Past News Items

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan announced today he has established a Water Policy Council designed to coordinate departmental policy decisions and management activities in the area of water resources.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson has appointed Alton R. Nordwall Deputy Director of the BIA's Muskogee Area.

Nordwall, a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, worked in the Muskogee office for nine years, 1964-73, as the Area Budget Officer. He left Muskogee to complete a Department of Interior nine-month Manager Development Training Program. Since June of 1974 he has been Assistant Area Director for the Minneapolis Area.

WASHINGTON – The Department of the Interior announced today that the Bureau of Reclamation is awarding a construction contract of almost $62 million for part of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project in New Mexico to increase the supply of clean drinking water to surrounding communities.

The Reagan Administration has announced support for a bill to transfer title to 25,000 acres of land within Caja del Rio National Forest to the Indians of Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico Interior Assistant Secretary Ken Smith, testifying before the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee July 26, said the land had been fraudulently taken from the Pueblo in the early 19th century and failure to return it to its rightful owners would be a grave injustice.

The land has "considerable symbolic, religious and economic significance to the Pueblo," Smith said.

The Department of the Interior announced today publication of final regulations in the Federal Register for designating public easements on lands conveyed to Alaska Natives under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The regulations are designed to carry out the terms of the Federal District Court decisions in Alaska by Judge James von der Heydt in July and subsequent policy decisions on ANCSA by Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus in Marc of 1978.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Indian Health Service (IHS) and the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) entered into an Interagency Agreement today that will increase access to mental and behavioral health services for students attending BIE schools and youth detained in BIA Office of Justice Services (OJS) facilities.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kenneth L. Smith today pledged involvement of tribal leaders through a more effective consultation process and warned that budget cuts will require sound management of all Indian programs.

Addressing the 38th annual convention of the National Congress of American Indians in Anchorage, Alaska, Smith said he had made consultation with tribes a priority item and stressed the need for recommendations and suggestions from tribal leaders.

“We are going to do things openly," Smith said, "so you can see and know and comment.”

·Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus and Under Secretary James Joseph reported today that they have reviewed and approved the general principles of a reorganization plan for the administration of Indian affairs.

Andrus and Joseph said that implementation of most major features of the plan, developed by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Forrest Gerard, and would begin promptly after analysis of the plan's details.

Gerard's recommendations, which he announced today at the National Congress of American Indians annual convention in Rapid City, South Dakota, include:

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.