Past News Items

WASHINGTON - Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs Carl J. Artman will speak on Thursday, May 3,2007, at the 16th Annual Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers' Memorial Service. The event will take place at the United States Indian Police Academy in Artesia, N.M. The Bureau of lndian Affairs holds the service each year to honor tribal, state and federal law enforcement personnel killed in the line of duty while working on Federal Indian lands or in tribal communities.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the reappointment of Vincent Price, the actor and art connoisseur, for an additional four-year term as a member of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board.

Mr. Price, of Los Angeles, Calif., was first appointed to the Board in 1957 to fill the unexpired term of William J. Lippincott. In light of his distinguished service in the advancement of Indian arts and crafts, he was reappointed to the board again in 1959. His current term started July 6 and expires July 6, 1967.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Amon A. Baker, 48, a member of the Cherokee Nation to be Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Sequoyah High School, Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Baker replaces Edwin Moore who was appointed Assistant Area Director for Education in Muskogee in February 1964.

Baker holds a B.S. and Masters degree from Northeastern College, Tahlequah, Oklahoma in Industrial Arts and Education. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946.

WASHINGTON – Interior Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Cason and Special Trustee for American Indians Ross O. Swimmer will speak tomorrow at Arizona State University College of Law’s Federal Trust Responsibility Conference at the ASU campus in Tempe, Ariz. Cason will speak on the Interior Department’s ongoing trust reform efforts. Swimmer will discuss future directions of the Federal-Indian trust relationship.

Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen:

It gives me great pleasure to come back to Oregon as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This is the State where I began my professional interest in- the American Indian almost JO years ago. I was a graduate student in anthropology at that time and did my field work on the Klamath Reservation in the summer of 1934 and through the fall, winter and spring of 1935 and 19J6. The learning process is still going on--seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced that a nearly $2.2 million contract for surfacing about 25 miles of road on the Papago Indian Reservation in Arizona -- second in size among Indian reservations only to the Navajo -- has been let to a Phoenix, Ariz., contractor, Tanner Bros. Contracting Co.

WASHINGTON – Department of the Interior Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason today announced that the Department has released the final increment of $1 million to the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in Fort Thompson, S.D., to address costs stemming from a serious fire that broke out on April 24 at the Crow Creek High School, a BIA-funded, tribally operated boarding school that serves over 400 students in grades 6-12 on the Crow Creek Reservation.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is prepared to make a per capita judgment distribution of funds totaling approximately $548,000 to all persons who are members or can prove ancestry with those Paiute bands whose chiefs and headmen signed the Treaty of December la, 1868.

Those considering themselves eligible for enrollment should contact the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office in Portland, Oregon, regarding applications.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of LaFollette Butler, a Cherokee, as Acting Director of the Commissioner's Indian Self-Determination Staff. Butler, a 23-year BIA veteran, directed the Bureau's task force which developed the regulations for implementing the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. He is the Special Assistant to the Phoenix Area Director.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs David W. Anderson today announced that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is one of several major sponsors of “RES 2005,” the 19th Annual National Reservation Economic Summit & American Indian Business Trade Fair, which will be held Feb. 7-10, 2005, at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nev. The BIA also will host one of four conference tracks and Anderson will be the keynote speaker at the RES 2005 Indian Business Achievement Awards Luncheon on Feb. 10.