Past News Items

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Acting Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin today announced that she has confirmed Terry Virden, a member of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, as Deputy Commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). "Terry Virden has been a strong advocate for the BIA," said Martin. "I am confident that he will continue to guide the Bureau with a steady hand now and into the future." The Deputy Commissioner is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the nearly 180-year-old federal agency.

A $2,187,000 contract for school facilities construction at Santa Rosa, on the Papago Reservation in Southern Arizona, has been awarded to the F. H. Antrim Construction Co., of Phoenix, Ariz., the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, and Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover will unveil the Trust Assets Account Management System this Friday in Billings, Montana at the Billings BIA Area Office.

TAAMS is a major component in fixing the Indian Trust Funds System. The Billings Area will serve as the pilot of this project which is scheduled for completion early in 2001.

Millions of dollars’ worth of brainpower, representing a "who's who " of management, labor, higher education, and science, is helping guide the administration of America's natural resources, the Department of the Interior said today.

I was delighted and gratified that the House Ways and Means Committee rejected proposals to tax proceeds of tribal commercial enterprises. If enacted, it would have constituted a major reversal of federal Indian law and policy· and would have wiped out tribal economies which are only now for the first time in American history beginning to show signs of economic growth.

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.