tuba City, Arizona, and Shiprock, New Mexico, have been proposed as models for other reservations. BIA officials from all regions of the country, as well as congressional, state and tribal representatives have been invited to see demonstrations of the program operations.

WASHINGTON – Today, President Donald J. Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act into law, which will significantly help address the historically underfunded, multi-billion-dollar deferred maintenance backlog at our national parks and public lands.

Forty-three Indian tribal leaders and officials of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will meet December 16-18 in Tampa, Florida, to discuss the reorganization of the BIA.

Regulations governing loans to Indians from the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Revolving Loan Fund are being published in the Federal Register. The regulations have been revised to reflect the provisions of the Indian Financing Act of 1974.

The Indian Financing Act consolidated existing revolving loan funds administered by the Bureau and authorized the appropriation of an additional $50 million for the consolidated fund. Loans from the fund can be made to Indian organizations or individuals for purposes which will improve and promote economic development on Indian reservations.