Past News Items

Receipts from sales of Indian timber totaled a record high of $15.9 million in Fiscal Year 1967, which ended last June 30, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.

This was an increase of nearly $1.6 million over Fiscal Year 1966, which was itself a record year, with an increase of $2 million over Fiscal Year 1965.

The Bureau also reported that in the last five years, the volume of Indian timber cut increased by 258 million board feet and stumpage receipts increased by $7.6 million, as shown by Fiscal Year 1967 and 1962 totals.

Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, announced to day that the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma will resume their Law Enforcement activities.

A new era is beginning on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. For a long time Rosebud had exhibited most of the handicaps of an isolated reservation -- a land base inadequate to support its increasing population, an average family income of less than $1,500 annually, a 65 percent unemployment rate for its labor force and an estimated 90 percent of· its families living in substandard housing.

Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary of lndian Affairs announced that Mr. M. Franklin Keel has been appointed as Area Director for the Eastern Area Office. "During this critical time for our Indian people we need dedicated, qualified, caring administrators to respond to the needs of our Indian people," Ms. Deer, said. "We welcome Mr. Keel to our senior management staff."

Proposed regulations to better protect the per capita shares of minors, legal incompetents and deceased beneficiaries of Indian judgment funds were published in the Federal Register on November 1975, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.

The Department of the Interior today released a revised list of Alaska Native tribes that are eligible to receive services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and which have the immunities and privileges available to other federally recognized Indian tribes in the contiguous 48 States. The list will be published in the Federal Register next week.

Proposed regulations for removing persons erroneously included on the roll of Native Alaskans eligible for benefits under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act are being published in the Federal Register, Acting Secretary of the Interior Kent Frizzell announced today.

Department of the Interior Solicitor Thomas L. Sansonetti today issued a long-awaited legal opinion that explores the extent of Alaska Native village jurisdiction over land and non-village members.

The opinion concludes that Native village jurisdiction was significantly limited by Congress in 1971. The opinion, however, also reaffirms longstanding Departmental and Congressional actions which include Native villages as tribes for purposes of many programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other federal agencies.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson said today that many of the recommendations made in a recently released report on the troubled conditions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation were being implemented.

The report was prepared by a special commission appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. It dealt with problems in law enforcement and judicial services, tribal government, trust management functions, and provision of services to outlying areas of the reservation.

Action restores former lands to the Tribe with projected jobs and revenue benefitting it as well as local and regional economies.