Past News Items

STATEMENT
OF
TARA MAC LEAN SWEENEY
ASSISTANT SECRETARY – INDIAN AFFAIRS
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
ON
THE BRACKEEN V. ZINKE DECISION

October 08, 2018

For nearly forty years, child advocacy organizations across the United States have considered the Indian Child Welfare Act to be the gold standard of child welfare policy. The Department of the Interior strongly opposes any diminishment of ICWA’s protections for Indian children, families, and tribes.

Interior Secretary James Watt today announced the establishment of a 11Commission on Fiscal Accountability of the Nation’s Energy Resources11 to develop solutions to minerals management problems, focusing on royalty accounting and oil theft.

A plan for the use and distribution of approximately $1.4 million awarded to the Creek Nation of Indians by the Indian Claims Commission is being published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today

The award is additional compensation for 1.4 million acres of land in Alabama and Georgia taken from the tribe in 1818.

According to the plan, approved by Congress and made effective June 15, 1978, the funds will be divided between the Creek Nation of Oklahoma and an unorganized group of descendants of the Creek Indians east of the Mississippi.

WASHINGTON, DC – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that the Department of the Interior has extended the public comment period to Nov. 28, 2014, on proposed regulations to reform the process by which rights-of-way on Indian land are approved and managed. This third extension is in response to a request by Senators John Barrasso and John Hoeven to allow further comments following the most recent tribal consultation held during this week’s National Congress of American Indians Annual Convention.

Secretary of the Interior James Watt said today the Department will initiate deep cuts and funding shifts and realign responsibilities among bureaus as part of President Reagan's program for economic recovery. Several major initiatives are being announced today as steps in that program, with other announcements to follow March 10.

Proposed regulations governing the procedures by which an Indian group would be acknowledged to be an Indian tribe were published June 1 in the Federal Register, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The increased number of Indian groups requesting that the Secretary of the Interior officially acknowledge them as Indian tribes has necessitated the development of uniform procedures to be followed.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of President Obama’s commitment to help strengthen American Indian communities, the Department of the Interior today released its revised Land Buy-Back Program Valuation Plan. The Appraisal Foundation (TAF), the nation’s foremost authority on appraisal standards and qualifications, performed a comprehensive review of the draft Plan, which was revised to incorporate all of TAF’s recommendations.

Recommendations designed to eliminate certain management practices and to strengthen the organizational structure of the Washington headquarters Office of Territories, Department of the Interior, have been approved by Under Secretary Ralph Tudor.

A four man survey team which was assigned the task of surveying the operations of the Office said in its report that its recommendations would correct internal operating procedures by clarifying lines of authority and improving organizational relationships.

A recent Supreme Court decision that Indian tribes have no inherent criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians does not leave a void in criminal law enforcement on reservations, Interior Department Solicitor Leo M. Krulitz said in an opinion released today

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will hold a news media conference call with reporters to discuss President Obama’s establishment of the White House Council on Native American Affairs. Members of the media may participate in the call by dialing 1-888-810-6756 and providing the access code INTERIOR.