Past News Items

Theodore S. Hoffman, president of Hoffman Information Systems, Inc., Hoffman Electronics, Corp., of El Monte, Calif., has accepted an appointment as a consultant on economic development with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in Washington, D.C., Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today.

Ada Deer, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, will travel to Alaska on October 19 to speak to Native Alaskans and visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

On Friday, October 20, at 9:00 a.m. she will address the Alaska Federation of Natives in Anchorage at the William Egan Civic & Convention Center on issues including drastic cuts in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) FY 1996 budget, self-governance and self-determination. Following the speech she will be available for other media questions.

Marcellus M. Chouteau, a member of the Kaw Indian Tribe, has been named Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs agency at Pawnee, Oklahoma, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

Chouteau, who has been Program Officer for the Anadarko Area (Western Oklahoma and Kansas), succeeds James Hale who has retired. A World War II Army veteran, Chouteau has worked for the Bureau since 1964. He has held increasingly responsible positions, mostly in accounting and fiscal fields, in Washington, D.C., Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

President Bill Clinton today announced his intention to nominate Ada Deer, an educator and former chair of the Menominee Nation of Wisconsin, to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs. The appointment, subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate, will make her the first woman to serve as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today that the Bureau of Indian Affairs sub agency office, serving the Cocopah and Quechan Indian Tribes, has been made an agency office.

The office was formerly under the Colorado River Agency at Parker, Ariz., some 125 miles north of Yuma Ariz. The Fort Yuma Office is located three miles northwest of Yuma on the California portion of the reservation.

The Colorado River Agency will continue to serve the Chemehuevi, the Fort Mojave and the Colorado River Indian Tribes.

Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel said today he has sent letters to the Pueblo of Santa Ana and to the New Mexico Attorney General rejecting the Pueblo's proposal to conduct parimutuel wagering on greyhound dog races on reservation land.

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.