Past News Items

With the salmon spawning run on the Klamath River in California nearly over, the Department of the Interior announced today that it is opening portions of the river to Indian subsistence fishing.

WASHINGTON – Lawrence S. Roberts, who is leading the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, announced today that the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) has extended its deadline for nominations of qualified individuals to serve on a negotiated rulemaking committee (NRC) that will recommend revisions to its school accountability system. Nominees are being sought from federally recognized tribes whose students attend BIE-funded schools.

Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Ken Smith told Indian leaders and state and federal government officials that Indian tribal governments have "the primary responsibility for the social and economic well-being of the people on their reservations."

Smith, speaking at a workshop in Scottsdale, Arizona on the provision of human services on reservations, said that though the Bureau of Indian Affairs provides assistance to tribes, the principal duties remain with the tribe's government.

Theopule L. Traversie, a former Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, has been named Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Cheyenne River Agency at Eagle Butte, South Dakota.

Traversie was formerly in the BIA's Portland Area Office where he worked as a loan specialist. A United States Navy veteran, Traversie earned a degree in business administration in 1963 from Northern State College in Aberdeen, South Dakota and completed law studies at the University of South Dakota in 1966.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, December 3, 2014, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, Deputy Secretary Mike Connor and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn will join President Obama, other cabinet Secretaries and leaders from the 566 federally recognized tribes at the 2014 Annual White House Tribal Nations Conference.

Interior Secretary James Watt said today that President Reagan had announced his intention to nominate Kenneth L. Smith, a member of the Wasco Tribe of Oregon, to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, subject to Senate confirmation.

"Ken Smith is a vigorous and highly qualified tribal leader who has worked effectively at the local and national level to improve the economic and social position of Indians in our society," Watt said. "Smith was selected only after extensive consultation with elected tribal leaders from all across the Nation."

Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest J. Gerard today called President Carter's water policy "a logical framework for a rational solution to the complex problems concerning scarce water resources in the West."

Gerard said that he is "particularly pleased with the President's recognition of Indian water rights as a key to settlement of this controversial issue, as well as a key to the maintenance of a permanent tribal homeland."

WASHINGTON, DC – Following Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell’s recent visit with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Mike Connor today announced that more than $8.3 million in purchase offers have been mailed to nearly 2,100 individual landowners with fractional interests on that reservation.

Further reduction of Federal responsibilities in Indian affairs and a sharper focusing of attention on major Indian problems were the two basic developments for the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1954. According to the annual report of Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay released today.

Proposed regulations governing the preparation of a roll of lineal descendants of the Saginaw, Swan Creek and Black River Bands of Chippewa Indians to share in the distribution of funds awarded by the Indian Claims Commission is being published in the Federal Register, Interior Assistant Secretary Forrest Gerard announced today.

The proposed regulations establish the requirements for enrollment and a deadline for filing applications.