Past News Items

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb today announced his decision to acknowledge that the historical Eastern Pequot Tribe, of the Lantern Hill Reservation, North Stonington, Connecticut exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. The historical Eastern Pequot Tribe meets all of the mandatory criteria under 25 CFR Part 83, the Federal acknowledgment regulations, for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, today announced that Leonard M. Hill, Area Director for the Sacramento ' Area, has been reassigned as Special Field Representatives for the Southwestern United States.

Hill will be succeeded in the California assignment by William E. Finale, now serving as Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Community Services. The reassignments are to become effective April 7. As Special Field Representative Hill will assist Indian groups in making plans and surveys for community development projects.

Tulsa, Oklahoma - The Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb will join American Indian students at Sequoyah High School at 9:30 A.M. CDT on April 22,2002 to participate in Earth Day activities planned for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) funded school located at Tahlequah, Oklahoma. "I'm looking forward to visiting with the students and seeing what exciting things they are doing to help their environment," Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb said.

The Center for Arts of Indian America, a non-profit corporation devoted to the advancement of Indian art, will present a showing of "Contemporary Indian Painting, Sculpture and Crafts" from the collection of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from Wednesday, July,17 through Sept. 6.

The showing will be free to the public in the seventh floor Art Gallery of the Department of Interior building, 18th and C Streets, Monday through Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

In a powerful and moving speech at a ceremony commemorating the Bureau of Indian Affairs' l75th anniversary, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Kevin Gover today apologized for the ethnic cleansing and cultural annihilation the BIA had wrought against American Indian and Alaska Native people in years past. Speaking before an estimated audience of 300 people, most of whom were BIA employees, he observed that the event was not an occasion for celebration, but a time for reflection and contrition.

Art students in the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs high schools and post-high schools will enter a travel poster contest, beginning with the new school year, which has the theme: "Discover America with the First Americans."

The program is sponsored by the Education Division of the Bureau, and Arrow, Inc., a tax-exempt corporation which supports commercial projects that benefit the Indian people.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fiscal Year 2001 budget request is $2.2 billion, a net increase of $331.9 million above the FY 2000 enacted level. Leading the way in the increases in FY 2001 are School Construction, Trust Services, Law Enforcement, and Tribal Priority Allocation funds. Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover praised this budget, stating, "This budget is a good step forward. For too long, the needs of the American Indian people were ignored, and that neglect has created problems that are difficult to solve and expensive to fix.

A new program designed to help Indians buy homes in off-reservation locations has been launched by the Employment Assistance Branch of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert Lo Bennett announced today.

The plan is another building block in the Bureau's efforts to develop a real sense of belonging in the off-reservation Indian who decides to settle in the city.

For Halloween, beyond increasing their presence on the streets during that holiday, law enforcement officers from the Crow Agency, Northern Cheyenne Agency, Wind River Agency and Spokane Agency went into schools to talk with children from kindergarten to sixth grade about safety when trick-or-treating. They distributed Halloween bags filled with candy, pencils, pens, rulers and crayons to each student. The officers at the Crow Agency and Northern Cheyenne Reservation sponsored a Spook House for the children of the community.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced today submission to Congress of a proposed bill to authorize disposition of close to $4 million to pay off an Indian Claims Commission judgment to the Creek Nation of Indians.

In September 1962, the Commission awarded $3,913,000 to the Oklahoma Creeks and to the Eastern Creeks, a group scattered throughout areas east of the Mississippi River.